This article argues that the recent drama surrounding Facebook is almost entirely manufactured with the ultimate goal of increasing the censorship of the internet.
The growth of working-class opposition is the real target of the media firestorm over Facebook’s alleged data lapse. The aim of the press campaign is to create the climate for the introduction of even more explicit censorship measures.
In successive interviews responding to the allegations, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, reversing their previous positions, vociferously endorsed a bill working its way through Congress to target “foreign meddling” in US politics by severely restricting the purchase of political advertisements—one of the few avenues left open to independent news outlets to attract a broader readership on Facebook.
“We’re open to regulation. We work with lawmakers all over the world,” Sandberg told CNBC. Zuckerberg, speaking to CNN, said he would “love to see” regulation targeting Facebook advertisements like those allegedly purchased by “Russians.”
In his CNN interview, Zuckerberg pledged to redouble Facebook’s efforts to combat the efforts of “folks trying to sow division.” He said the company would “do a better job of tracing and using AI tools to be able to scan and observe a lot of what is going on.” He said that he was open to further government regulation of the company, that is, a greater integration of Facebook with the state and its intelligence agencies.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/03/23/pers-m23.html
Corporate media is already controlled by…Corporations and the CIA and the neocons and the American plutocracy. So screw Google. Google is over.
Google announced Wednesday that it is partnering with the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Financial Times and other major news outlets to reinforce their monopoly over news coverage by blocking independent news organizations.
The New York Times, whose stock price soared after the announcement, said Google’s initiative was aimed at combatting “the epidemic of false and unreliable information on the internet,” by “pledging to spend $300 million over the next three years to support authoritative journalism.”
In reality, Google’s action is the latest step in a protracted campaign on the part of the major technology companies, working with the Democratic Party and the US intelligence agencies, to censor the Internet.
The campaign for Internet censorship has been spearheaded by the major media outlets, including the Times and the Post, who have seen their subscription base eroded by the growth of oppositional news outlets and “citizen journalism.” By working with the technology giants and intelligence agencies to censor smaller news outlets, the media giants hope to regain the monopoly over the distribution of news they held before the rise of the Internet.
In April of last year, Google announced measures to promote “authoritative content” over “alternative viewpoints,” which led search traffic to left-wing, antiwar, and socialist web sites to plunge by over 50 percent.
After Google’s announcement last year, other major technology companies followed suit in implementing their own measures to censor the Internet. This year, Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that it would promote “trusted” news sources, such as the New York Times, over public postings by individuals and independent news agencies. At a congressional hearing this year, Facebook said it had hired some 10,000 content moderators, and would double that number by the end of the year.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/03/22/russ-m22.html