Facebook Used Fake News and Propaganda to Evade Criticism for Russian Election Ads, New Report Reveals
Facebook CEO Marker Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg are seemingly stuck under the droppings of a cleaved organization for over a yr. First, accusations of inaction in Russian meddling in the The states presidential elections and then the infamous Cambridge Analytica data breach have kept peak executives busy.
But a new groundbreaking and extensive report by the New York Times shows how Facebook'due south top contumely sat on the heap of issues to avoid whatsoever controversy about favoritism towards the Democratic Party.
Despite already knowing about the Russian interference too the impact of allegedly Kremlin-sponsored Facebook ads to assist Donald Trump win the elections in 2016, Facebook decided to back off from taking action at the right time.
The company as well refrained from removing Donald Trump'due south Islamophobic comments in 2015 about a ban on Muslim immigrants into the The states, using the excuse that his expressions are crucial to a democratic upshot the post-obit twelvemonth. At that place was quite a lot of argue on whether Trump should be banned, with Zuckerberg himself exploring options to eject the electric current Usa president and then candidate from Facebook.
Ironically, instead of trying to combat fake news on its platform, Facebook also reportedly deployed its own extensive propaganda motorcar to accept aim at critics including billionaire, George Soros. This was in response to anti-Facebook protests gate-crashing Zuckerberg'due south congressional hearing before this twelvemonth. Facebook reportedly floated an antisemitic sentiment confronting the protestors who belonged to a grouping chosen "Freedom from Facebook", and used a leading PR business firm Definers Public Affairs to link Soros with these protests.
"Definers pressed reporters to explore the financial connections between Mr. Soros's family or philanthropies and groups that were members of Freedom from Facebook", says the NYT written report.
At the same time, Sandberg reportedly led a "lobbying campaign" to deflect the blame for Russian intervention towards rival firms such equally Twitter and Google.
Recently, the company turned against Apple when the latter's CEO Tim Cook reportedly said that Apple does not peddle user data like Facebook does (or did). In return, Zuckerberg ordered employees to give upwardly on iPhones and employ Android instead. Facebook has responded to this maxim they only utilize Android because information technology'south the world'south virtually pop OS.
So far, 2018 seems similar a distressing year for Facebook, and its fear of the current political ruling course seems to take frozen its decision making. The offensive mail service by Trump, equally you can run into, is nevertheless alive after three years and the social media visitor seems to exist on a downhill path with stumbling stock and lack of confidence among employees.
Looks similar Zuckerberg needs a realistic New Twelvemonth Resolution in 2019.
Source: https://beebom.com/facebook-fake-news-propaganda-critics/
Posted by: josephmadve1941.blogspot.com
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