The platform is optimized for boosting politically conservative voices calling forfascism, separatism, and xenophobia.
Its also these voices that tend to generatethe most clicks.
Too many times, it has chosen the latter.
It’s free, every week, in your inbox.
This was corroborated byfindingsfrom the US Brennan Centre for Justice.
Kimwrotethe troll accounts seemed to discourage certain people from voting, with a focus on swing states.
This was up from 48 in 2018 and 28 in 2017.
The study said Facebook was the platform of choice for this.
The company openlyexemptspoliticians from its fact-checking program and knowingly hosts misleading content from politicians, under its newsworthiness exception.
The Conversation asked Facebook whether Kaplans past political affiliations indicated a potential for conservative bias in his current role.
The question wasnt answered.
Facebooks board also now features amajor Trump donorand vocal supporter, Peter Thiel.
Facebooks chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has himself been accused ofgetting too closetoTrump.
Overall, Facebooks model has shiftedtowards increasing polarization.
Incendiary and misinformation-laden posts tend to generate clicks.
As Zuckerberg himselfnotes, when left unchecked, people on the platform engage disproportionately with such content.
This is despite research indicatingno such bias existson the platform.
Fanning the flames
Facebooksaddictivenews feed rewards us for simply skimming headlines, conditioning us to react viscerally.
Its sharing features have been found topromote falsehoods.
They cantrick usersinto attributing news to their friends, causing them to assign trust to unreliable news sources.
This provides a breeding ground forconspiracies.
Worst of all are Facebooks echo chambers, which convince people that only their own opinions are mainstream.
This encourages hostile us versus them dialogue, which leads to polarization.
This patternsuppresses valuable democratic debateand has been described as anexistential threat to democracy itself.
The project was eventually shelved in 2018.
Facebooks track record isnt good news for those who want to live in a healthy democratic state.
Polarization certainly doesnt lead to effective political discourse.
