So much to unpack here, (a thread): 1/ Facebook is being used by our current President to undermine trust in the electoral process, and they continue to allow it to happen, unchecked. And their own employees are speaking up about the real dangers to our democracy. Bravo to them.
2/ Election results could take weeks, so we are in for a very dangerous period after Nov 3. How will FB react if Trump+his allies claim the results are rigged or lie about the results? If they refuse to fact check him now, why should we believe they will react differently then?
3/ "a senior engineer collected internal evidence that showed FB was giving preferential treatment to prominent conservative accounts to help them remove fact-checks... (FB) responded by removing his post... the engineer was fired." If true, this is extremely disturbing.
4/ This policy of not fact checking politicians, & these examples of not enforcing existing policies (including on voter suppression) against Trump are what spurred me to publish my 2 OpEds about my time working on elections integrity at Facebook. This behavior tilts the scales.
5/Yes, Facebook's in a difficult spot between appeasing the party in power who could regulate them & preventing the platform from being manipulated to undermine our election. Demonstrates the dangers of ceding decision-making about our democracy to them, with no accountability.
