WaPo vs. Musk: The War of Censorship

     The balance between social media companies' status as publisher or platform has led to quite the controversy over misinformation policies. CEO of X, Elon Musk, as well as Susan Wojcicki of YouTube have begun rolling back misinformation policies ahead of the 2024 election. Wojcicki's motivations haven't been explicitly stated, whereas Musk cites X's status as a platform as reason enough to be very selective with censorship. Although their philosophies differ, the obvious motivator seems to be the controversy surrounding Facebook Mark Zuckerberg, who, at the request of American Intelligence Agencies, censored posts regarding both COVID-19 and the 2020 election. 

    According to an article by Naomi Nix and Sarah Ellison published in The Washington Post, the moves made by X and YouTube are best characterized as a surrender to disinformation. For them, the policies formerly in place contributed heavily to putting down "conspiracy theories," and were instrumental in Biden's victory in the 2020 election. They point to a degradation in values that was captained by Musk when he purchased X, and express fear over how the new wave of disinformation could impact the 2024 election. I will link to the article below, so that you can read further into their analysis of the situation.

The article raises a pertinent question; is disinformation a serious problem? If so, how should it be handled? Are you comfortable with assigning a corporate officer to the position of "arbiter of truth?"  

Following Musk’s lead, Youtube and Facebook are giving up on policing conspiracies - The Washington Post

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Lesson from Trump: Vivek's Masterclass in Provocation

Following this weeks GOP debate, the main headline(s) are all surrounding Vivek Ramaswamy. During the debate, Vivek engaged a number of people with fiery, passionate, and semi-slanderous rhetoric. So, what has caused this shift in Vivek's demeanor? It is quite clear that Vivek is drawing lessons between Trump's 2016 campaign and his own presidential bid. Vivek, much like Trump was, is running in a weak field. DeSantis is nearly lifeless on stage, Tim Scott is a statue, Pence has left the chat, and Nikki Haley is easily his closest rival, despite poor polling. So, just as Trump did with Rand Paul, then Jeb Bush, then Ted Cruz, Vivek spent most of his night antagonizing his rival, Nikki Haley, as well as the moderators themselves. According to a Huffington Post piece by Ben Blanchet, "during a debate on banning TikTok amid data security concerns, the host confronted Ramaswamy, who questioned why Haley’s daughter would use the social media platform despite the former U.N. amb...
Read more

Taylor Swift the Tiebreaker?

Given the midterms this week, I decided to bring you all a more lighthearted post, albeit a post that is still relevant to the upcoming election. In a video report posted to CBS's website, Eugene Scott, senior politics reporter at Axios, weighs in on the potential for pop-megastar Taylor Swift to influence voter turnout. This comes after the popstar, who is in the Era of her highest stardom, urged new voters to be Fearless at the polls. Following this, 35,000 new voters registered on National Voter Registration Day. According to Scott, Taylor's use of Instagram to promote participation in electoral processes is still a new, but increasingly common phenomenon. This type of engagement with the youth is no surprise coming from Taylor Swift, however, as she talked extensively about voter turnout after the Red wave in the 2016 election. Scott emphasizes the future importance of social media as Gen Z moves into being the majority of the voter block. I will leave you all with this: ge...
Read more

Changing Tides

 Some updated polling numbers show Trump leading Biden in key battleground states. "The polls were conducted by the New York Times and Siena College. Trump, leading the field for his party's 2024 nomination as he seeks to regain the presidency, leads in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania, with Biden ahead in Wisconsin, the polls showed. Biden defeated Trump in all six states in the 2020 election. Trump now leads by an average of 48% to 44% in the six states, the polls showed." I should note that we are exactly 1 year out from election day, so these numbers could change by then, but I'd like to also point out how impressive this is for Trump. He has not yet seen the debate stage, yet he has remained at the forefront of media talks surrounding the election. The media's portrayal of Trump as this sort of Darth Vader-esque figure which has tremendous and dangerous power over the political landscape has accidentally helped him forge this cult-like foll...
Read more