Name: The Guardian view on Facebook and democracy: real and present danger | Editorial
Brand: theguardian.com
SKU: theguardian-com-888
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

The Guardian view on Facebook and democracy: real and present danger | Editorial

preview

This article is more than 2 years oldThis article is more than 2 years oldPolitical advertising is banned from being broadcast on television or radio. Unless Facebook changes, it may be time to extend this prohibition to social mediaLast modified on Sun 5 Jul 2020 14.05 EDTThat apparently is fine for the company’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, who is worth $85bn. Consider the latest ugly episode in the firm’s life. After some of the world’s biggest brands Facebook over its refusal to ban racist and violent content, the company reached for the usual bromide of reassurance that the matter was being taken seriously. Internally it was a very different story. The boycotters, Mr Zuckerberg , would be back and his company was “not going to change our policies … because of a threat to a small percent of our revenue”.In America there is a view that capitalism fixes things. In Britain, government usually acts. The Lords select committee on democracy and digital technologies was correct to say it was a mistake to allow social media firms to grow unimpeded by regulation. This, , had “become acutely obvious in the current Covid-19 pandemic where online misinformation poses not only a real and present danger to our democracy but also to our lives”. Facebook cannot be allowed to remain beyond the restraints applied to the rest of society. This message has been received by the , which has proposed forcing Facebook to give consumers a choice over whether to accept targeted advertising and even suggested breaking it up.The Lords select committee was right to praise the UK government for putting forward an , requiring social media platforms to protect users and sanctioning those that fail to do so by, for example, taking too long to remove offensive material. However, ministers have been tardy in bringing forward legislation and there’s no sign the platforms’ duty of care will shield voters from misinformation campaigns.Such a move would be in necessary conflict with Facebook’s “neutrality”. The firm’s hands-off approach means it won’t drain its swamp of racism, misogyny and conspiracy. In a speech , Mr Zuckerberg had controversially signalled that Facebook’s interests aligned with Donald Trump’s. The Facebook founder said it’s not right to censor politicians. Mr Trump has been on Facebook than its rivals.This bargain is unravelling. Faced with a growing backlash over Mr Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric, the social network removed a Trump ad that used a Nazi-era symbol. Facebook will also start allowing US users to . Yet in Britain Facebook is used to spread false political advertising. It does so knowing that the network’s algorithms spit out, in the words of its , “more and more divisive content in an effort to gain user attention and increase time on the platform”. There is an easy solution. The UK all political advertising from being broadcast on television or radio. Unless firms like Facebook change radically, it may be time to extend this prohibition to social media.

This article is more than 2 years oldThis article is more than 2 years oldPolitical advertising is banned from being broadcast on television or radio. Unless Facebook changes, it may be time to extend this prohibition to social mediaLast modified on Sun 5 Jul 2020 14.05 EDTThat apparently is fine for the company’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, who is worth $85bn. Consider the latest ugly episode in the firm’s life. After some of the world’s biggest brands Facebook over its refusal to ban racist and violent content, the company reached for the usual bromide of reassurance that the matter was...

public

Editorial

TheGuardian.com, formerly known as Guardian.co.uk and Guardian Unlimited, is a British news and media website owned by the Guardian Media Group. It contains nearly all of the content of the newspapers The Guardian and The Observer, as well as a substantial body of web-only work produced by its own staff, including a rolling news service.

The Guardian view on Facebook and democracy: real and present danger | Editorial

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS