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Wow. Ari isn’t wasting any time, making the most of his new News analysis platform.
This was so thought-provoking (and relevant), I thought I had to re-post it, for those here, who probably missed it.
The Beat With Ari Melber — 9/18/17
Melber: How Facebook failed to stop Russian 'fake news'
Special Counsel Robert Mueller is zeroing in on Facebook in his Russia investigation and may be using a subpoena or warrant to have them cough up more information. Ari Melber breaks it down. Duration: 5:13
And here are some selected “transcriptions” (by jamess) to get you interested (hopefully) … in investing 5 minutes to listen to the whole clip:
[...]
Facebook's corporate message is to always claim
'That it's Neutral. That it's just a platform."
There's nothing 'neutral' about Helping to spread Lies.
That makes you part of the problem.
[...]
Top Fake Election Stories on Facebook:
• "FBI Agent suspected in Hillary Email Leaks found Dead in apparent Murder-Suicide."
• "WikiLeaks Confirms Hillary sold Weapons to ISIS."
• "Pope Francis shocks World, endorses Donald Trump for President."
Those are False Stories that spread like wildfire on Facebook, before people voted.
Now they didn't spread as literary fan-fiction, or Onion-style jokes
-- they spread through a very specific Fraud: The Fraud that they were Real.
Which Facebook packages, and presents as any other Real Article -- those kind of 'Fake News" stories.
In fact, they got more attention -- as you can see on this chart -- than actual News on Facebook, as the Election approached.
[… Clip of President Obama, alluding to this Fake News problem on Social Media.]
[...]
Yes, Diversity of opinions is good. Diversity though, as we discussed on this show today, is not a concept that applies to Facts. You can't have a diverse set of Facts -- about whether the Pope endorsed Trump.
He didn't. And Fake Articles that claim the Pope did endorsed Trump, are not "Diverse" -- they're FALSE.
In business they're called “a Fraud”, Mr Zuckerberg. But on Facebook -- they're 'Clicks'. So Zuckerberg has an incentive to keep that "Fake News" flowing.
That was in November. Just recently Facebook has changed their tune.
[...]
So far Facebook won’t tell us — its own users — whether we were targeted by Russians. Or whether it will release its internal review, on Russian meddling via Facebook.
SO, the Social-Network facilitating these Foreign Frauds, and profiting from them, doesn't think it owes Americans any information about that.
[...]
The Russians are still Doing it!
Let's show the top Hashtags [that] Russian-linked accounts and bots are pushing right now.
This is Today!
[according to a Russian-Tracker, from the Alliance for Securing Democracy.]
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We need to know a lot more about this.
Facebook and other social media companies have multiple obligations, not only to the Special Counsel and the Congress who may legally compel them
-- but to the public at large, who put so much of our lives, and privacy, and time, into these sites.
More analysis like this please. Way to Go, Mr. Melber.