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DNYUZ<\/p>\n
At a dinner last week in Davos, Switzerland, I was asked if I thought Facebook was behaving more responsibly today than it did during the 2016 presidential election.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot at all,\u201d I answered. \u201cFacebook helped Trump to get elected and I am afraid that it will do the same in 2020.\u201d I explained that there is a longstanding law \u2014 Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act \u2014 that protects social media platforms from legal liability for defamation and similar claims. Facebook can post deliberately misleading or false statements by candidates for public office and others, and take no responsibility for them.<\/p>\n
I went on to say that there appears to be \u201can informal mutual assistance operation or agreement developing between Trump and Facebook\u201d in which Facebook will help President Trump to get re-elected and Mr. Trump will, in turn, defend Facebook against attacks from regulators and the media.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is just plain wrong,\u201d\u00a0a Facebook spokesman told Business Insider<\/a>.<\/p>\n I disagree. I believe that Mr. Trump and Facebook\u2019s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, realize that their interests are aligned \u2014 the president\u2019s in winning elections, Mr. Zuckerberg\u2019s in making money.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s look at the evidence: In 2016, Facebook provided the Trump campaign with embedded staff who helped to optimize its advertising program. (Hillary Clinton\u2019s campaign was also approached, but it declined to embed a Facebook team in her campaign\u2019s operations.) Brad Parscale, the digital director of Mr. Trump\u2019s 2016 campaign and now his campaign manager for 2020,\u00a0said that Facebook helped Mr. Trump<\/a>\u00a0and gave him the edge. This seems to have marked the beginning of a special relationship.<\/p>\n More recently, direct contact between the two men has raised serious questions. Mr. Zuckerberg\u00a0met with Mr. Trump in the Oval Office<\/a>\u00a0on Sept. 19, 2019. We don\u2019t know what was said. But from an interview on the sidelines at the World Economic Forum on Jan. 22, we do know\u00a0what Mr. Trump said<\/a>\u00a0about the meeting: Mr. Zuckerberg \u201ctold me that I\u2019m No. 1 in the world in Facebook.\u201d Mr. Trump apparently had no problem with\u00a0Facebook\u2019s decision not to fact-check political ads<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019d rather have him just do whatever he is going to do,\u201d Mr. Trump said of Mr. Zuckerberg. \u201cHe\u2019s done a hell of a job, when you think of it.\u201d<\/p>\n The president\u2019s 2016 campaign mounted a robust data-centric communications effort and has continued to build on that program over the past few years, using Facebook as a key part of their strategy.<\/p>\n Facebook\u2019s decision not to require fact-checking for political candidates\u2019 advertising in 2020 has flung open the door for false, manipulated, extreme and incendiary statements. Such content is rewarded with prime placement and promotion if it meets Facebook-designed algorithmic standards for popularity and engagement.<\/p>\n What\u2019s more, Facebook\u2019s design tends to obscure the sources of inflammatory and false content, and fails to adequately punish those who spread false information. Nor does the company effectively warn those who are exposed to lies.<\/p>\n I expressed my fear that with Facebook\u2019s help, Mr. Trump will win the 2020 election. The recent\u00a0hiring of a right-wing figure<\/a>\u00a0to help manage its news tab has reinforced those fears. In my comments in Davos, I also pointed out that Facebook has been used to cause worse damage in other countries than the United States. In Myanmar, for example, military personnel used Facebook to help incite the public against the Rohingya, who were targeted in a\u00a0military assault of incredible cruelty<\/a>\u00a0including murder, rape and the burning of entire villages: Around 700,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh. The International Court of Justice in The Hague is currently deliberating whether these atrocities qualify as genocide.<\/p>\n But within the last year, Facebook has introduced new features on its mobile app that actually intensify the fire of incendiary political attacks \u2014\u00a0making them easier and quicker to propagate<\/a>. The system is cost-free to the poster and revenue-generating for Facebook. Good for Facebook, bad for democracy.<\/p>\n The responsible approach is self-evident. Facebook is a publisher not just a neutral moderator or \u201cplatform.\u201d It should be held accountable for the content that appears on its site.<\/p>\n Speaking at a cocktail party in Davos on Jan. 22, Facebook\u2019s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, repeated the worn Silicon Valley clich\u00e9 that Facebook is trying to make the world a better place. But Facebook should be judged by what it does, not what it says.<\/p>\n I repeat and reaffirm my accusation against Facebook under the leadership of Mr. Zuckerberg and Ms. Sandberg. They follow only one guiding principle: maximize profits irrespective of the consequences. One way or another, they should not be left in control of Facebook.<\/p>\n George Soros (@georgesoros<\/a>) is the founder and chairman of the Open Society Foundations.<\/p>\n The post\u00a0George Soros: Mark Zuckerberg Should Not Be in Control of Facebook<\/a>\u00a0appeared first on\u00a0New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n