Mark Zuckerberg’s Problem Isn’t Free Speech, It’s Lies
The truth is hard to find anywhere, but particularly on social media. Mark Zuckerberg, the leader of Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, wants to make it harder
He sent a letter to the House Judiciary Committee complaining of “pressure” applied by the Biden Administration to censor posts dealing in ‘conspiracy theories’ and outright lies about Covid and vaccines in general.
He says Meta will push back harder in the future.
Well, what exactly does Zuckerberg want to push back on?
Social media has always been about us promoting ourselves and our ideas to friends, family, and—if you get lucky or the algorithmic gods grab you—the wider world. What it has not been about is supplying the world with accurate information.
At its most innocent, we censor ourselves. Why share that you lost a $5 bet? Or that you ran out of cat food and had to go back out to the store in your pajamas?
At its most malevolent, some individual or group posts information that’s false and can harm others, or even kill them.
Your publisher—Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Snapchat, X, YouTube, TikTok—has a duty to act responsibly and do what it can to prevent such misinformation from spreading, just like any editorial entity does. (the big problem here is that many social media sites actively promote misinformation, and sometimes outright lies, framing them as proven fact – Ed)
And if they fail to do so, they open themselves up to penalties, both criminal and civil.
It’s fair to say that all these entities fail all the time. Things that really shouldn’t be out there aren’t just out there, they’re being shared, and the buzz is growing and growing and growing.
If the publishers (they say platforms) can’t monitor themselves and are counting on the public for help by reporting bad things, then what’s the problem with a government agency complaining just like any individual can do?
When you object to a post to Facebook, for example, Facebook moderators eventually follow up and make judgements as to whether the content in question violates the company’s terms and conditions.
As a result, offending posts are either removed—or not.
A government agency responsible for the public’s health and welfare should certainly have the same freedom to report something as a crabby individual who thinks that your new swimsuit is too revealing.
Nobody’s saying the government is ordering posts to be taken down (I would beg to differ – Ed) . The government is finding these posts and reporting them to Facebook. Even the Supreme Court says that’s OK.
Matters of politics aren’t so simple. Even lies about a candidate are usually protected speech, and many people have a nasty case of confusing opinion for truth.
Zuckerberg mentions stories about Hunter Biden‘s laptop that were deprioritized on Facebook after the FBI called up saying that the Russians were planting disinformation on the site and elsewhere.
Nobody is claiming Facebook was asked (let alone was ordered) to “temporarily demote” the stories about the laptop. If Zuckerberg has regrets, that’s on him.
So, let’s see if we’ve got all this straight:
The head of one of the largest tech companies has sent a letter to Congress complaining about how his own company behaved during the COVID epidemic when asked by the government to get the story straight.
Did government officials always get it right on COVID? No. Did they try to save lives as best they could?
There’s little doubt that the committee will show sympathy. After all, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who chairs it, is no friend of vaccines—or the Biden administration.
And that’s what it’s really about. It’s the messenger, even if Jordan and others claim that it’s the message. Surely, if former President Donald Trump becomes current President Donald Trump again, giving Facebook a little advice on content will be par for the course.
But whichever party is in control of the levers of government, the government gets to ask—not tell (I would say that is debatable – Ed). Facebook gets to say yes or no. Everything else is purely an internal issue for Mark Zuckerberg and Silicon Valley’s people of conscience, it doesn’t have anything to do with the First Amendment.
It’s weird to think that the tech bros have such a say over the life, death, and future of the American people through their control of information (how many kids have died from internet fads?).
It’s fair that the government gets a chance to make a case for the truth.
And who knows what the upshot of all this will be? The First Amendment protects speech and even lies.
What it doesn’t do is protect us from the consequences of telling them.
See more here newsweek.com
Editor’s note: it would appear the author’s definition of truth and lies are somewhat different to mine. Lies from the political right are often labelled as crimes against humanity, whereas lies from the left are routinely ignored.
Header image: The New Republic
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Tom
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You either have total free speech or you don’t. This is why no social media can ever allow free speech because it will always need to control the narrative to meet the demands of government. And no government is going to allow free speech for very long as it needs to constantly tell lies and present propaganda to stay in power. Witness the US since the Civil War.
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S.C.
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Tom is right. There is either free speech or there is censorship. No one can be trusted to “moderate” speech, and no one can determine fact from fiction in a fair, unbiased and accurate manner. Socialist Media is proving the downfall of the Bill of Rights.
The only proper thing to do is let freedom prevail and the People will learn to sort it all out, especially if, instead of a “personalized experience” you give people equal access to the bullshit lies and the unpopular opinions. Soon enough, the bullshit will be weeded out and the unpopular opinions will be judged on merit.
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Seriously
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There are sheep and there are wolves…the sheep FAR OUTNUMBER the wolves. We are drowning in bullshit and lies and the sheep are bleating their belief in it all.
Anyone who didn’t fall for the bullshit and lies of cv are ostracized, canceled, erased…! Just how do you see ‘the people’ figuring it out
when the largest part of the population are sheep!?!
Truth is the ultimate victim of bullshit and lies, propaganda to promote The Machines (any and all government) whims, aims and agendas…and always has been, regardless of who’s in charge of that media – church, state, king, or dictator. What humanity lacks is concensus on what is best for the humans, plant and flora, oceans, rivers, and every other animal and life form on this planet. Having appointed themselves, humans that is, as the be all and end all of intellectual superiority on the planet, we have shackled ourselves to the hubris and arrogance of our species…I mean, seriously, how many times have we been wrong in our reason, science of the past…bloodletting anyone?..small example of the incredible crap we’ve allowed ourselves to promote, think, believe as ‘truth’…examples of which are legion!!!!
Have a great and noble king who brings health & prosperity to the people but his son who succeeds him is a despot that moves the pop back a few hundred years…it’s an age old story that repeats over and over again…I don’t make this up.
Free speech is a double-edged sword, that really went viral with the printing press…and The Machine’ has been looking to use it, reign it in, ever since. Old Benny Franklin used free speech to annihilate his rivals, yes?
Yes, I would rather have it. But our tech is going to make it all disappear…because in future, The Machine’ will have total control…and it’s so close to that happening. If cv taught anything at all, that future is soon, very soon.
And in case anyone has forgotten, old Mark there got pulled up before congress…and I strongly suspect it’s because he initially refused to ‘play’ the position they wanted him to. But you only get one life in this body you have…and he’s made his choice…he gets to live the rest of his with the genie he released…and the consequences are for all of us.
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S.C.
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I have a pretty good grasp on the good and bad sides of human nature and, unfortunately, people with the worst traits are usually the one’s who want to be in control of everything and everybody. People with good intentions rarely have much interest in power and control.
The antidote to control by tyrants is free speech. The “sheep” are not necessarily stupid, just oblivious. One day, at least temporarily, they will become more aware, and when they do it is vital to allow unfettered free speech, else the power hungry kings will lull them back to sleep with a bully pulpit. Free speech is the foundation of free minds and without it we are automatically slaves to the tyrannical.
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Seriously
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I agree…but ‘free speech’, as we’ve known it, is on it’s death bed…and seemingly thats just a-OK with the mills & genz…they are letting it go based on ideologies that ‘the machine’ is promoting. There has always been misinformation, since humans could speak…but, suddenly, it’s become one of the ‘fear porns’. You need only get past one generation to install a new narrative- bypass knowledge gained, lessons learned, ways of living, cultures.
Parents & grandparents from most cultures Around The Globe were vocal, human killing, racisists – ‘anyone not us’, based on ridiculous ‘science’ bandied about in the late 18th, early 19th century, or just habit from all the generations BEFORE that claptrap. The narrative today villifies the white race but seemingly FORGETS that literally every race and culture has participated (and some still are) in slavery, yes? It was OK to give your kid a smack when I was young – not beating, just to clarify – now you are abusing your child. We, as children, got to run around wherever we wanted til the sun went down, explore our environment, make new friends…not now. Just a few examples of how much of our tech, beginning with the advent of television, has changed our world and societies. And it’s speeding up!!
Pick your favorite fear porn to demonstrate. Very few ideas, thoughts I see on this site, others, ever makes it to msm…and if it doesn’t appear there, its not ‘real’ – it doesn’t reach jack & Jill, to make informed, reasoned decisions of their own, based on evidence, theories, that disagree with ‘the narrative’. It’s straight out of a fascist playbook or any and all systems that have supressed free speech in any manner, in any century.
The tech now makes it possible to obliterate ANY past history, fact or theory that doesn’t hold that narrative, true or otherwise and if you don’t think that will happen, I have an island….somewhere…
Our tech is going to make free speech terminal….and the last two gens are flowing with the narrative w/o access to anything different. I found this site thru a BOOK that led me to a website that mentioned p.s….otherwise, I never would have known. Isolated pockets of humanity won’t be able to overthrow ‘the machine’ in future. Just the fact that cv was GLOBAL is the scariest movie I have ever seen.
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Greg Spinolae
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Anything less than ABSOLUTE Free Speech is not actually FreeSpeech at all. Those who prevaricate with “I believe in FreeSpeech BUT…” actually don’t, they only believe in FreeSpeech MODERATED by opinions they agree with.
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