Recently, Facebook has proved to be controversial in the decisions it has made, ranging from stealing identities and breaching information. But the most recent controversy has left many of their users unsure of where the true motives of the social media platform lie.
A new storm of controversy over the popular social media outlet has created mass discomfort with the ideals of the company. Facebook allowed the Trump campaign to create and advertisement that stated, “Breaking News: Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook just endorsed Donald Trump for re-election.”
The headline is factually incorrect, but does the allowance of making the false statement ultimately make Facebook’s support of the Trump campaign true?
It seems like the political ideology of Facebook is still up in the air, but what we do know is that Facebook is allowing Trump to pump lies into the public sphere while they lay back and cash the hefty checks that they are paid by the campaign.
“It’s up to you whether you take money to promote lies. You can be in disinformation-for-profit business or you can hold yourself to standard” political candidate Elizabeth Warren said via Twitter.
Her response back to the global platform sparked a chain of fiery responses that doesn’t seem to be cooling down.
One Twitter user describes Facebook’s decision as “a mission to kill democracy” while another simply describes the platform as a “criminal enterprise”.
Facebook’s decision to turn an ignorant cheek has ultimately put their credibility up in flames. People across the world are upset by the lack of care or protection of the media we see and hear each day.
This is because Facebook is allowing the Trump campaign to feed into the same bank of “fake news” which Trump has repeatedly criticized throughout candidacy and presidency. In the long term, it decreases Facebook’s legitimacy and proves they are unable to learn from their past experiences of distrust by the public.
Facebook beat down their reputation yet again when they recently refused to take down another ad for the Trump Campaign. The ad broadcasted accusatory information that the presidential candidate Joe Biden offered Ukraine one billion dollars in order to help his son, Hunter Biden, during the recent Ukraine controversy.
The information in the ad was never actually verified, meaning that it fits into the role of slander in public media. Not only is the information not absolutely true, but it is directed at one person in order to ruin their reputation. And it is possible, if this information had accusingly been pointed at President Trump, he would have dismissed it promptly as “fake news.”
The main problem with this situation is not that the Trump campaign is falsely dismissing candidates in order to gain leverage, it is that Facebook would be willing to serve as their conduit to the public sphere with such information.
Facebook stated that it was not part of company policy to take down the potentially false statements and that politicians truly have free reign on their site when it comes to what they post.
As a public site, it makes sense that anybody should have the ability to post anything on their personal accounts, but it seems that for a post of this professional magnitude, fact-checking should be mandatory.
It is obvious that Facebook is really present only for the money. Their apologetic advertisements on T.V. warm with family imagery and safety have truly been busted. It seems that Facebook could care less about the reliability of what they post online and is truly only a money hungry machine with a lack of empathy.
So as another blemish appears on the surface of Facebook’s history, will the public finally abandon what seems like an endless track of unreliability? People’s feelings about the scandal truly seem to be scattered but it’s obvious that Facebook could care less about what people think of them, as long as the money keeps flowing in.
Article by Lily Salvatore of Walter Johnson High School
Graphic by Claire Yang of Winston Churchill High School