16
16
0
What's actually the problem with the world's biggest social media platform? Is it misinformation? Lack of regulation? That it rots the brains of children? Or that it makes us shrill, annoying caricatures of ourselves?
An Ugly Truth, by New York Times reporters Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang, pins all these problems and more on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg. The authors don't hold back: Before even opening the book, one encounters remarkably unflattering images of Zuckerberg's and Sandberg's faces on the cover. As the authors explore the rise of Facebook, they maintain this tenor: The two executives are the twin poles of power at Facebook, and together are responsible for a vast set of the world's problems.
Zuckerberg and Sandberg certainly come off as unsavory characters—the CEO calls early Facebook users "dumb fucks" for blithely giving away their personal information. Sandberg screams at employees in public. Despite her heralded "lean-in" feminism, the COO picks favorites among women at the company.
If there is a single through-line in An Ugly Truth, it's this: Believing false things is one of the worst things that can happen to an individual, and Facebook inaugurated a new era of widespread misinformation. The First Amendment right to free speech isn't absolute, and no one has a right to "algorithmic amplification." In a better world, platforms would work hand in hand with "disinformation experts," left-wing civil rights groups, and "trusted organizations" like the CDC to ceaselessly protect users from believing false things. They would prioritize news from "respectable" sources and downplay questionable conservative partisans. The problem with this framing, of course, is that we already live in the world Frenkel and Kang dream of. Facebook does coordinate with the federal government, it does censor theories the World Health Organization and CDC consider objectionable, and it does tag posts about COVID with an informational bar urging you to listen to the experts. It does "shadowban" content it thinks is misleading, and it purges the accounts of individuals who express political beliefs beyond the pale. Those actions haven't fixed the problem Frenkel and Kang identify, because they can't: There's never been a time when misinformation wasn't an endemic part of human life, or when the line between safe truths and dangerous lies was settled and accepted by all.
An Ugly Truth, by New York Times reporters Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang, pins all these problems and more on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg. The authors don't hold back: Before even opening the book, one encounters remarkably unflattering images of Zuckerberg's and Sandberg's faces on the cover. As the authors explore the rise of Facebook, they maintain this tenor: The two executives are the twin poles of power at Facebook, and together are responsible for a vast set of the world's problems.
Zuckerberg and Sandberg certainly come off as unsavory characters—the CEO calls early Facebook users "dumb fucks" for blithely giving away their personal information. Sandberg screams at employees in public. Despite her heralded "lean-in" feminism, the COO picks favorites among women at the company.
If there is a single through-line in An Ugly Truth, it's this: Believing false things is one of the worst things that can happen to an individual, and Facebook inaugurated a new era of widespread misinformation. The First Amendment right to free speech isn't absolute, and no one has a right to "algorithmic amplification." In a better world, platforms would work hand in hand with "disinformation experts," left-wing civil rights groups, and "trusted organizations" like the CDC to ceaselessly protect users from believing false things. They would prioritize news from "respectable" sources and downplay questionable conservative partisans. The problem with this framing, of course, is that we already live in the world Frenkel and Kang dream of. Facebook does coordinate with the federal government, it does censor theories the World Health Organization and CDC consider objectionable, and it does tag posts about COVID with an informational bar urging you to listen to the experts. It does "shadowban" content it thinks is misleading, and it purges the accounts of individuals who express political beliefs beyond the pale. Those actions haven't fixed the problem Frenkel and Kang identify, because they can't: There's never been a time when misinformation wasn't an endemic part of human life, or when the line between safe truths and dangerous lies was settled and accepted by all.
Connection Failure - Washington Free Beacon
Posted from freebeacon.com
Edited >1 y ago
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 5
Posted >1 y ago
Free speech will be the straw that breaks the camels back, Zuckerberg, and his idiot COO, hasn't realized it yet but it's going to happen, I don't use them anymore and I know a lot of people who have quit because of it. These two are just egotistical fools.
(12)
Comment
(0)
MSG Greg Kelly
>1 y
we can hope, but seeing how so many people on this site feel I am afraid this country is on the verge of shattering.
(3)
Reply
(0)
SSG Bill McCoy
>1 y
I use FB to stay in contact with (actual, real live) friends; and some forums that interest me such as farm tractor info pages, among others. My posts are to my friends only but I still get routinely censored - probably becasue some of other people's friends are woke and report just about any conservative comments. Typically, FB puts an overlay on claiming somehing has been fournd to be, "Partly false." LOL In a previous account, I landed in "Facebook Jail," for comments about illegal aliens, and so on ... and don't EVER knock that "peaceful" religion. Ultimately, they permanently disabled my previous account, yet liberals can say the most vile comments and their posts are RARELY, if ever, censored.
(2)
Reply
(0)
CPT (Join to see)
>1 y
SGT Steve McFarland - Dorsey hasn't been in control of Twitter for quite awhile.
(1)
Reply
(0)
Posted >1 y ago
The only truth that matters is the leftist one now. All others will be silenced.
(10)
Comment
(0)
MSG Greg Kelly
>1 y
I keep telling people I know that this defund the police shit is a way for the government to start a federal police force which will be the death of the country as a Republic
(4)
Reply
(0)
Sgt (Join to see)
>1 y
MSG Greg Kelly - I agree. The left does not have control over local laws and enforcement, so what better way to get rid of them and maintain control?
(3)
Reply
(0)
Posted >1 y ago
I thought fact checkers gave them the badge of righteousness
(2)
Comment
(0)
Read This Next