Social Media Manipulation
WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 5: Former Facebook employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen testifies during a Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing entitled 'Protecting Kids Online: Testimony from a Facebook Whistleblower' on Capitol Hill, October 05, 2021 in Washington, DC.
Former Facebook employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen appeared before Congress to confirm what some users of Facebook, including myself, have begun to realize about the service. The social media giant is destroying the morality of the United States and pitting ideological zealots against each other through the promotion of misinformation. The algorithms that promote newsfeed posts to users serve to enforce their own biases and promote widespread misinformation.
Facebook publicly denies these allegations. Policies that they employ, including fact-checking, only help to strengthen and further promote the falsehoods they purport to check. Adding a fact check to a false post of a conspiracy theorist, in their mind, supports its validity. And the incorrect information will spread further and faster. It is human nature if you tell someone not to look at or read something controversial that most people will look at it or read it.
These policies have contributed to the organization of real-world violence. This violence includes the out-of-control BLM protests in the Summer of 2020, the Capital Riot of January 6, 2021, and other numerous cases of civil unrest that continue to spread around our country.
For example, some ideologues believe that gender is something that is fluid or can change. They promote the false ideas that trans women are real women or that trans men are real men. This belief goes against science and accepted historical understandings of gender. No matter how much medical manipulation or outward disguise, a biological male can never become a biological woman. But these ideologues will see articles or posts on Facebook that confirm these beliefs. They will read news stories on Facebook of trans people being disrespected or marginalized. They will begin to develop a hatred toward those who do not share in their belief. And so when comedian Dave Chappelle disagrees with those beliefs in a comedy routine, we see calls for boycott, canceling, and punishing not only from the ideologues but those they have now bullied and scared. And so, this once marginal false belief enters the mainstream and starts to gain wide acceptance. To be fair, the algorithms of social media sites Twitter and Youtube contribute equally to these problems.
Another fringe belief that has spread because of the social media algorithms started on the deep dark corners of the internet. This belief is the QAnon idea that a conspiracy of Satanic politicians, celebrities, and millionaires operate a cannibalistic pedophile global child sex trafficking ring. This idea not only sounds ridiculous but there is absolutely no evidence that supports it. The believers in this false belief also have confirmed their suspicions in the posts social media presents them. They are rarely, if ever, shown information that challenges these beliefs. This has had the unfortunate effect of Q followers behaving like a new religious movement. Followers have committed murder, attacked the US capital, and engaged in targeted harassment.
These are only two examples of many bad and outright false ideas knowingly allowed to spread on social media. The claim from Frances Haugen is that this allowed Facebook to increase its growth and profits.
Where do these lies originate?
“You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it” (John 8:44).
Satan, the devil, is the father of lies, and He has deceived the whole world (Revelation 12:9). Belief in lies has real consequences, and it is starting to degrade our society. There are growing factions of people in our country who show hate for others based solely on lies. Some have suggested that this could lead to another civil war. A recent survey found that 46 percent of Americans believe that a civil war is likely to happen. Lies about racial inequality, election legitimacy, abortion, Covid-19, etc., can lead to more conflicts among Americans.
Christians have been called to follow the truth presented by our Savior, Jesus (John 14:6). That truth preserved in the Bible is contrary to what most of the world believes. We cannot allow ourselves to be manipulated by social media. Our Kingdom is still not of this world.
“Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.”
Sources:
https://www.pennlive.com/crime/2021/09/2-more-central-pa-men-charged-in-us-capitol-riot-posted-videos-of-their-actions-on-facebook-feds-claim.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/10/08/facebook-whistleblowers-public-integrity-haugen/
https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2021/10/06/nolte-dave-chappelle-blisters-fascist-gay-power-in-netflixs-the-closer/
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2021/09/16/is-the-us-headed-for-another-civil-war/
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/facebook-outage-why-worlds-largest-social-network-was-down-for-6-hours-140206622.html