REPORTS SAY FACEBOOK HELPED RUSSIANS TARGET BLACK VOTERS
The NAACP does not mess around. Nor should they. But it’s pretty big news that it is calling for a boycott of Facebook. But why would they do that? Because two reports from this week make it clear that Facebook allowed massive, pervasive Russian trolling of black communities in the US in the 2016 election. The more time goes by, the more we learn that Facebook is bad for American democracy. It’s bad for all its users. But that’s not the only reason the NAACP is unhappy with Facebook. Facebook screwing people is not new. It may even be their business model. Screw everyone. Make money. And lie.
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NAACP CALLS FOR BOYCOTT OF FACEBOOK WITH LATEST NEWS, PAST TRANSGRESSIONS
The NAACP is also unhappy with Facebook’s numerous problems protecting user data. But especially with advertising. There’s also that former Facebook manager, Mark S. Luckie, sent out a long memo recently. It explained how Facebook has both excluded and discriminated against its black employees and black users. It’s starting to look like Facebook in its current form is not long for the world. It the NAACP’s boycott call to action, it said, “Facebook’s engagement with partisan firms, its targeting of political opponents, the spread of misinformation and the utilization of Facebook for propaganda promoting disingenuous portrayals of the African American community is reprehensible.” It’s hard to argue with that. It’s all true. It’s even normal these days.
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BLACK TROLLING ON FACEBOOK WAS COMPLEX, EXTREMELY TARGETED
Thanks to researchers, we now know some damning details. Russians specifically targeted African Americans in the 2016 election. Their goal was to suppress votes for Hillary Clinton. The cybersecurity firm New Knowledge authored one of this week’s reports. They found that the Russian Internet research Agency designed a broad media ecosystem. And it targeted African Americans. It combined poisonous propaganda with real black media and businesses. Ugly examples include posts saying Clinton took 20 grand donations from the KKK. It also incorporated images from Black Lives Matter. Those and memes of police brutality turned off black voters. Enough voters to help Trump. But that also means helping Russia.
FACEBOOK NO GOOD FOR DEMOCRACY, RACE RELATIONS
Facebook has some poor race relation issues. So the NAACP thinks Facebook While Black is dangerous. It may be true for every color. So what do we do? When is enough enough? It’s worth thinking about. When do we give up on Facebook? They make money dividing people. But we now know they know what they are doing. Lying to voters is un-American. It wasn’t toxic when it started. But it is clearly toxic now. And Zuckerburg is at the heart of it. All Facebook does is delay with wordy BS. But we keep learning it lies every time. So what do we do? Maybe Congress will do something. Next year? Do we boycott Facebook first? Do we wait for worse news?
These are all hard questions. Facebook is a part of everyone’s life. There is another election on its way. And it’s another important one. They all are. So we don’t need more trolls. And we don’t need more voter trolling. So bye-bye Facebook. It’s time. Because the world is a better place without Facebook. We need uniters. Facebook is part of the problem.
