Haidee LeClair’s Post

This is great news! One of the biggest issues with social media is how censorship has created more problems than it has solved. In our research the CulturePulse team uncovered that the approach of Meta in the past was hurting society more than helping it (link in comments). While Reddit, Inc. has a natural system for fighting disinformation and extremism, for Facebook to implement a "hot algorithm" ranking system at community levels would not be feasible for Meta. The approach of X, which many of the features were first trialed at Minds years ago, is best for more ego network based social networks. VERY happy to see the good news!!! #positivechange #socialnetworks #ai #mediaanalytics #media #socialmedia #socialissues

The government forced Meta to censor TRUE information. Here's what really happened behind closed doors: In 2020, Meta faced unprecedented pressure from the Biden administration. Their employees received threatening calls from government officials, demanding content removal. These weren't polite requests. Officials would scream and curse during discussions about moderation. They wanted Meta to remove factual information about vaccine side effects. They even demanded the deletion of memes and satire - including a Leonardo DiCaprio joke about future vaccine lawsuits. When Meta refused to comply, Biden publicly claimed that they were "killing people." Multiple government agencies launched investigations into the company. The pressure campaign exposed a darker truth: This wasn't just about COVID information. It was about control. Meta tried finding middle ground by implementing fact-checkers. But this created an unexpected problem: Fact-checkers began policing legitimate debate beyond clear hoaxes. Trust plummeted. That's when Zuckerberg had a realization: The solution wasn't more censorship or letting governments dictate truth. It was empowering users themselves. This led to Meta's biggest moderation shift: They're now replacing fact-checkers with community notes - similar to X's system. Despite criticism, this approach has proven more effective: • Adds context instead of censoring • Creates trust through consensus • Lets users provide perspective Zuckerberg's stance is now crystal clear: "We're not going to take down things that are true. That's ridiculous." But this battle isn't over. As AI advances and social media evolves, governments will try new tactics to control narratives. This matters because: • It sets precedent for government control over private companies • It determines who controls what information you can access • It shapes the future of free speech online The next chapter of this story is being written now. - A bit about me: I built tech powered by voice before Alexa existed. Now I help founders spot AI opportunities others miss. Follow me, Heath Ahrens for frameworks & future tech predictions to stay 5 steps ahead.

In two weeks, Meta plans to shut down its leading transparency tool called CrowdTangle. Independent researchers and journalists around the world have used CrowdTangle for critical research and reporting into what is happening on Facebook and Instagram, including: tracking COVID-19 disinformation, exposing Russia-linked influence operations in Africa, and analysing protests for racial justice. In the middle of the biggest election year ever, CrowdTangle remains an essential tool for keeping the public informed about what's happening online. Today, the Coalition for Independent Tech Research released a report highlighting the impacts that Meta's decision will have. Independent researchers and journalists believe the shutdown will obstruct their work, and that Meta's proposed replacement tool lacks crucial functionalities that allow researchers to identify threats (not to mention that for-profit newsrooms are categorically banned from accessing it). This work adds to the growing calls from hundreds of researchers and civil society organisations, as well as an ongoing inquiry by the European Commission and a bipartisan letter from U.S. members of Congress all highlighting concerns with Meta's plan. Read the report here: https://lnkd.in/dQzH7am8

As independent researchers, human rights defenders and press freedom advocates, we support solutions that can help build safer online environnements and support democratic processes. CrowdTangle is crucial to detect online attacks and information operations ahead of elections. Shutting down CrowdTangle, Meta is doing the exact opposite of what new regulations such as the #DSA recquire. We need these tools to support people.

When the product is free you are the product. And if we consider that Meta will allow AI generated accounts we will see a spiraling path to content that is primarily focused on increasing engagement ( at whatever cost to society and humans). I’m all for free speech, however when algorithms primary objective is to increase engagement then I worry that social networks become the foundation for division. We know (facts confirmed by intel community and companies like Microsoft) that AI generated accounts have fueled engagement and that actors like Russia - China - Iran have used to impact our country (US). We also know that this has also happened in places like Brazil and the well documented situation in Myanmar.

USA Today sheds light on Meta's recent update where AI-generated comment summaries are enabled by default in your Facebook settings: https://lnkd.in/gwfdepCR #Ticktocktech #FacebookPrivacy #MetaSettings #CommentSummaries #USAToday #NewsfeedTweaks #ControlYourFeed

The amount of information available to us today is enormous. We are bombarded with news and information across social platforms like never before but how do we know what is real and what is not? Meta’s announcement to stop fact checking will be interesting. We already see fake news spread fast on social platforms… will this explode that? Where do we turn to “trust” the information we see? Social Media has always been a minefield - does this provide the Media and News organisations an opportunity to re-enforce their trustworthiness? With AI and algorithms deciding more and more what we see and consume how do we know what is real or fake? Certainly an interesting conversation.

I normally don't get political but this is a step too far. Mark Zuckerberg has just announced the most brazen U-turn as he bends the knee to Trump. Meta will get rid of independent fact checkers and push more personalised (i.e. biased) and unchecked political content to our feed 😨 Meta will also work with the new US Administration to push back on countries that want to reduce the amount of fake news, scams and violence on their citizens' social media feeds. He singles out Europe and Latin America for daring to regulate the least regulated industry on the planet. If you factor in generative AI's ability to produce deepfakes and bot armies that amplify misinformation, you have the perfect recipe for disaster. So here's the TLDR: ☠️ Social media companies have already polarised and radicalised our societies ☠️ They will now be used even more heavily as propaganda tools to sow lies and division ☠️ The next US administration does not want allies, only subordinates, and they'll use social media platforms for their political goals both internally and externally Europe and the UK must fight back by: ✅️ making platforms responsible for the content they publish ✅️ compelling platforms to open their content recommendation algorithms to public scrutiny ✅️ strictly enforcing art 9 GDPR (remember Cambridge Analytica?) ✅️ supporting quality journalism and protecting open web publishers from AI's content theft. Our democracy, security and sanity depend on it 👊

"Good to see that generative AI had less impact on election-related misinformation than initially feared, with Meta reporting it made up less than 1%. This underscores the importance of staying proactive in managing AI’s role in elections, while also recognizing its potential to help combat disinformation."

At the start of the year, there were widespread concerns about how generative AI could be used to interfere in global elections to spread propaganda and disinformation. Fast-forward to the end of the year, Meta claims those fears did not play out, at least on its platforms, as it shared that the technology had limited impact across Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. Read more from Aisha Malik on Meta claiming AI content made up less than 1% of election-related misinformation on its apps here: https://tcrn.ch/3ZAMqs4 #TechCrunch #technews #artificialintelligence #Meta #MarkZuckerberg #GenAI