Mark Zuckerberg says the notion that fake news influenced the U.S. presidential election is “a pretty crazy idea.”
With Zuckerberg’s history of denial (e.g., Ukraine-Russia flagging), I seriously doubt this guy is now serious.
What a waste of money.
Facebook could have just asked the Russians for help in micro-targeting that segment of the American populace concerned about their treachery. Of course, that would be all but the Trump base.
How nice you are only doing this cause you were finally forced to admit that you sold ad space to the Russians and is taking a serious hit in the publics eye.
Maybe I’ve missed this, but was this in any way illegal? I mean, I know it’s BAD, but was it actually illegal? Is it illegal for a foreign government to buy ads? A domestic business to sell them to the foreign government?
And there go Zuck’s chances of running for office
Later, at the gun range, Mark Zuckerberg was heard to explain to a man, “I promise, I will make sure to NEVER accidentally shoot your daughter in the face again.”
In short, yes.
Well, to be fair, the company is not just him. So hopefully there are people working at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. that are interested in helping to at least limit the corrupting influence these fake stories have. It’s not an easy job, but it seems clear they were not doing enough.
I wonder if he is still considering a political/presidential run in 2020. He seemed to be taking some serious steps over the past year. These early denials will hurt him. And the fact that he acknowledged that his company did internal investigations but said the impact was “small” when it clearly wasn’t. I really hope he reconsiders a Presidential run. Same with Oprah. We don’t need well meaning, but know nothing people on the left coming in like Trump to try to ride some populist wave (obviously a very different kind of wave, but still).
The fact of the matter is that fake news advertising is everywhere, including…wait for it…Talkingpointsmemo.com. What do you think the adds below the article are? “you won’t believe what Mama June looks like now!” “She was hot in the 80’s but now…” “Feel younger by boosting your stem cells from home!” “Horrifying pictures taken just before death!”
All this is clickbait bullshit. Or online polls that direct you to some nutjob site “Do you support indictments for Hillary? Click Yes/No”
What they’re doing is obvious damage control with this PR move. Not sure its worth much though. In fact, it looks like weak tea. Perhaps worthless, even if you’re a major shareholder and not just a Facebook user. Only thing that will help their reputation and get the trust of the public back is if they expose the bad guys to the public, to prove they were used without their knowledge and not simply to take money from these people in order to make a profit. Their less than discerning acceptance of taking money from the Russians and their proxies, the alt-right or even some conspiracy theorists is really at the heart of their problem it seems.
I never signed up for Facebook personally, or Twitter. I now realize, beyond just being uninterested in doing so, I also inadvertently made a good decision.
Last time FaceBook vowed to fight something it was that their “Trending Topics” leaned liberal, so they brought in a bunch of conservatives to give them advice on how to fix the problem…then came the 2016 elections, Russian and US oligarch influence and massive disinformation campaigns targeted at groups that would benefit Trump winning the Presidency. May be a correlation/causation issue, but I don’t trust Zuckerberg or anyone else at or using FaceBook to actually think through the issue to fix it.
Delete your FaceBook account, the best option.
You can’t make Soylent Green without using people. It’s the whole business model.
- We won’t take money above the table to influence elections. (wink, wink)
I have at least a partial solution to the problem Facebook, Twitter, et al. are having: Hire people to edit content! Sure it will slow things down and cost more. Wait, what’s that you say? Money talks?
I can guarantee you that my relatives and neighbors who shared and liked all the bogus stuff coming into their Facebook feeds do NOT read the NYT or WaPo or, really, anything else except Pinterest and whatever Facebook places make them feel special. They don’t listen to news on the TV or radio, they don’t read any magazines except maybe People and Us, they will never, ever hear about any of this except from their president, who has told them to keep away from the Fake News of such places as Zuckerfucker is placing these ads.
Notice that he’s not flooding his own venue with any of this confession and promises to do better.
You fairly certain they don’t watch Fox News? That it isn’t on at the gym, or in the waiting room at the doctor’s office, or in the terminal at the airport?
Well, at least he’s picking up the ball he dropped.
Lies. Lies. Lies. Lies. Lies. And finally, lies.
“I wonder if he is still considering a political/presidential run in 2020.”
If so, it will last about 13 seconds. He’s toast.
Bookface says what? When did ADHD guy sell off some of his stock?