Mark Zuckerberg is “listening to Donald Trump’s message” about restricting online content, according to whistleblower Frances Haugen, and his Meta platform will continue to restrict users during the next presidential administration. He said there would be “less and less” intervention.
Haugen said the owners of Facebook and Instagram have revealed their struggles over user safety in 2021, and that the next U.S. president believes “the right way to run social media is without restrictions.” He said there was.
Zuckerberg’s announcement on Tuesday that Meta would eliminate third-party fact checkers and make other moderation changes in the U.S. reflects this view, he added.
“The announcement from Mark is basically saying, ‘We heard the message, we will not interfere with the United States,'” Haugen said.
Mr Zuckerberg announced the changes on Tuesday, citing Latin America, China and Europe as examples where the UK and EU have introduced online safety laws, and said he would “work with President Trump” to resist governments seeking “further censorship”. “I will.”
Haugen also expressed concern about the impact on Facebook’s safety standards in the Global South. In 2018, the United Nations said Facebook played a “decisive role” in spreading hate speech against Rohingya Muslims, victims of genocide in Myanmar.
“What if another Myanmar starts the cycle again?” Haugen said. “Is the Trump State Department going to call Facebook? Should Facebook have to fear any consequences for doing a bad job?”
The co-chairs of Meta’s oversight committee told the Guardian the arm-length body would protect human rights as it considered changes to Meta’s controversial content moderation policy.
Michael McConnell, director of the Center for Constitutional Law at Stanford University Law School, said the oversight board had “high-level It has become the only body with the authority to review the policies of the United States.” We make decisions about moderating controversial content and make impactful recommendations that improve the user experience, promote free speech, and protect human rights for billions of people around the world. ”
He said one of his co-chairs, former Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, acknowledged that Zuckerberg’s announcement had “huge problems” and raised concerns about the rights of LGBTQ+ and transgender people and how they work in real life. He spoke after raising concerns about the potential for harm. .
Zuckerberg says there is still a lot of “illegal material” that needs to be removed from his platform, including child exploitation and drug-related content, but Mehta is determined to restore “freedom of expression.” said.
Also on Wednesday, British far-right watchdog group Hope Not Hate said it expected a “dramatic increase in harmful content” on Metaplatform, saying the changes would make it easier for far-right groups to coordinate their local activities. He said it was highly likely. The one that incited the August riots in the UK. The paper called on Labor to strengthen online safety laws in the wake of the meta movement, saying: “Time and again we have seen[inflammatory online content]have a truly violent impact on our streets. ‘ he warned.
Haugen, who worked on the company’s Civic Integrity team focused on election-related issues around the world, said President Trump was concerned that the MAGA movement’s use of social media would be restricted by one of the internet’s most powerful companies. He said he didn’t want to. She said the company failed to prevent the Stop the Steal movement from using its platform to discredit the 2020 presidential election results and incite riots in Washington on January 6, 2021. He cited a 2021 Facebook internal report.
“What President Trump wants is for Facebook to step back and not intervene because Mr. Maga knows how to disrupt social media. So it’s not just about the content. It’s also a question of behavior,” she said.
“Mr. Trump has made it very clear that the only influence he has on Facebook is what it does (with respect to content and behavior). We should expect Facebook to gradually reduce its actions. ”
Maria Ressa, who won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize for her work as a journalist in the Philippines, said Wednesday that Meta’s change of host signals “extremely dangerous times” for journalism, democracy and social media users. Said to mean that.
Haugen started a nonprofit to address the harms of social media and provides social media advice for Issue One, a nonprofit focused on elections and political integrity. However, Haugen said he doesn’t think increased content moderation in the meta is the answer. He said the company should focus more on adjusting the algorithms that serve content to users and being transparent about how those algorithms work.
“They’re kind of doing the worst thing in the world. They’re not really making any overall changes, they’re cutting back on the little safety systems that they had in place,” she said. said.
We have reached out to Meta for comment.
