Zuckerberg and Peter Thiel having a secret dinner at the White House is part of a pattern. And the pattern is that Facebook is pushing ultra conservative news and conspiracy theories while throttling back the news from mainstream, left, other news orgs:
.@MonikaBauerlein and I wrote about this here: motherjones.com/politics/2019/…
@MonikaBauerlein After Facebook got caught in the Cambridge Analytica scandal it decided to rob news orgs of traffice. That was bad enough, but what's happened since is worse: motherjones.com/politics/2019/… 
@MonikaBauerlein Now, maybe at first this was an accident. But this pattern of driving traffic to right-wing outrage and conspiracy theories has been going on for more than a year.
A year in which Zuck has been courting conservatives—and now Trump and Jared‚ at private dinners.
A year in which Zuck has been courting conservatives—and now Trump and Jared‚ at private dinners.
@MonikaBauerlein No such invitations have been extended to leaders of the mainstream press, or progressive news orgs.
@MonikaBauerlein Meanwhile, a branch of the Daily Caller has been put in charge of Facebook's "fact-checking" process. Yes, that's right, the Daily Caller, founded by white nationalist Fox host Tucker Carlson.
@MonikaBauerlein Now conservatives have always been really good at working the refs at Facebook and the other platforms. They make ridiculous claims about "shadow banning" and get accommodations that help them. Including very key senior hires. motherjones.com/politics/2019/…
@MonikaBauerlein But this has gone beyond that. Going into the 2020 election Facebook will let politicians lie in ads. But WORSE than that, it is elevating conservative opinion and conspiracy theories above everything, especially all serious, actually fact-checked, news.
@MonikaBauerlein What other conclusion can we draw except that Facebook has, whether under Thiel's influence or fears of regulation, is not the neutral platform or even flawed business played by disinformation actors. But a propagator of distinctly conservative disinformation itself. On purpose.
