In their new book, ‘New York Times’ reporters Cecilia Kang and Sheera Frenkel examine the problems Facebook created and the problems it’s facing. We talk about disinformation, hate speech, and how CEO Mark Zuckerberg knew the “Stop the Steal” private groups were planning a riot on the capitol but decided against warning the president. “Facebook knew the potential for explosive violence was very real [on Jan 6],” Kang says.
But that story shifted on Tuesday after federal health officials recommended a temporary halt in the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, after a handful of reports about blood clots surfaced among the millions of people who have received the shot.
Many doctors argue this sort of delay should actually be seen as a positive for vaccine safety: officials are paying close attention to the reports of side effects and acting quickly to maintain public confidence in the vaccination effort.
But experts who follow internet trends are bracing for the worst when it comes to how this news is understood and received by the public.
"This is what I would call the perfect storm for misinformation," said Jennifer Granston at Zignal Labs, a media intelligence platform.
Facebook is making changes to give users more choice over what posts they see in their news feeds, as the social media company defends itself from accusations that it fuels extremism and political polarization.
The changes, announced Wednesday, include making it easier for people to switch their feeds to a "Most Recent" mode, where the newest posts appear first, and allowing users to pick up to 30 friends or pages to prioritize. Users can now limit who can comment on their posts.
Garland is not alone. An NPR/Ipsos poll in December found that a significant number of Americans believe disinformation about the coronavirus and about settled historical facts. The findings underscore the enduring nature of unfounded conspiracies at a time when experts say disinformation is being spread on an unprecedented scale.
"There is certainly a bloc of people who are willing to believe conspiracies sort of across the board," says Chris Jackson, a pollster at Ipsos, "even if it doesn't have any basis in reality or fact."
Two titans of Silicon Valley, Facebook and Apple, are in a bitter fight that centers on the iPhone data of millions of people and whether companies should be able to track that data as easily as they do now.
Facebook believes the answer is yes. On Wednesday, it even unveiled a video voiced by Grace Jones aimed at currying the public's favor.
Apple says not so fast. CEO Tim Cook tweeted last month about the need for greater control over data privacy "from safeguarding your health & financial data to guarding against algorithms that perpetuate rampant misinformation. We need transparency and reform."
Western New York is home to a number of radical-right organizations that are active on social media. Of late they’ve been posting on the inauguration of Joseph Biden as president. Before that they shared conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol — antifa did it! — and to express their support for Donald Trump.
An Investigative Post review of the right’s social media activity also found that a wide range of right-wing organizations have started to consolidate and coordinate their activities since the summer under the banner of “FREE New York.”?
The use of peer-to-peer social media networking that is highly decentralized might become the future, especially if censorship becomes a real problem on Twitter and Facebook.