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by root_axis
2012 days ago
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In the same way that it's Facebook's prerogative to spread misinformation on their website, it's the user's prerogative to understand that they shouldn't trust what they read on Facebook. There is no way to stop the spread of misinformation on social media, attempting to curtail it to some degree is a PR business prerogative not an actual solution to the problem. Ultimately this is a cultural issue, we need to train the next generation to understand that anything read on social media should be implicitly distrusted; citing something you read on social media should be regarded as the intellectual equivalent of citing something you saw in a movie once. Yes, true things can be depicted in a movie, but nobody believes the movie is an acceptable source for itself, if a film claims to depict true events, it is expected that reliable sources will not contradict the film. |
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The asymmetry between Facebook users and Facebook users is enormous. One has the power to spend vast sums on advertising to attract new users, maintain a clean brand image with PR, monitor non-users' actions across the internet and beyond and algorithmically manipulate the emotions and beliefs of its users, etc.
What power do you or I have to justify splitting the moral responsibility with them 50/50? More education is always a good thing, but it's too late to tell 1.62 billion daily active users (Q3 2019) "You should know better". Facebook has become too good at what it does.
I don't know what the answer is. But whatever it is, letting Facebook carry on doing what it does and expecting society to change around it isn't going to work.