Facebook Accepting Political Propaganda
By James Donahue
Like millions of Internet surfers from all over the world, the social media outlet Facebook has become a fun place to visit. The site created by Mark Zuckerberg and his college friends in 2003 has since drawn a membership of nearly 200 million users who use the site to visit friends, relatives and neighbors, sell personal items, join interest groups and swap hot news items. It’s a fun place to visit and many of us find ourselves returning more than once a day.
That business of posting current news links might sound innocent enough. In fact the Pew Research Center found that 55 percent of Americans now get their news from social media, and most of these from Facebook.
This writer, a lifetime news hawk, likes to find hot news tips as well as anybody else . . . perhaps even more than most folks. But in recent months we have been concerned about a rash of slanted alleged “news” reports that twist the facts. Most of these “fake news” stories attack leading Democratic presidential candidates, attack key Democratic Party campaign issues for green energy, democratic socialism, the threat of “illegal aliens” crossing our borders and insane public statements by Donald Trump and the men around him. Other reports level severe attacks against President Donald Trump and his gang now operating in Washington. What to believe?
A few of us who recognize the false news onslaught and who attempt to file corrections find ourselves under severe personal attack for daring to do so. What is especially troublesome is that Facebook obviously has a team of people reading the daily posts and erasing certain controversial material. It has been common to read complaints from users tossed “in Facebook jail” for a certain number of days for posting offensive material. But after seeing what Facebook critics are allowing it seems difficult to imagine how bad the material was that got erased.
A recent article in Daily Kos noted that “platforms like Facebook have influence over our politics as more and more people use social media as their main source for news.” It stands to reason then that the Trump Administration has found interesting ways to control many of the “news” stories posted daily on Facebook.
My first thoughts when finding these raw political attacks were that they were representing a small minority of the people who got caught up in the conflicting political movement, were accepting what they read as the gospel truth and don’t know any better. But after reading the Daily Kos report I am concluding that this is a much more severe problem that anyone seems to realize.
Mr. Trump has shown himself to be an illiterate slob. But the shadow government surrounding him is well financed and very dangerous. It is obviously using social mediums like Facebook to political advantage.
My advice: Enjoy Facebook and read the news reports with a jaundiced eye. If the story looks suspicious, check the source. It is getting harder and harder to pull honest news reports from legitimate publications without having to pay for them. But getting the truth may be worth the money.
By James Donahue
Like millions of Internet surfers from all over the world, the social media outlet Facebook has become a fun place to visit. The site created by Mark Zuckerberg and his college friends in 2003 has since drawn a membership of nearly 200 million users who use the site to visit friends, relatives and neighbors, sell personal items, join interest groups and swap hot news items. It’s a fun place to visit and many of us find ourselves returning more than once a day.
That business of posting current news links might sound innocent enough. In fact the Pew Research Center found that 55 percent of Americans now get their news from social media, and most of these from Facebook.
This writer, a lifetime news hawk, likes to find hot news tips as well as anybody else . . . perhaps even more than most folks. But in recent months we have been concerned about a rash of slanted alleged “news” reports that twist the facts. Most of these “fake news” stories attack leading Democratic presidential candidates, attack key Democratic Party campaign issues for green energy, democratic socialism, the threat of “illegal aliens” crossing our borders and insane public statements by Donald Trump and the men around him. Other reports level severe attacks against President Donald Trump and his gang now operating in Washington. What to believe?
A few of us who recognize the false news onslaught and who attempt to file corrections find ourselves under severe personal attack for daring to do so. What is especially troublesome is that Facebook obviously has a team of people reading the daily posts and erasing certain controversial material. It has been common to read complaints from users tossed “in Facebook jail” for a certain number of days for posting offensive material. But after seeing what Facebook critics are allowing it seems difficult to imagine how bad the material was that got erased.
A recent article in Daily Kos noted that “platforms like Facebook have influence over our politics as more and more people use social media as their main source for news.” It stands to reason then that the Trump Administration has found interesting ways to control many of the “news” stories posted daily on Facebook.
My first thoughts when finding these raw political attacks were that they were representing a small minority of the people who got caught up in the conflicting political movement, were accepting what they read as the gospel truth and don’t know any better. But after reading the Daily Kos report I am concluding that this is a much more severe problem that anyone seems to realize.
Mr. Trump has shown himself to be an illiterate slob. But the shadow government surrounding him is well financed and very dangerous. It is obviously using social mediums like Facebook to political advantage.
My advice: Enjoy Facebook and read the news reports with a jaundiced eye. If the story looks suspicious, check the source. It is getting harder and harder to pull honest news reports from legitimate publications without having to pay for them. But getting the truth may be worth the money.