Opinion | Now Social Media Grows a Conscience? - The New York Times - 0 views
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Propelled by the nation’s stunned reaction to last week’s violent siege of the U.S. Capitol, social media companies have sought to separate themselves from President Trump and lawmakers who were complicit in the riots.
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The actions, a long time coming, are sure to limit the appearance of some of the most inflammatory posts and tweets, particularly leading up to next week’s presidential inauguration.
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Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are trying to claim the mantle of champions of free speech and impartial loudspeakers for whoever has a deeply held conviction.
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There’s nothing wrong with making a buck, of course. But until Facebook, Twitter and the rest view their platforms as something more than just businesses, policing the sites will be a perpetual game of Whac-a-Mole.
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Consider, for instance, that it was only on Monday that Facebook announced a purge of content promoting the false election fraud claims behind the campaign known as “stop the steal.” That’s been a rallying cry since Election Day, more than two months ago. Facebook’s co-founder and chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, who is the controlling shareholder of the company, has said he believes that politicians should be allowed to knowingly lie on Facebook.
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These companies have consistently ignored warnings about how their very structure foments misinformation and division. A Facebook-ordered civil rights audit released in July effectively gave the company a failing grade.
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Mr. Lehrich said Facebook should make a chronological news feed the default, rather than an algorithm that shows users what it thinks is most relevant. And it ought not to thrust users unwittingly into groups or toward certain pages that align with what the software thinks will interest them. Users could still opt into those services.
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With the shuttering of Mr. Trump’s accounts, some will point to Big Tech’s tremendous reach as well as concerns about curtailing free speech. But these companies have throttled speech for years, when it serves their purposes.
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The companies aren’t likely to surrender the power they’ve accumulated any time soon — that’s why Facebook, which also owns Instagram, faces twin antitrust lawsuits from the Federal Trade Commission and 48 attorneys general.