Thread by @annia

The Facebook Papers consortium does not contain a single non-Western news outlet. Not one.

https://twitter.com/Kantrowitz/status/1453015957354524678

I'm trying to imagine the giant disinformation fatbergs lurking on Facebook in Brazil, Saudia Arabia, the Philippines, Mexico, Russia, & whew I could go on & on.

Rappler & Novaya Gazeta just won a Nobel for this kind of reporting. At least include /them/? If not all of us?

Here's one reason why this matters:

Facebook has been pouring millions of dollars—up to a billion, according to this—into local & international journalism: thewrap.com/campbell-brown…

Facebook sponsors global journalism by directing millions of dollars in grants through most of the big journalism funders—like the International Center for Journalists, the Institute for Nonprofit News, the Global Investigative Journalism Network, & more:

facebook.com/journalismproj…

For example, Facebook gave $5 million for local reporting to the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, the largest single source of money for global enterprise reporting: pulitzercenter.org/blog/pulitzer-…

It's important to note that a lot of this stuff is really good. The Pulitzer stories make a strong case for this kind of funding: pulitzercenter.org/blog/pulitzer-…

But the idea of Facebook funding journalism is deeply troubling.

Can shoestring local outlets, to whom Facebook's largesse is a lifeline, hold Facebook accountable?

Are the global funding orgs that are getting millions from Facebook going to sponsor any big projects funding local news outlets to dig into disinformation in their countries?

Are news outlets in the global south able to go after Facebook for spreading disinformation in their countries—when Facebook is a major funder?

Or when they're hoping it will be, at least indirectly, because they're applying for grants through one of these international orgs?

Rappler's experience with Facebook is instructive: they were actually working directly with Facebook. But when Maria Ressa identified one of the Facebook disinfo hives operating in the Philippines, it still took Facebook 13 MONTHS to take it down: time.com/5505458/facebo…

I don't think Rappler was getting funding from Facebook—correct me if wrong—but they were working with Facebook on fact-checking. Essentially, as Ressa lays out here, because YOU HAVE TO.

If you're an independent news org, you HAVE TO work with the big tech platforms.

If you don't, you will be shut out. You will reach nobody. Exactly nobody will read your stories, no matter how enterprising or well-reported.

And they will restrict your access in ways that they won't if you play ball.

For example: independent journos can't get blue checks—

unless we sign up with one of the big fact-checking orgs that Twitter & Facebook has endorsed. Even then, it's difficult-to-impossible for independent media—i.e., not affiliated to a big media corp or nonprofit—to get verified.

Here's why that matters:

If you're not verified, they restrict how many people you can follow. This, obviously, restricts your reporting.

This is just one example. I can think of countless others, but I won't bore you.

My point here: Big Social, especially Facebook, controls a lot more than you think.

Facebook controls what stories you see & what stories you don't—not just on Facebook, but, increasingly, in other media outlets as well.

Facebook-funded stories end up in the New York Times, Washington Post, & countless media outlets across the globe.

If we don't act on this...

we are in serious danger of letting Facebook game our entire news ecosphere the way it games our Facebook news feeds.

That's especially true in countries like Lebanon, where very few media outlets are truly independent of government or political party or outside state funding.

Where WhatsApp is a lifeline, because cell phone prices are among the highest in the world, & practically everyone has family living abroad.

Where that lifeline is so essential that the government raising prices on it triggered an uprising.

Where there's a dark history of Facebook-linked exploits targeting civil society. Of various actors using Facebook to harass & intimidate & spread disinformation.

That's just one small country. Now imagine that, but all over the world.

For all these reasons & more,

We @ThePublicSource believe it's essential that independent media across the globe—not just in the English-speaking world—be allowed to participate in the Facebook Papers.

Reporters from the global south should get to report on those who have clearly been reporting on them.

Outside reporters, no matter how skilled, will always miss stories that local reporters will be able to see.

That goes double for media ecospheres where a foreign language & familiarity with complicated politics is key.

We need everyone on board for this one. Everyone.

If you've made it this far, thank you—as always!—for reading.

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