Fake News on Facebook Helped Fuel a Border Crisis in Europe

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/22/world/europe/belarus-migrants-facebook-fake-news.html

by pbalcer • 5 years ago

8 3 5 years ago

nytimes.com

axiosgunnar2• 5 years ago

Sooner or later, everyone will get fucked over by unregulated social media.

The conservative Pole looking to regulate irregular migration to his country.

The pro-vaccine German that wants his country to reach herd immunity.

The Democrat who believes Russia rigged the election.

The Republican who believes mail-in ballots where falsified.

The BLM supporter who…

etc etc etc

We should break Facebook up, rather than let it become even more entangled (Meta and whatnot)

potench• 5 years ago

I don’t understand how breaking Facebook up solves people posting fake shit to the internet and other people believing it… If you got a text message about the same thing from an unknown contact would you blame Apple since it was sent via iMessage, or ATT since that’s your service provider?

axiosgunnar2• 5 years ago

I believe the big difference is the virality multiplication factor that Facebook provides. Sure, you can send SMS, but you might have 200 contacts at most. And most of them will not forward your message. So you might reach 1000 people max, if your SMS is really hot. On Facebook, viral posts will get displayed to more and more people that press the like button and spreads to many more people, especially people that do not know the originator personally, and thus he has no reputation to lose.

Fake News on Facebook Helped Fuel a Border Crisis in Europe

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