In the last couple of weeks over 200 major advertisers, including Starbucks, Ford, GM, Clorox, Reebok, Adidas, Best Buy, Clif Bar, and Chobani have left Facebook, citing concerns over the social media platform's lack of meaningful action against voter suppression campaigns and hate speech that takes place there.
In a statement, Denny's said: "As America's diner, we offer an inclusive and welcoming environment where all people can enjoy a nice meal and we strongly oppose hate speech of any kind. It is our belief that Facebook has not done enough to address this important issue on its platform and we are calling on Facebook to make positive changes in its process for combatting hate speech and disinformation."
On Friday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced new policies he claimed would "crack down on voter suppression and fight hate speech." But according to Popular Information, critics said the policy was toothless and would do little to stop voter suppression and hate speech.
So now Facebook has enlisted the help of Nick Clegg, vice president for global affairs and communications (and former Deputy Prime Minister of the UK) to educate the media that Facebook is just a "mirror to society."
On CNN, host Brian Stelter asked Clegg what Facebook was doing to combat divisive speech on its platform. Clegg's response was there was nothing Facebook could do because the divisive content was merely a reflection of broader societal trends.
"Yes, and I'm afraid that in a highly polarized time in U.S. society, particularly in the run-up to this highly consequential election in November where, you know, people are shouting at each other from right and left, and where, of course, in some sense, Facebook is a mirror to society. We're a private company but we run the platform on which America democracy plays itself out in all of its — in all of its sort of glory and ugliness."
As Popular Information reported last week, this is not true. Facebook is allowing sites that specialize in divisive content, like Mad World News and The Daily Wire, to manipulate Facebook's algorithm through undisclosed financial partnerships.
Ten or more times each day, a network of five large Facebook pages controlled by Mad World News publishes the same link to The Daily Wire. Although this appears to violate Facebook's prohibition on undisclosed sponsored content and coordinated inauthentic behavior, Facebook has refused to take action. This has made The Daily Wire — a cesspool of misogyny, bigotry, and misinformation — to outperform every other major publisher on Facebook.
