I come not to praise or defend Facebook for its handling of conservative content, but I think this needs to be noted for the record.
For the past two years, American media outlets from CNN to the New York Times have spent inordinate energy and resources tracking down people posting supposedly fake news on Facebook and blaming Mark Zuckerberg for the dissemination and spread of fake news in America.
But it turns out the real fake news were the poll driven stories and headlines trying to put focus on and shape the election. It turns out Facebook should not be labeling senior citizens’ Facebook posts as fake news, but should have labeled a whole lot of the mainstream media’s 2020 coverage as fake news.
In fact, I think Facebook should probably block the New York Times from ever sharing the New York Times/Sienna poll again or should at least label it as a possibly dubious, disreputable source.
After all, that’s what the New York Times would demand of Facebook if people were sharing bad, fake polls that got pretty much every single election wrong.
Not that Zuckerberg needs an apology, but considering we now know virtually every major 2020 setting story in the media was wrong, maybe they should shut the hell up about Facebook spreading fake news and just let people share their memes in peace.
Somewhat related...I attended a 'Stop the Steal' rally on Thursday in Atlanta (in front of CNN Center). Within 24 hours of founding, the Facebook group of 300k was killed...word was it came straight from Zuckerburg. MailChimp followed and the organizers lost their email list (which contained years of Patriot contacts.) The Facebook kill and MailChimp kill both happened on Thursday. A MailChimp whistleblower was at our rally.
I'm not in agreement. There needs to be new legislation around big tech. I acknowledge there is zero chance of that happening in this day and age unless God forbid they were to censor a wannbe-socialist. Lazy legislators need to recognize the landscape has changed. They have freaking disrupted the information market. Changing the rule to allow them to sue for slander? That does not do one damn thing. Nor should there be some damn federal pool of drones to be gate-keeper. That is even worse.
I would be more inclined to find a way to hold the LEGISLATORS accountable to where these feckless grandstanders are personally liable to their constituents. This should ensure that they are not covered by directors and officers' insurance which just shifts responsibility back to the people to pay their premiums.