There is an organisation which regulates mass media in the United States. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) includes 5 members approved by Congress and appointed by the President. Its mission is to make production and consumption of media content fair, accessible, competitive and safe. There are some thoughts on the effectiveness of FCC work, though.
Probably everyone on the Earth knows this company as 3,065 billion people use it monthly. The popularity only rises in those places where it is banned. Facebook access has been temporarily or completely closed in China, North Korea, Brazil, Myanmar, Russia, Turkmenistan, Uganda and Iran. Each of these countries has sensitive topics which they attempt to hide from the media outlets.
Probably everyone on the Earth knows this company as 3,065 billion people use it monthly. The popularity only rises in those places where it is banned. Facebook access has been temporarily or completely closed in China, North Korea, Brazil, Myanmar, Russia, Turkmenistan, Uganda and Iran. Each of these countries has sensitive topics which they attempt to hide from the media outlets.
Facebook has become famous for its "freedomness" and people post what they actually consider the truth. It can lead to the formation of “free thoughts” or discussion of changes in political systems to be made. Thoughts transform into protests. That’s partly the reason why China started to block Facebook domains after the 2009 Ürümqi riots. On February 27 2022 Russia began restricting access to Facebook over the crisis in Ukraine. On the 4th of March 2022, Internet monitoring system NetBlocks reported that the restriction of Facebook had become "near-total." Protesters and leaders of opposition consider their actions legitimate and they actually can be. But other illegal actors like terrorists also make use of this social network to do real harm.
"We've corporatized, consolidated, and cableized our media and lost the art of real journalism in the process. We were all excited when that internet came along. My goodness, that was going to be the new town square of democracy! Power at the edges, and everybody would have a voice, and compare that with the reality that evolved, with power consolidated in the middle, and a few big companies controlling our internet experience. So, you can see the opportunity that we have missed"
– Michael Copps, commissioner of the FCC
Censorship as a protection of the society
In all these cases social media sites censor content on their pages due to algorithms helping to find destructive information. Probably the platform is the hostage of its own content production format. Users post huge analytical texts which can influence people worldwide. And significant fact-checking work should be made.
Facebook is trying to reduce the negative effect of opinion leaders’ activity. It has worked out the protocol which enables the site to block accounts of publiс figures during civil unrest normally for 1-30 days after the invasion of Donald Trump’s supporters into the Capitol on January 6th. When owners are given aссess to their accounts back, "they will be subject to heightened penalties to deter repeat offences".
Facebook is trying to reduce the negative effect of opinion leaders’ activity. It has worked out the protocol which enables the site to block accounts of publiс figures during civil unrest normally for 1-30 days after the invasion of Donald Trump’s supporters into the Capitol on January 6th. When owners are given aссess to their accounts back, "they will be subject to heightened penalties to deter repeat offences".
American society mostly supports the restrictions on false information and violent content online. 65% of Americans want tech companies to moderate social media and when the question was transformed into responsibility of the government, 55% respondents answered that they support the U.S. government taking these steps. If the law is broken, the restriction must be put. But are these rules to be used for good or evil?
Mark Zuckerberg has finally admitted that his Meta (consisting of Facebook and What’s App) company was filtering the content during the COVID-19 epoch, which was obvious, whereas the Biden administration claimed that "the company was not doing enough to take down misinformation, and was making it harder to fight the pandemic and save lives".
Mark Zuckerberg has finally admitted that his Meta (consisting of Facebook and What’s App) company was filtering the content during the COVID-19 epoch, which was obvious, whereas the Biden administration claimed that "the company was not doing enough to take down misinformation, and was making it harder to fight the pandemic and save lives".
“Facebook is not doing enough to stop the spread of false claims about COVID-19 and vaccines,”
And the CEO vowed that the social media giant would push back if it faced such demands again. It seems that freedom of speech is indeed a value for Zuckerberg. It would be good if these communications were fulfilled, though. However, content blocking does not depend on him alone. Unfortunately, such supposed unbiased regulators as the FCC do not affect the situation, as the government does unofficially.
Zuckerberg can be treated in this case as a victim of a political game and we cannot blame him as such huge companies like Meta work in public interests and should take into account their influence on people’s minds.
Zuckerberg can be treated in this case as a victim of a political game and we cannot blame him as such huge companies like Meta work in public interests and should take into account their influence on people’s minds.
That is why Meta’s and Facebook’s media activity can also go close to governmental interests. Nothing new, but is it ethical?
As it was in Germany during the European migration crisis in 2015 when a large number of immigrants entered the country illegally. A broad discussion of mass immigration took place in the media. In summer 2016, police of 14 German states began coordinated raids on the residences of individuals who praised Nazi’s or referred to refugees as "scum" in private Facebook groups. A law, known as NetzDG, went into effect starting in 2018 and mandated all websites in Germany, including Facebook.
As it was in Germany during the European migration crisis in 2015 when a large number of immigrants entered the country illegally. A broad discussion of mass immigration took place in the media. In summer 2016, police of 14 German states began coordinated raids on the residences of individuals who praised Nazi’s or referred to refugees as "scum" in private Facebook groups. A law, known as NetzDG, went into effect starting in 2018 and mandated all websites in Germany, including Facebook.
– White House press secretary Jen Psaki
Are Facebook actions careless or careful?
Elon Musk has recently blamed Meta for gathering pieces of personal information with metatags: "WhatsApp exports user data nightly, which is analysed and used for targeted advertising, making users the product, not the customer". Forbes does not consider that to be a problem because the bigger one is encryption. Facebook makes a major effort to integrate security into its services. Because in comparison to content encryption, metadata harvesting is far less significant.
Even if Meta were to hide the truth by restricting some content, and serve the interests of various stakeholders, including governments, which is normally thought as unethical, it is still Meta that billions of people choose for its power and convenience. And the company reciprocally tries to be careful about its users and develop its products.
Another huge competitor on the American market that also faces governmental censorship and makes it on its own is X (former Twitter).
Another huge competitor on the American market that also faces governmental censorship and makes it on its own is X (former Twitter).
*owned by Meta.Inc Platforms which is considered by Russian law an extremist organisation.
