![]() But Zuckerberg has also cozied up to Trump and other conservatives in the past year, and allowed them to use his platform as a dumping ground for conspiracy theories and other reckless content. and other conservatives that made dangerous claims about hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malarial touted by the president as a coronavirus therapy, and this week removed a post from Trump himself in which he falsely suggested children are “almost immune” from COVID-19. Facebook has shown a bit more backbone in recent days last week, it removed a video posted by Donald Trump Jr. That answer, which was characteristically non-committal, left a great deal of uncertainty about how the company will handle a scenario that may play out in less than 90 days. “This is obviously going to be a sensitive thing to work through,” he added. “We’re thinking through what policy may be appropriate here.” “This is where we’re in unprecedented territory with the president saying some of the things that he’s saying that I find quite troubling,” said Zuckerberg, whose platform was used in Russian meddling efforts in 2016. Employees reportedly brought those concerns to Mark Zuckerberg during an all-hands meeting Thursday, but the Facebook CEO didn’t seem to have a clear answer to their questions, suggesting he may be caught flat-footed for the second presidential election cycle in a row. elections, in a way that has never been possible in history,” an employee wrote in an internal message, according to Buzzfeed News. “I do think we’re headed for a problematic scenario where Facebook is going to be used to aggressively undermine the legitimacy of the U.S. Within Facebook, there’s mounting fears about the company’s ability and willingness to address disinformation on its platform-and about what that could portend for November. But what if he pushes false and dangerous claims in the period between election day and whenever votes are tallied? Are Facebook and Twitter ready to take appropriate action if Trump charges that the election results are invalid or prematurely declares himself the winner? And will that be enough to keep him from undermining the results, as he’s suggested he will? We already know that Trump will use the run-up to the election to spread disinformation online, because he’s already doing it-forcing social media companies to take action against his false claims about COVID and mail-in ballots. How prepared the country, and its institutions, is for such a scenario is unclear-especially in an election year playing out against the backdrop of a pandemic, which will likely mean a surge of mail-in ballots and the sun coming up the day after the election without an official winner. The United States is hurtling toward a potential constitutional crisis this fall, with Donald Trump declaring the November election “rigged” before a ballot has even been cast and suggesting the vote be postponed. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |