As the US presidential election polling day draws close, it’s worth recapping what we know about how Facebook has been used to influence election results.
The platform is optimised for boosting politically conservative voices calling for fascism, separatism and xenophobia. It’s also these voices that tend to generate the most clicks.
In recent years, Facebook has on several occasions been made to choose between keeping to its community standards or taking a path that avoids the ire of conservatives. Too many times, it has chosen the latter.
The result has been an onslaught of divisive rhetoric that continues to flood the platform and drive political polarisation in society.
According to a University of Oxford study, 70 countries (including Australia) practised either foreign or domestic election meddling in 2019. This was up from 48 in 2018 and 28 in 2017. The study said Facebook was “the platform of choice” for this.
Facebook’s addictive news feed rewards us for simply skimming headlines, conditioning us to react viscerally.
Its sharing features have been found to promote falsehoods. They can trick users into attributing news to their friends, causing them to assign trust to unreliable news sources. This provides a breeding ground for conspiracies.
Hunter Biden claims Russian drug dealers stole another one of his laptops for blackmail while he was close to overdosing in a Vegas hotel room in 2018.
Biden stares blankly at reporters asking questions as Hunter Biden laptop VERIFIED, White House staff abruptly cuts audio then video
And even if they don't, it's a scandal on Big Tech for trying to bury to story. Facebook and Twitter banned 100% information because it could have hurt their preferred candidate in 2020.