Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2019 21:54:40 GMT
link
The Hill....
“Zuckerberg defends allowing misinformation in campaign ads”
From the article...
“Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday defended his company's controversial decision of allowing politicians to post political ads with misleading or false claims on its platform, saying it's "something we have to live with."
"People worry, and I worry deeply, too, about an erosion of truth," Zuckerberg told The Washington Post ahead of a speech at Georgetown University. "At the same time, I don't think people want to live in a world where you can only say things that tech companies decide are 100 percent true. And I think that those tensions are something we have to live with.
"In general, in a democracy, I think that people should be able to hear for themselves what politicians are saying," Zuckerberg continued. "Often, the people who call the most for us to remove content are often the first to complain when its their content that falls on the wrong side of a policy."
In his 35-minute speech at Georgetown Thursday afternoon, Zuckerberg elaborated on that defense, saying that having tech company's moderate content could be dangerous.
"Political ads on Facebook are more transparent than anywhere else," Zuckerberg said. "We don't factcheck political ads... because we believe people should be able to see for themselves what politicians are saying.
"I know many people disagree, but in general I don't think it's right for a private company to censor politicians or the news in a democracy. And we are not an outlier here."
Zuckerberg said that the company had considered banning political ads all together but rejected that approach.”
If we have access to Facebook, twitter and other social media platforms, that means we have access to the internet which means we have the ability to check things out ourselves.
So that being the case shouldn’t we take the time to do our own fact checking instead of relying on a third party do it for us? Can we trust a third party to give us the facts?
Just before the 2016 election I watched a Facebook Live of a class sponsored by the local paper in conjunction with the local college about spreading of misinformation on social media. According to their research, 59% of Facebook users “shared” information without checking to make sure it was somewhat accurate.
I know why people do it, because it’s what they want to believe so no need to check because it must be right if “I” believe it. Or they are just to damn lazy and want someone else to do it.
We have a real mess in this country because of all the misinformation out there with more than a few willing to help spread it.
But I’m not sure we should beat up Social Media for all of this without acknowledging the part individuals play in spreading misinformation without doing the minimum of checking before they “share”.
Wouldn’t demanding Social Media decide what is true or not be a form of censorship? And wouldn’t relying on social media to determine what is true and not absolve us from our own personal responsibility to determine what is or isn’t true? And if so, is that ok?
The only reason there is so much misinformation out there, is because we let it happened. If we did away with Facebook, Twitter, & other social media platforms, do you think that would stop the spread of misinformation? I don’t. It might move slower, but I think it would still happen.
The Hill....
“Zuckerberg defends allowing misinformation in campaign ads”
From the article...
“Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday defended his company's controversial decision of allowing politicians to post political ads with misleading or false claims on its platform, saying it's "something we have to live with."
"People worry, and I worry deeply, too, about an erosion of truth," Zuckerberg told The Washington Post ahead of a speech at Georgetown University. "At the same time, I don't think people want to live in a world where you can only say things that tech companies decide are 100 percent true. And I think that those tensions are something we have to live with.
"In general, in a democracy, I think that people should be able to hear for themselves what politicians are saying," Zuckerberg continued. "Often, the people who call the most for us to remove content are often the first to complain when its their content that falls on the wrong side of a policy."
In his 35-minute speech at Georgetown Thursday afternoon, Zuckerberg elaborated on that defense, saying that having tech company's moderate content could be dangerous.
"Political ads on Facebook are more transparent than anywhere else," Zuckerberg said. "We don't factcheck political ads... because we believe people should be able to see for themselves what politicians are saying.
"I know many people disagree, but in general I don't think it's right for a private company to censor politicians or the news in a democracy. And we are not an outlier here."
Zuckerberg said that the company had considered banning political ads all together but rejected that approach.”
If we have access to Facebook, twitter and other social media platforms, that means we have access to the internet which means we have the ability to check things out ourselves.
So that being the case shouldn’t we take the time to do our own fact checking instead of relying on a third party do it for us? Can we trust a third party to give us the facts?
Just before the 2016 election I watched a Facebook Live of a class sponsored by the local paper in conjunction with the local college about spreading of misinformation on social media. According to their research, 59% of Facebook users “shared” information without checking to make sure it was somewhat accurate.
I know why people do it, because it’s what they want to believe so no need to check because it must be right if “I” believe it. Or they are just to damn lazy and want someone else to do it.
We have a real mess in this country because of all the misinformation out there with more than a few willing to help spread it.
But I’m not sure we should beat up Social Media for all of this without acknowledging the part individuals play in spreading misinformation without doing the minimum of checking before they “share”.
Wouldn’t demanding Social Media decide what is true or not be a form of censorship? And wouldn’t relying on social media to determine what is true and not absolve us from our own personal responsibility to determine what is or isn’t true? And if so, is that ok?
The only reason there is so much misinformation out there, is because we let it happened. If we did away with Facebook, Twitter, & other social media platforms, do you think that would stop the spread of misinformation? I don’t. It might move slower, but I think it would still happen.
