Spectator: Facebook is right. Twitter is wrong
Fact-checking widespread information on social media should be the job of journalists — but journalists have lost interest in factsThat raised all sorts of hell from a bombastic President, as well as more questions than answers.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey opened up a Pandora’s box two days ago by dropping a fact-check on a tweet by Donald Trump regarding mail-in ballots.
There are several problems with Twitter deciding to put its thumb on the scale of ‘truth’ on its social platform. The site has previously come under enormous scrutiny over widely perceived political and ideological bias. The charges against the company include its unfair and unbalanced actions in banning conservative or politically right-leaning accounts, as well as shadow-banning and limiting views and engagements on trending topics which it deems problematic. The extent of these actions is unknown, as Twitter does not share discipline or corporate information regarding personal accounts, but none of that matters. Twitter now sits right in the sights of legislative tech-happy politicians such as Sen. Josh Hawley, Sen. Ted Cruz and of course the President himself. And Twitter’s new selective fact-checking system has only further infuriated the company’s critics.
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WNU Editor: Could not have said it any better.
Twitter said early Friday that a tweet from President Trump implying that protesters in Minneapolis could be shot violated the company’s rules against glorifying violence, in a move that threatens to escalate tensions between Mr. Trump and his favorite social media megaphone over its content policies.
ReplyDeleteThe company prevented users from viewing Mr. Trump’s message without first reading a brief notice describing the rule violation. Twitter also blocked users from liking or replying to Mr. Trump’s post.
But Twitter did not take the tweet down, saying it was in the public’s interest that the message remain accessible.