European regulation obliges social networks to make a commitment to truthful information. I hope that in Brussels they are already working to force him to maintain verification controls
This is how the second Trump era begins: the first abysses are created by those who want to ingratiate themselves with him. They are already doing it, look how they place their chair in the sense of the story. Look at Mark Zuckerberg: he has found a business opportunity in dirty play. And he goes with it. Nobody forces him: voluntary servitude is already the most fearsome thing about the northern years that we are going to live through.
These are the facts: after Donald Trump’s first victory in 2016, Facebook was accused of having contributed to it. Zuckerberg apologized publicly and took steps to curb falsehoods and misinformation. It implemented what we call “content moderation.” The Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2018 demonstrated the political power of networks. Zuckerberg continued to apologize and try to improve his network’s verification system. Until today.
Now it has decided to get rid of the verification systems, arguing that they do not work and that they are a form of censorship. First of all, it is false. They work and have discouraged millions of users from reading and spreading false content. Sometimes they fail, yes; but eliminating them is like repealing the penal code because there are still murderers: nonsense. Second, limiting falsehoods is not censorship. Every time Zuckerberg or Elon Musk affirm that freedom of expression consists of allowing the free dissemination of truths and lies equally, an angel dies in Plato’s heaven. It shows how easy it is to convince many people of a fallacy if you have the means.
Zuckerberg has them. Meta, its parent company, has Facebook, Instagram, Threads and Whatsapp, but in recent years its business projects have failed. That virtual world of the metaverse was invented, in which no one wants to be. It has tried to innovate by implementing artificial intelligence in its networks without success. In April he will face accusations of monopoly in the social media market in court, in a case that began four years ago, when he acquired WhatsApp and Instagram. Lately, their only way to grow has been to buy, even with bad practices. He’s not doing well.
When he is alone with his talent at night, Mark Zuckerberg feels afraid: it has been a long time since he has had an innovative idea. Their voluntary servitude is born from fear. He has seen clearly that he must change his business strategy: from now on he will focus on supporting the interests of the president of the United States. And under the protective mantle of political power he hopes to continue making money. It must be recognized that the operation was cheap. If Elon Musk invested more than 275 million dollars in Trump’s campaign, Zuckerberg has only invested one.
The rest of us will pay dearly. Musk’s decision to put Twitter (now X) at the service of lies and misinformation will seem like child’s play to us. If with 586 million active users in the world, Twitter has achieved considerable damage, let’s think about what Zuckerberg can achieve: Facebook has 3 billion active users; Instagram, 2 billion; WhatsApp, another 2,000, (a lot of informational garbage is spread in private chats); Threads is approaching 300 million.
European regulation obliges social networks to make a commitment to truthful information. I hope that in Brussels they are already working to force him to maintain verification controls. The truth is not European or American, it is not left or right, but it is one of the pillars that supports the democratic system. In a delicate balance, the pieces support each other: facts support institutions and institutions reinforce trust. Democracy resists when many people work well so that the facts are the raw material with which decisions are made: journalists, judges, scientists… No matter how much that scaremonger of ‘illiberal democracy’ has been coined, we know that a democracy does not exist. without freedoms (nor without reasons, irrational). In these northern years that we are going to live through, we are going to see a new regime: the ‘fantastic democracy’, the one that ignores reality and that Trump, with his volunteer servants, will inaugurate within ten days.
#fantastic #democracy
