How are Zuckerberg, Trump and Kavanaugh connected?
Facebook considering whether to allow Trump to return – CNN
Sometimes it is hard to trace the personal relationships that might influence a decision. That’s where a network map comes in handy. Check this network map for some of the connections between Facebook, Republicans and the Supreme Court.
True or false? (Answers below).
- Joel Kaplan participated in the Brooks Brothers riot during the 2000 Florida presidential election dispute?
- Facebook’s Head of Editorial Video Strategy was formerly at FOX News?
- Kaplan and Kavanaugh both worked for the Bush Administration?
- Kaplan questioned whether the Facebook algorithm disproportionately hurt conservative publishers and pushed for Facebook to change the algorithm?
- 2017 GOP tax bill estimated to save Facebook $8.3 billion in just one year?
- “Facebook has constrained its efforts against false and misleading news, adopted a policy allowing politicians to lie, and altered its algorithm to neutralize claims that it was biased against conservative publishers”?
Trace Zuck’s connections
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Banned for deadly Jan 6th riot
“Facebook’s parent company Meta is considering whether to allow former President Donald Trump back on to its platforms… Trump was banned from Meta’s platforms Facebook and Instagram after the attack on the US Capitol in January 2021. Initially, the ban was indefinite, but that was later revised, and the company said it would consider allowing Trump back on the platforms after two years. Those two years elapse on Saturday, January 7, 2023.” – CNN
Joel Kaplan
“A former clerk for conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, he served as a White House deputy chief of staff under President George W. Bush after participating in the Brooks Brothers riot during the 2000 Florida presidential election dispute.” – BuzzFeed News
“Facebook hired Kaplan as its vice president of U.S. public policy in 2011, as part of a Facebook’s effort to “strengthen” the company’s ties to Republican lawmakers. – Wikipedia
- Kaplan advocated against restrictions on racially incendiary speech. He played an important role in crafting an exception for newsworthy political discourse when deciding on whether content violated the community guidelines.
- During the 2016 election, Kaplan advocated against closing down Facebook groups which allegedly peddled fake news. Kaplan argued that getting rid of the groups would have disproportionately targeted conservatives.
- During and after the 2016 US presidential election, Kaplan argued against Facebook publicly disclosing the extent of Russian influence operations on the platform.
- In 2017, after Facebook had implemented changes to its algorithm to expose users to more content by family and friends and less by publishers who were determined by Facebook to engage in misinformation, Kaplan questioned whether the algorithm disproportionately hurt conservative publishers and successfully advocated for Facebook to change the algorithm again.
- He pushed against a proposed Facebook project that was intended to make Facebook users of different political views engage with each other in less hostile ways. Kaplan argued that this feature would lead conservatives to accuse Facebook of bias. Kaplan also reportedly advocated on behalf of Breitbart News and the Daily Caller within Facebook. Kaplan has helped to place conservatives in key positions in the leadership of Facebook.
Facebook appeases right wing extremists
Zuckerberg once wanted to sanction Trump. Then Facebook wrote rules that accommodated him. Starting as early as 2015, Facebook executives started crafting exceptions for the then-candidate that transformed the world’s information battlefield for years to come. – Washington Post
Facebook Remains a Threat to Democracy
Resisting a push for regulation and protective of right-wing extremism, the social media giant is making fake concessions that only increase its power.
Alex Jones and his program Infowars fomented hate against Muslims and trans people. These posts were flagged by Facebook’s own internal integrity analysts tasked with monitoring hate speech. “Zuckerberg didn’t consider the Infowars founder to be a hate figure, according to a person familiar with the decision, so he overruled his own internal experts and opened a gaping loophole: Facebook would permanently ban Jones and his company—but would not touch posts of praise and support for them from other Facebook users. This meant that Jones’ legions of followers could continue to share his lies across the world’s largest social network.” – The Nation
Campbell Brown has deep Republican connections. Her husband, Dan Senor, has advised House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis), and worked for the Bush administration during the Iraq invasion. Brown has described herself as a friend of billionaire Betsy DeVos, Trump’s pick for education secretary, and DeVos’ family foundation helped fund an education news site co-founded by Brown. Brown also sits on the board of an organization DeVos chaired until recently.” – HuffPost
TakeAway: Hold Facebook accountable for the harm it causes in search of profits.
Deepak
DemLabs
Answers: All TRUE
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