How Social Media Executives Sow Hate Globally

Facebook’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has been making the rounds defending his stance on political ads. As reports emerge that Facebook employees are challenging this position internally, one has to wonder about Zuckerberg’s performance of helplessness, as he throws his hands up, asking ‘what am I supposed to do?’ Zuckerberg continues his misleading apology tours pledging the platform will ‘do better’ without making fundamental changes to stem the flow of disinformation. His latest tours are on the dignity of Facebook making the choice not to violate freedom of speech, as if there are no other options. Of course there are options. THE BEST OPTION IS FOR FACEBOOK TO BAN ALL POLITICAL ADS ON ITS PLATFORM. Simple, and effective.

The New York Times reported on October 28, 2019 that:

“Many employees have been discussing Mr. Zuckerberg’s decision to let politicians post anything they want in Facebook ads because those ads can go viral and spread misinformation widely. The worker dissatisfaction has spilled out across winding, heated threads on Facebook Workplace, the people said.”

Since 2016, journalist Carole Cadwalladr has investigated the influence of social media corporations on the political process. Her work, published in the Observer and the Guardian, unpacks multiple levels of subversion of the democratic process. In this April 2019 TED Talk, Cadwalladr explains how social media executives are sowing hate and fear across the globe. She directly addresses Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Jack Dorsey, and their employees and investors, on how they have created a crime scene by spreading lies, paid for with illegal cash, ultimately subverting democratic movements world wide.

In February of 2019, Cadwalladr published A digital gangster destroying democracy: the damning verdict on Facebook, about the February 18, 2019 British Parliament report detailing how Facebook uses data manipulation and voter influence to gain enormous profits while destroying the social contract. The report, Disinformation and ‘fake news’ is very much worth a read. As they note:

“We need a radical shift in the balance of power between the platforms and the people. The age of inadequate self regulation must come to an end. The rights of the citizen need to be established in statute, by requiring the tech companies to adhere to a code of conduct written into law by Parliament, and overseen by an independent regulator.

To be clear about how the technology giants derail criticism and accountability, they tie up their critics in litigation which their targets cannot afford. Cadwalladr is now being sued by Arron Banks for her statements in her TED Talk above. Banks is a funder of Nigel Farage’s Leave.EU campaign. Here she details how Banks is not only suing her, but has run a grotesque smear campaign personally attacking her. She also shares how is fighting back.