Facebook Slammed for Spreading Putin's Russian Propaganda in NATO's East (msn.com) 115
Slovakia's eastern border touches Ukraine's western border — and Saturday Bloomberg uncovered an emerging controversy. "A flood of posts pushing misinformation in Slovakia is putting the spotlight on Facebook for facilitating the spread of pro-Russian theories on the war in neighboring Ukraine, ranging from claims that Kyiv is secretly developing biological weapons to questioning whether President Vladimir Putin's invasion even happened at all."
The dispute took center stage this week when members of the US House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence called out Meta and its chief executive officer, Mark Zuckerberg, for facilitating the dangerous spread of pro-Russia disinformation in the country of 5.3 million. According to the GLOBSEC security think tank, the intensity of false messages is worse here than anywhere else in ex-communist central Europe. That has buoyed support for Putin, with more than a quarter of Slovaks saying they back his actions, even as the administration in Bratislava tries to shelter the refugees and send weapons to Kyiv to aid in its defense....
The committee said that the US and Slovak governments had repeatedly asked Meta to take action against messages that include posts accusing Ukrainians of supporting Fascism, killing their fellow countrymen and demonizing the hundreds of thousands of people who have fled abroad to escape the war. "Half of the population is prone to believe in some kind of misinformation or conspiracy theories," said GLOBSEC analyst Dominika Hajdu. At present, Meta has only one fact-checker dedicated to Slovakia, where about 2.7 million people, or almost half of the population, have Facebook accounts, making it the most widely used social-media platform, according to the US committee members' letter. They described the staffing level as "wildly inadequate...."
Slovakia isn't alone. In February, the prime ministers of Poland and the Baltic trio Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania demanded executives in charge of Facebook, Google, YouTube and Twitter "take a stand" against Russian disinformation.
Slovokia's prime minister decried the situation in a Facebook post of his own. "Never before in history has freedom of speech been abused in favor of murder and destruction on such a mass scale and with such a devastating effect."
A Meta spokesperson told Bloomberg that when fact-checkers identify false information, Facebook positions this false content "lower in Feed so fewer people see it."
"We're also giving people more information to decide what to read, trust, and share by adding warning labels on content rated false."
The committee said that the US and Slovak governments had repeatedly asked Meta to take action against messages that include posts accusing Ukrainians of supporting Fascism, killing their fellow countrymen and demonizing the hundreds of thousands of people who have fled abroad to escape the war. "Half of the population is prone to believe in some kind of misinformation or conspiracy theories," said GLOBSEC analyst Dominika Hajdu. At present, Meta has only one fact-checker dedicated to Slovakia, where about 2.7 million people, or almost half of the population, have Facebook accounts, making it the most widely used social-media platform, according to the US committee members' letter. They described the staffing level as "wildly inadequate...."
Slovakia isn't alone. In February, the prime ministers of Poland and the Baltic trio Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania demanded executives in charge of Facebook, Google, YouTube and Twitter "take a stand" against Russian disinformation.
Slovokia's prime minister decried the situation in a Facebook post of his own. "Never before in history has freedom of speech been abused in favor of murder and destruction on such a mass scale and with such a devastating effect."
A Meta spokesperson told Bloomberg that when fact-checkers identify false information, Facebook positions this false content "lower in Feed so fewer people see it."
"We're also giving people more information to decide what to read, trust, and share by adding warning labels on content rated false."
"Never in the history of free speech!" (Score:1, Insightful)
Never have I ever suspected there wasn't a bias in the news I was receiving. Two kids get in a fight, and you ask both kids what happened, there's a fair chance you'll get two different recollections of the event.
The truth, the third iteration of the story, is somewhere in between the two.
It's called propaganda, ladies and gentlemen, and we owe parts of each of our belief sets to its widespread proliferation. Think critically, if you dare. I am no defender of the face book, but everything that ends up on th
Re:"Never in the history of free speech!" (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:"Never in the history of free speech!" (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't believe any reasonable person is anti-moderation so that a civil discourse is possible, but that's not the point, really.
Yes. Social media sites are an unimaginable blight. It is just that there's no rational expectation for the absence of disinformation in all that noise; whether posted on face book, Slashdot, or a study suggesting humans are bad for the planet.
It is nearly all at least somewhat subjective information, to be balanced for and against other sources of information. Blindly allowing others to think for you, and distill your opinion for you, is easy. That's why it is popular.
Thinking outside the box is not just difficult, it even gets you burnt at the stake, sometimes. That's why it is not.
Re:"Never in the history of free speech!" (Score:5, Funny)
Yes. Social media sites are an unimaginable blight.
You might even believe that, grandpa, yet here you are posting on a social media site again. Consider introspection.
So close to correct, you can almost taste it... but if your post and my experience with /. has led to any reasonable conclusion, it's that we're posting on an antisocial media site.
Re: (Score:2)
It is nearly all at least somewhat subjective information, to be balanced for and against other sources of information. Blindly allowing others to think for you, and distill your opinion for you, is easy. That's why it is popular.
You assume people are willingly giving up their opinions because it's easy, as if people just really like being sheep or some other nonsense. Do you not get that manipulation is that thing, that you can subconsciously impact a society by affecting some % of the population with a constant bombardment of ideas that elicit emotional response? If someone within your own country does this, it can be countered politically... but external manipulation from hostile states is another issue.
Re:"Never in the history of free speech!" (Score:5, Interesting)
You absolutely can impact a society by affecting some percentage of the population with a constant bombardment of ideas that elicit an emotional response. This is the venue by which social and political influencers practice their craft.
It's like advertising to increase sales... despite any individual's personal belief that it doesn't work on me, if it didn't work on many of us, they'd quit spending time and money developing it.
And. It's not delineated by an invisible border drawn on a map. Some nonzero percentage of viewers and/or readers will align with it, and that's why it continues to occur. Try and understand that many of your fellow citizens are too preoccupied with their busy little lives, their jobs, and their limited social activities, to formulate their own informed opinion.
Re: (Score:2)
There are many unreasonable people in the world. A civil discourse may be possible, but bringing it to a sane and workable policy is. And the temptation to be open-minded can be and has been overwhelmed by fraud. The probability increases when one side is restrained and reasonable about it, and the other is not. The Russian claims of Nazi proliferatiion in Ukraine are war-mongering nonsense, but they're very popular among the bots posting n eastern Europe right now.
Re: "Never in the history of free speech!" (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:"Never in the history of free speech!" (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: "Never in the history of free speech!" (Score:2)
In many cases, you can have two different people have an honestly different recollection of how the events transpired. Occasionally the truth is somewhere in the middle, though it's usually closer to one particular side.
Re:"Never in the history of free speech!" (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1)
If propaganda was completely divorced from facts it's EXTREMELY poor propaganda. All propaganda is based in some part in actual facts and events. We shouldn't be trying to necessarily get rid of "propaganda", but simply outright lies, that cause people to form opinions not based on actual reality.
NATO pushing eastward is a FACT, not propaganda. Russia stating that they felt their security was being threaten is pretty much their opinion on that. To say that we should delete all other viewpoints is simply
Re: (Score:2)
An opinion could be that you think the invasion was a good thing or a bad thing. The disinformation discussed here is people denying that there was an invasion at all.
Re: (Score:1)
Right just as US never labelled their war on Iraq as an "invasion". In fact they never labelled it as a war on Iraq, but against "terrorism", anticipatory defense, etc.. These are all just lawyerly doctored opinions on things.
Re: (Score:2)
These are different things. The US or the Russian governments are not forced to label their operations as war or as invasions or any other name. We can debate words like invasion or terrorism. But US and Russia did not deny that there is an "international armed conflict" in the sense of international humanitarian laws. The disinformation discussed here is that some people claim there is no invasion or war in Ukraine AT ALL, that the images of a war were made up for some conspiracy reasons; and these are bla
Re: (Score:2)
Right just as US never labelled their war on Iraq as an "invasion".
One country's disinformation does not excuse another's. What the USA labelled the war on Iraq is irrelevant. It was an invasion by every definition of the word. Everyone in the world spreads disinformation at some point or another when it suits them. Often they do it subtly to get support, such as the USA not calling the war an invasion, or such as Putin calling his invasion as "special military operation".
Now whether or not either invasion was justified or supported is a matter of opinion. Whether or not t
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
NATO pushing eastward is a FACT, not propaganda.
NATO is not pushing eastward.
NATO is being pulled eastward, by countries who want to become members.
The main reason: The rhetoric and actions of Russia.
Russia has exactly nobody else to blame for the fact that NATO is growing.
Re: (Score:2)
NATO is not pushing eastward.
NATO is being pulled eastward, by countries who want to become members.
It goes both ways.
Some NATO countries (mostly US) are indeed pushing for the ex-soviet states to join and have been since the collapse of the USSR.
Meanwhile these countries often want to join NATO but are afraid of the reaction of russia as joining NATO has real geopolitical consequences.
Russia has exactly nobody else to blame for the fact that NATO is growing.
Like i explained, the west (mainly US) pushed for expansion of NATO with these ex-USSR countries from the beginning. Mind you, the US generally shows a very poor understanding of the political dynamics governing the europea
Re:"Never in the history of free speech!" (Score:5, Interesting)
Russia has their own opinion.
Russia's opinion seems to be that they didn't invade Ukraine, which would be a lie.
Re: (Score:2)
I’m reasonably sure that a country overrun with naz1s would not have elected a Jewish president. But like you say that’s simply my opinion.
Re: (Score:1)
More right-wing than the fucking Russians?
Jesus Christ - get a grip.
Re: "Never in the history of free speech!" (Score:2)
Would be nice if you had a clue about what's left, right, Marxist, or not.
Raising a red flag to get weapons from the USSR (cuba) isn't more to the left than another raising a US flag to get weapons from the USA (taiwan). Doesn't say a thing about their society, except who they think will help them more.
What is left wing? It certainly isn't a country that slaughters the working class. By definition. But since both Putin and his opponents both profit from claiming Stalinists are left and Marxist, I'm sure thi
Re: (Score:2)
It's not about whether they are full of nazis are not, it's whether particular elements in their government have right wing tendencies.
[...]
there were some in government that could have been labeled as right wing extremists.
Sounds exactly like the USA.
Re:"Never in the history of free speech!" (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Very rarely is this the case. It's usually either one side is telling the truth, or something else completely is the truth.
Actually the truth is in the middle more often than not. You said it yourself, look for lies on other side. You'll find lies on either side, whether it is complete misinformation or simply hyperbole to try and push an opinion harder.
Take for example the fact that people are still calling:
a) global warming a myth - which is a complete lie.
b) global warming a catastrophe which will kill all life this century - which is hyperbole.
What you typically find is that truth lies often with an unpopular side or a side
Re: (Score:2)
Being between two extremes does not mean the truth is "in the middle". Usually one account is far, far closer to the truth.
Re: (Score:2)
Usually they're both far from the truth and the truth is off to the side.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
That is 100% not what you see in practice. In fact, only something like 10% of this country believes global warming is a myth. You built your own hyperbolic exaggerated straw man.
In practice, you see "a fetus is a life" / "no stage of a fetus is a life". You see "guns are go
Re: (Score:1, Troll)
Re: (Score:2)
following since pre 2014 as I have friends and family from the region. The way I describe Azov to Americans is it is the equivalent of giving the KKK guns and badges and putting them in charge of the Deep South and having them answerable to no one but themselves.
A better analogy might be this:
- suppose the KKK had a standing army
- but in 2016 the political and military wings of the KKK split
- the military wing joined the National Guard
- since then the military wing has repudiated and distanced itself from the KKK's ideology
- but concerns remain about the political attitudes of legacy members
Re: (Score:2)
Re: "Never in the history of free speech!" (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
A Meta spokesperson told Bloomberg that when fact-checkers identify false information, Facebook positions this false content "lower in Feed so fewer people see it."
And the false information is never removed because that would be bad for Facebook profits. Content that is controversial, sensational and inflammatory attracts more viewers and that translates into more money for Facebook.
It doesn't matter that it is all lies. It doesn't matter how harmful it is. It doesn't matter that real people are being killed because of it. Corporate profits over all, is the only thing that matters.
If Facebook produced *ANYTHING* that is actually useful, it would be (sort o
Re: (Score:1)
That's less common than you may think, and in the rare instances where the truth is "somewhere" in between the two, it is almost never halfway between the two.
Re: (Score:2)
That's less common than you may think, and in the rare instances where the truth is "somewhere" in between the two, it is almost never halfway between the two.
Mathematically, precisely halfway is a nonzero event, but certainly not a betting position for those who understand lotto scratch-offs are not a good investment.
Re: (Score:2)
What about whataboutism?
Re:What about the US/EU propaganda in the West? (Score:4, Insightful)
I jest but some moron probably believes that crap.
Re:Not if Ukraine started this mess (Score:5, Informative)
by murdering thousands of civilians in the Donbas area starting back in 2014?
Odd. According to the United Nations, most of the atrocities against civilians in 2014 were committed by pro-Russian separatists [un.org], not by the Ukrainian military (though the latter were not perfect by any means). And of course, those 2k+ deaths don't even count the 298 people who unsuccessfully vertically landed in that region when Russian or pro-Russian forces shot down a civilian airliner [wikipedia.org].
But please, give us more bulls**t justification for Russia throwing gasoline on a fire by sending their troops in to turn the tide of a failed civil war that was just about to be successfully put down, thus adding almost 2,000 additional civilian deaths to the body count between August of 2014 and the start of 2022, plus potentially anywhere from 4,000 to 20,000 more this year.
There is one world leader to blame for very nearly every civilian war death in Ukraine from 2014 through today, and his name is Vladimir Putin. Those deaths are on his head. Anyone saying otherwise is either misinformed or trolling.
Re: (Score:2)
Get back to me when Facebook has facilitated the take over of the West by Putin's army and then promptly outlaws Facebook. Of course our propaganda supports our continued existence. We might be morons for allowing Facebook to attack us from within but we are not stupid enough to destroy Main Stream Media entirely. Wait.. oh...
is Facebook now a person? (Score:2, Insightful)
Didn't think FB was actually a person now, capable of spreading propaganda?
or - should it be the users on the platform are spreading the propaganda, and FB isn't blocking it?
Re: (Score:2)
Other than some cat pictures, or maybe some things where friends can show off new baby pictures or wedding announcements, social media has turned out to be nothing less than a pox upon society. Of course the Faceb00ks and the Twittars don't care as long as they get engagement. Why? Engagement = Money. They want to get paid, f**k anyone who gets hurt.
Re: (Score:3)
We could reasonably argue Slashdot is also social media .
Re: (Score:2)
We could reasonably argue Slashdot is also social media .
Well, as social as nerds are capable of being, at least...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Yes, the Supreme Court ruled that businesses are people and have the same rights as people.
If businesses are people, then they're sociopaths.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
capable of spreading propaganda?
or - should it be the users on the platform are spreading the propaganda, and FB isn't blocking it?
You're speaking as if Facebook is a neutral party showing to you only information from your direct friends in the order that it is posted. It's not. It's a complex system using algorithms designed to get the most interaction and engagement from people. That algorithm has repeatedly shown to amplify disinformation and propaganda while suppressing boring content like the truth.
Just because they didn't author the content doesn't mean they aren't spreading it.
Let's all face the fact that the propaganda .. (Score:1)
...that the propaganda machines have worked very very hard to earn the distrust anything they say Badge.
So respect the Badge.
Zuk did say ... (Score:2)
he needs to be regulated. Maybe congress might finally act?!
Re: (Score:2)
What part of "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech" do you not understand?
Ghost of Kiev wasn't fake news (Score:2)
From the "Ghost of Kiev"?
The Ghost of Kiev wasn't fake news in that sense, it was an homage that got out of hand.
The "Ghost of Kiev" was an urban legend in Kiev about one fighter plane pilot who single-handedly shot down Russian planes in the first few days of the war. It wasn't true, but it was repeated even though people knew it was false as a sort of national pride thing.
Then a hacker posted a "Ghost of Kiev" video using clips from a video game, with clear explanations saying that it was "in homage" and not real video.
Then other
Who says? (Score:1, Informative)
Yeah, about that.
Firstly, it's CNN. It's all "history of neo-Nazi leanings", so they're not neo-Nazi, but have leanings? What is that, exactly? Or "associated with White supremacists and neo-Nazi ideology", so they actually *aren't*, but are *associated* somehow?
In a statement to CNN, the Azov regiment said it "appreciates and respects Andriy Biletsky as the regiment's founder and first commander, but we have nothing to do with his political activities and the National Corps party" -- adding the former commander never made such comments.
And here's what the Ukranian minister of internal affairs has said:
"The shameful information campaign about the alleged spread of Nazi ideology (among Azov members) is a deliberate attempt to discredit the 'Azov' unit and the National Guard of Ukraine," he told the online newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda in 2019."
And noting that Ukraine has a jewish leader, the Azov commander said:
It added that the movement has "repeatedly denied allegations of fascism, nazism and racism," and have Ukrainians of all different backgrounds including "Greeks, Jews, Crimean Tatars, Russians" who "continue to serve in AZOV."
"Most of them are Russian-speaking, most are Orthodox. But there are Catholics and Protestants, Pagans and those who profess Islam and Judaism, and there are atheists," Azov asserted.
It noted that the Azov regiment's role is as "a special unit of the National Guard of Ukraine, and is subordinated exclusively to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief -- the President of Ukraine, by the way, a Jew."
"It would be absurd to think that we are united by the idea of white racism or nazism," the Azov statement added.
So Ukraine says they aren't, *they* say they aren't, their situation (Jewish leader, and membership roles) is inc
Re: (Score:2)
Oh I just chose CNN because so many libtards think it's a font of truth. Plenty of other sources.
You like Time?
https://time.com/5926750/azov-... [time.com]
or maybe our own government in 2021 before the attempt to white-wash?
https://www.congress.gov/117/m... [congress.gov]
The facts are clear
Re: (Score:1)
You sound like a snowflake. Democrats want to raise wages and give people healthcare? The horror
Re: Who says? (Score:1)
Stalin wanted to guarantee everybody the right to a job. The horror.
Re: (Score:2)
Welp, that's what the German Nazis said, and that's what the Azoz battalion says. And they put feet to their words, and killed, maimed, tortured, and robbed them.
This makes you happy?
Re: (Score:2)
There’s a difference between not caring and loading trains of people into ovens.
Re: (Score:2)
Azov battalion and their neo-nazi supporters killed Roma and other minorities, whatever are you on about?
Slovakia is NATO's east? (Score:1)
Slovakia is NATO's east? The words were chosen to humiliate Slovaks, or because it was assumed readers could cannot spot it on the map?
And by the way, NATO's real east is Japan.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force is the 5th most powerful navy in the world.
Let's be real here. (Score:3)
Meta profits from eyes on ads.
Until one of those two facts changes, the situation will continue.
Re: (Score:2)
There's also the third factor which is that FaceBook has repeatedly shown itself to have no morals whatsoever and to hide behind "free speech" as an excuse to support all sorts of sociopathic groups/propaganda (presumably because they do generate profit, but obviously also reflecting the fact that Zuckerberg puts profit ahead of everything and it's going to stop it unless forced to).
It'll stop either when the government steps in to regulate them, or FaceBook just fades away a la MySpace or AOL. The younger
Propaganda is not the same as lying (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
> Propaganda is information designed to persuade.
Wrong - There are huge differences between propaganda and persuasion.
https://ivypanda.com/essays/pe... [ivypanda.com]
Re: (Score:1)
“[They] are obsessed with the fetus from conception to nine months,” Carlin said then. “After that, they don’t want to know about you. They don’t want to hear from you. No nothing. No neonatal care, no day care, no head start, no school lunch, no food stamps, no welfare, no nothing. If you’re preborn, you’re fine; if you’re preschool, you’re fucked.”
-George Carlin
Re: (Score:2)
Never mind that pro-life folks have the highest adoption rates.
*Citation needed.
Re: (Score:1)
Thank all the goats that our species is under the protection of a goat who is so keen on the sanctity of human life that it took extraordinary measures to prevent any casualties during its global flood, its destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, its 10th plague, and its mandated genocide against the Amalekites.
Yes only western propaganda is approved! (Score:1)
Everything else is DISINFORMATION!
Why is this posed as a "surprise"? (Score:2)
Fecesbook makes money off of lies.
Simple as that - it's what they do.
I live in Bulgaria (Score:5, Interesting)
The last time Russia screwed Ukraine, (Score:4, Informative)
Point being, this isn't a problem because of social media.
Seems like treason. (Score:2)
I don't use the term lightly but helping an enemy nation seems to fit the definition of treason. I certainly hope there is some technicality in which Russia isn't technically an enemy nation but realistically, they are.
The censor cries out in pain as he is denied (Score:1)
"The committee said that the US and Slovak governments had repeatedly asked Meta to take action against messages that include posts .... demonizing the hundreds of thousands of people who have fled abroad to escape the war."
And on what basis is the US attempting to cause the removal of comments attacking those who leave Ukraine?
It's not a lie. It's not disinformation. It's an opinion many people may find objectionable - and certainly is aligned with Russian interests.
But neither being objectionable nor aligned with Russian interests makes it a lie. It makes it a competitor to propaganda spread by every other government in those governments interests. If there's a principle, it should apply to all countries - including e.g. cou
Free speech vs lying (Score:2)
Learn what free speech actually means before you start defending hostile govts' propaganda campaigns.
Re: (Score:2)
Nuh nuh (Score:2)
Next, you're gonna try to tell me that crypto and NFTs are a scam.
Yeah, right. Like I'm gonna fall for that. Nice try.
Have people gotten stupider or has social media just made it easier to see the stupidity that has always existed?
Zucked again (Score:1)