Facebook Finally Admits Allowing Malicious Propaganda And It's Not Their Problem

Whatever Mark Zuckerberg and his team of PR professionals might have said in the past, there’s a clear correlation between Facebook’s lax stance on misinformation and the impact of fake news on society. It would seem that the social media company finally realized that there’s no point in denying this any further, which is why Zuckerberg finally admitted that Facebook is indeed a platform for propaganda. He also notes that it’s not his or his company’s problem.

In a recent report filed by the social network, Facebook basically outlined some of the things that the media and teenaged Russian hackers have known for a long time. Not only can the social media platform be used for spreading propaganda, it’s very effective for doing so.

“In brief, we have had to expand our security focus from traditional abusive behavior, such as account hacking, malware, spam and financial scams, to include more subtle and insidious forms of misuse, including attempts to manipulate civic discourse and deceive people,” the post reads.

Considering just how serious the impact of such behavior has been, with the controversial victory of President Donald Trump being the most significant example, Facebook’s admission to an already well-known fact is practically cavalier. It’s an almost insincere recognition of a fact that affects the lives of so many people, especially given that 66 percent of Americans get their news from Facebook, Gizmodo points out.

While the report touches on some of the new measures that it intends to employ in order to curb propaganda activities, conspicuously absent is the company taking responsibility for when its users voluntarily share fake news. The report also doesn’t mention addressing the issue at its source, with Facebook essentially saying that it’s out of their hands.

On that note, the new measures can at least reduce the chances of any type of propaganda campaign from reaching a much larger stage, The Verge reports. Since Facebook basically acts like a bullhorn, cutting off the speaker makes the message harder to hear.