John, Facebook just stooped to a new low. Billionaire CEO Mark Zuckerberg just announced he’s ending all professional fact-checking on the site – paving the way for dangerous election lies and hatred to spread unchecked.
Believe it or not, instead they’ve decided to follow in Elon Musk’s footsteps – copying the same “community notes” setup that did little to stop Twitter from becoming a hotbed of election disinformation under his watch. [1]
Let’s be clear, John: this is a blatant, profit-driven attempt to pander to Donald Trump.
Remember, Trump threatened Zuckerberg with jail time – and now, he’s crowing that his threats worked! [2] After all, not only is Zuckerberg letting him get his way on disinfo – he’s also donating one million dollars to his inauguration and setting off a conservative overhaul of the company’s lobbying shop.
Our democracy pays the price when social media oligarchs cave to the far-right – like when Elon Musk purchased Twitter, renamed it X, and let false or misleading election posts to rack up over 2 billion views last year. [3]
When these huge companies fail, Common Cause must step up to fill the gap.
That’s why in 2020, we created our Digital Democracy Activist Program that has grown to 12,173 volunteers who have helped us find, flag, and report pieces of disinformation.
I’ll be honest – trawling through the worst the Internet has to offer is difficult work, and I’m endlessly thankful for the dedicated volunteers who’ve stepped up to do it.
But when more than half of Americans rely on social media for news, it’s ground we simply can’t afford to cede to far-right disinformation peddlers. [4]
That’s why, in response to Facebook’s shameful dereliction of its civic duty, I'm asking for your help to dramatically scale up our Digital Democracy Activist Program and ensure these crucial guardrails of truth and accountability on social media remain.
Your support will help us recruit and train even more people to stop dangerous rhetoric and hold back actors accountable - from individuals posting disinformation to billionaires putting their bottom line above our democracy.
Will you chip in to help shore up our resources to expand our Digital Democracy volunteer program? It costs us $25 to prepare one additional volunteer to serve – but any amount you can spare will make a major difference >>
Thanks for your support,
Raelyn Roberson, Media and Democracy Campaigner
and the team at Common Cause
P.S. If you’re interested in becoming a Digital Democracy Activist, click here >>
[1] https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/meta-ends-fact-checking-program-community-notes-x-rcna186468
[2] https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-says-mark-zuckerberg-probably-183657744.html
[3] https://www.reuters.com/world/us/wrong-claims-by-musk-us-election-got-2-billion-views-x-2024-report-says-2024-11-04/
[4] https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/social-media-and-news-fact-sheet/
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