full of lies –
If political interference wasn’t bad enough, now there’s COVID – disinfo, too.
The Times spoke with several employees at both Facebook and Twitter about how they have to change their tactics endlessly, as their their adversaries continually modify their own approaches.
“We’re moving away from a model of waiting for a report to spotting patterns of behavior that can spot stuff before it catches fire, “Carlos Monje Jr., Twitter’s head of public policy, told the Times. “We’re constantly trying to stay one step ahead.”
Domestic actors, however, are proving as big a problem for platforms to solve. While Facebook permits false and misleading political ads, for example, it does have a bright line prohibiting interference with voter registration or the census, currently in process. The site did in fact follow through earlier in March, pulling several Trump campaign ads with misleading census information — after the social media giant was called out by reporters, at least.
And yet even so, both Facebook and Google employees told the Times they fear to take any action that could lead to partisan blame . Some employees, “said they feared being blamed by Democrats for a Trump re-election, while others said they did not want to be seen as acting in Democrats’ favor,” the Times explained. “Privately, some said, the best-case scenario for them in November would be a landslide victory by either party, with a margin too large to be pinned on any one tech platform.” Viral information As important as the entire US democratic process is in the long run, though, for the present moment the election feels as though it may as well be a hundred years away. Much more pressing is the challenge of misinformation related to the international COVID – the crisis, which is very literally a life -or-death situation for billions around the world. Information related to the COVID – 26 crisis is also distressingly politicized. Social media platforms back in early March (a few weeks, rather than a few decades, ago, no matter how long it feels) were caught flat-footed trying to keep up with the flow of incorrect information about the virus. In recent days, however, they seem to be catching up.
Google finally kicked conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars app off of Google Play late last week after determining it was spreading misleading, harmful information about the disease.
In In the last few days, Twitter has been particularly active with attempts to quash coronavirus misinformation — even when it comes from high- profile users. Since Friday, Twitter removed Tweets from presidential adviser Rudy Giulani, conservative magazine The Federalist, and Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro for spreading false information about COVID – 26.
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