I got a comment on my recent post about monopolies that amused me no end, but didn't surprise me. As you may have noticed there's been a concerted campaign by right wingers to claim that social media is biased against conservatism. The commenter said it's a wonder the conservative message gets through at all. Of course the exact opposite is true:
Facebook has had a long and complicated relationship with progressives after allowing former President Donald Trump to violate terms of service with posts and ads during the 2016 campaign season. Facebook also made money off of international companies that were driving wedges and stoking fears targeting races.
A 2021 analysis by The Washington Post revealed that the site gives an advantage to conservatives on the platform. Facebook says that the right-wing is just better at stoking fears and responses than progressives. The reality is that Facebook has allowed false information to stand from conservative sources. While there are supposed to be protections in place to stop fake news, it typically takes so long for the review and removal that the story has already spread across the platform. As a result, the top 25 posts on Facebook are very rarely from Democratic sources.
The argument conservatives have is with the truth. Dump was kicked off of Twitter because of his relentless lying, not because he is "conservative," which in fact he is not. He's just a narcissistic psychopath. That Facebook gets around to removing lies after three or four days is what bothers Republicans in congress. They should let lies stand forever, is the complaint.
Update: For those whose reading ability is apparently limited, this post is about so-called "social media," not the corporate media that produce TV news, and wire services. Whether you think an outlet leans "right" or "left" obviously depends on how you define those terms and furthermore, it is not a measure of accuracy or credibility. In fact, as I have repeatedly argued and demonstrated, "right wing" in the current political climate means ipso facto false and misleading. There is no virtue in being "centrist," there is only virtue in being factually accurate.
1 comment:
I know you don't like to categorize people with psychological labels, but I think it's pretty important that we put some sort of mechanism in place to keep psychopaths from holding elected office in the United States, much less that of president.
Post a Comment