Fb Banned Trump 1 12 months In the past. Social Media Hasn’t Gotten A lot Higher.

It’s been roughly a year since Twitter and Facebook banned Donald Trump (temporarily in the case of Facebook, even after Trump spent four years mocking the rules written especially for him) and pledging their efforts against disinformation, hate speech and to intensify radicalization.

Facebook “remains an extremist breeding ground” and provides unprecedented opportunities for militia groups to spread anti-government propaganda, recruit new members and even run ads, according to a Tech Transparency Project report released last week. And this despite the fact that the platform claimed to have banned “militarized social movements” in August 2020.

“One could imagine that an event like the Capitol Rebellion would have forced Facebook to clean up its militia chaos, but as always, the company puts profits above everything,” said Michelle Kuppersmith, executive director of the Campaign for Accountability, in a statement Statement sent by email. “The prevalence of these groups is amazingly similar to a year ago.”

In a separate study focusing on election misinformation, MediaMatters found Facebook continues to host – and reinforce – the same “stop the steal” false truths that fueled Trump’s month-long attempt to overturn his 2020 election defeat .

Worryingly, MediaMatters also noted that many of the groups have turned and are now also trying to undermine the legitimacy of the state elections ahead of this year’s mid-term elections.

“Facebook’s advertising tools can now ‘nanotarget’ a single user, suggesting we have entered a new era of personalized propaganda,” warned Fight for the Future, a nonprofit technology advocacy group.

These concerns are compounded by more fundamental issues in Facebook’s decision to prioritize the content its users see. As evidenced by documents leaked by former Facebook employee Frances Haugen, Facebook’s own algorithms, informed by the unregulated use of user data, are driving polarization to an unprecedented level.

This polarized audience is bringing mountains of money to Facebook and its new parent company Meta. Because anger is more profitable than a favor.

The Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen testifies on October 5, 2021 before a subcommittee of the Senate.

Other social media companies are struggling to monitor bad actors too. In December, for example, a well-intentioned privacy policy on Twitter was instead exploited by right-wing extremists to ban journalists, researchers and even comedians from the site.

As bad as Facebook and the company have made the police themselves, Trump’s own upcoming Truth Social is likely to fare far worse. The company (no, not that or that or that) is due to start in February, with former GOP representative Devin Nunes at the helm.

When social media companies can’t or won’t contain their own worst impulses, the ultimate, urgent answer is federal regulation.

These include a federal data protection law, as promoted by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), And a more conventional antitrust law by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) And Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa.)).

“It is more important for Facebook to make a profit by pampering white nationalists, fraudsters and right-wing anti-democratic figures than it is to protect Americans’ private data,” Wyden noted in a tweet promoting his bill last week. “Congress must pass strict federal data protection laws in 2022.”

Wyden continued to advocate legislation at a press conference this week.

“If we had a strict data protection law on the books, Mark Zuckerberg would already be in jail for his series of lies about Facebook’s misuse of American data,” said Wyden. “Congress now has the power to act by passing a comprehensive data protection law that can disrupt the flow of data to Facebook’s indignation machinery by setting tough new rules on how companies can collect, share, and use American personal information.

“That will lead straight to Facebook’s business model and hit the bottom line, which seems to be the only thing the company cares about.”

In the absence of federal action, says Fight For the Future, we should expect Facebook and the social media industry to do more damage in 2022 and beyond.

“We cannot restructure society’s relationship with social media or hold safe and fair elections without ending the exploitation and manipulation that currently underpin our digital lives,” said a statement from Fight for the Future. “Facebook’s business model has evolved into social engineering through psychological warfare, and it is critical that lawmakers address this existential threat. To protect the integrity of future elections, lawmakers must disarm Facebook’s data weapon by regulating surveillance, not language. “

fbq (‘init’, ‘1621685564716533’); fbq (‘track’, “PageView”);

var _fbPartnerID = null; if (_fbPartnerID! == null) {fbq (‘init’, _fbPartnerID + ”); fbq (‘track’, “PageView”); }

(function () {‘use strict’; document.addEventListener (‘DOMContentLoaded’, function () {document.body.addEventListener (‘click’, function (event) {fbq (‘track’, “Click”);}) ;});}) ();

Source link

Denial of responsibility! NewsConcerns is an automatic aggregator of all media in the world. The hyperlink to the primary source is given in each piece of content. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the content owner and do not want us to publish your materials, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.

Comments are closed.