Many millennials have expressed concern over the invasion of privacy conducted by social media outlets. Recently, one such company announced that they are working to restore trust from users by enacting “reliable measures”. Are their attempts genuine?
Facebook announced that they are working to provide:
“Credible and independent research about the role of social media in elections, as well as democracy more generally.”
As part of the recent initiative, they have announced a partnership with Atlantic Council. According to the group’s website, they are an American think tank “promoting constructive leadership and engagement in international affairs.”
The Atlantic Council will be employed to release insight and updates on campaigns across the world. Although Facebook claims that the think tank has a stellar reputation for creating innovative solutions, they frequently post articles from leftist sources, such as The Hill.
They also publish stories from Xinhua News Agency, founded by the Communist Party of China and renowned for spreading propaganda, as reported by the University of South Carolina. So much for the new and improved social media giants.
What’s the Deal?
John Kerry at the Atlantic Council Awards
The announcement follows Facebook’s steps last month to begin a peer-review process providing credible material. However, around the same time, they censored two ladies staunch in their support for President Trump. Liberty Nation’s Jeff Charles noted that the women (known as Diamond and Silk) made several videos attacking the left and promoting conservative viewpoints only to have their speech censored.
Millennials are rightfully wary of the anti-intellectual suppression of ideas and may wish to begin withdrawing from untrustworthy sites. According to LN’s Graham Noble, Facebook has created algorithms to filter reports and viewpoints under the guise of protecting users from “hate speech” and other “offensive” or “unacceptable” behaviors.
Noble explains that, in reality, they have restricted reports, data, and opinions from one end of the political spectrum to control public opinion and further a leftist agenda.
The importance of countering the efforts by Facebook is immense. Social media has become the chief conduit through which news, information, entertainment, and even commerce flow to almost 70% of Americans. However, millennials have not just chosen to stand by and watch.
Some groups, such as Conservatives Against Online Censorship, have come out to fight back against “one of the largest threats to free speech we have ever seen." Media attention otherwise concealed by liberal organizations has resulted in citizens becoming aware of the current situation and banding together to express resistance.
Many are learning of the effort by some sites to monitor and silence right-leaning citizens. Regardless of political affiliation, most Americans aim to uphold their First Amendment rights of freedom of expression and preserve intellectual conversations that permit the sharing of differing viewpoints. The actions by the far-left and those at Facebook, however, seem unlikely to cherish the nation’s culture of liberty.
