Facebook and fake news: did the social media giant prefer prominent anti-vaccination agents?

After repeated criticism of Facebook and its handling of false reports, the judiciary is now also targeting the tech company.

Hartford / Menlo Park - The technology giant Facebook is faced with a lot of questions from several high-ranking prosecutors from 14 states of the USA *.

The focus is on how the Internet company deals with false reports * in general and false reports with regard to Corona * vaccines in particular, after media reports accused Facebook of turning a blind eye to prominent vaccine opponents.

According to this, Facebook's own "Cross Check" system is said to have enabled exceptions for prominent Facebook users who, despite strict fact checks, were able to continue to disseminate disproved information, for example about the corona vaccines.

The focus is on a group of online influencers who are known in the USA as "Disinformation Dozen" (about: Disinformation Dozen) and are responsible for almost two thirds of all misinformation about corona vaccines * - simply because their content is thousands upon thousands of times to be shared.

After allegations by whistleblower: Facebook is criticized for content controls

In an open letter to Facebook, the attorneys general of states such as California, Illinois, Minnesota and Pennsylvania now want to know whether prominent vaccine opponents would have benefited from preferential treatment on the online network, as some media reports suggest. The public prosecutors also refer to cases in which contributions by opponents of vaccinations remained on the platform - and also want to know whether financial considerations played a role.

Facebook, on the other hand, always emphasized that the online network consistently takes action against incorrect information about corona vaccines.

Since the accusations of the whistleblower Frances Haugen, who accused Facebook of a rather lax handling of false information in its network, more and more cases have become apparent in which the Facebook system "Cross Check" has apparently failed.

Politics and the judiciary are calling on Facebook to scrutinize content more closely

The aim of the system is to avoid errors when removing content.

In some cases, such decisions are subject to a second review - for example, to take into account additional context or other factors such as newsworthiness.

As a result, according to media reports, some false reports seem to remain on the platform despite strict controls.

Facebook has also been criticized for this cause from the highest level in the USA in recent months.

US President Joe Biden * said in an interview in July that the disinformation campaigns on platforms such as Facebook “kill people” *.

(ska / dpa)