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Social Media Has Done ‘Extraordinary Damage’ to Democracy, Public Health, Safety: Expert
Social media companies have increasingly played major roles in political discourse around the world and according to one expert, the fallout has been significant.
“We’ve had extraordinary damage done to democracy, public health, public safety and people’s ability to make their own choices,” Roger McNamee, managing director at Elevation Partners and an early Facebook investor, told Yahoo Finance Live. “Yet policymakers have done nothing, absolutely nothing.”
Companies like Facebook-parent Meta (META) and Twitter (TWTR) have garnered criticism over the past decade, largely due to their dissemination of misinformation/disinformation as it relates to elections.
McNamee — who authored “Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe” — laid out three key factors to the ongoing problems with social media: the scale of the platforms, the latency and the incentives.
TikTok’s Search Engine Pumps Misinformation to Its Young Users
A NewsGuard investigation found that TikTok’s users, who are predominantly teens and young adults, are consistently fed false and misleading claims when they search on TikTok for information about prominent news topics.
The investigation found that for a sampling of searches on prominent news topics, almost 20% of the videos presented as search results contain misinformation. This means that for searches on topics ranging from the Russian invasion of Ukraine to COVID vaccines, TikTok’s users are consistently fed false and misleading claims.
The toxicity of TikTok has become a significant threat because new research from Google suggests that TikTok is increasingly being used by young people as a search engine, as they turn to the video-sharing platform, instead of Google, to find information.
In 2021, TikTok surpassed Google as the most popular website worldwide, according to the internet infrastructure company Cloudflare. The Wall Street Journal in August referred to TikTok as the “new Google.” NewsGuard’s findings come as TikTok faces increased scrutiny over its moderation and data collection practices, as well as its ties to China.
Tennis Australia Keeps out of Djokovic’s Visa Application
Novak Djokovic won’t get official support with lobbying from Tennis Australia should he seek to enter the country for the first major of 2023, a year after he was deported because he was not vaccinated for COVID-19. The 21-time Grand Slam champion wasn’t allowed to defend his Australian Open title last January after a tumultuous 10-day legal saga that culminated with his visa being revoked on the eve of the tournament eventually won by Rafael Nadal.
Djokovic originally was granted an exemption to strict vaccination rules by two medical panels and Tennis Australia in order to play in the Australian Open but, after traveling to Melbourne believing he had all his paperwork in order, the exemption was rejected by the Australian Border Force.
Being deported made Djokovic subject to a possible three-year exclusion period that prevents the granting of a further temporary visa, although the Australian Border Force in January said any exclusion period “will be considered as part of any new visa application and can be waived in certain circumstances.”
Australia has changed its border rules and, since July 6, incoming travelers no longer have to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccinations.
Seattle to End COVID Emergency Proclamation
The City of Seattle will end its COVID-19 emergency proclamation at the end of October.
Mayor Bruce Harrell said in a statement Tuesday that Seattle will lift its remaining COVID emergency order to align with Gov. Jay Inslee’s decision to end the statewide state of emergency on Oct. 31.
Policies linked to the emergency order including premium pay for food delivery and network gig workers will end on Nov. 1. Harrell lifted mask and other COVID-19 precautions in city buildings earlier this year. The City’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for employees and others will remain in effect.
Alberta’s New Premier Says Unvaccinated Are the ‘Most Discriminated-Against Group’ She Has Seen
Alberta’s new premier Danielle Smith says those who chose not to get a COVID-19 vaccine are the “most discriminated-against group” she has seen in her lifetime.
“The community that faced the most restrictions on their freedoms in the last year were those who made a choice not to be vaccinated,” Smith said at her first press conference as premier on Oct. 11.
“I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a situation in my lifetime where a person was fired from their job, or not allowed to watch their kids play hockey, or not allowed to go visit a loved one in long-term care or hospital or not allowed to go get on a plane to either go across the country to see family or even travel across the border. They have been the most-discriminated group that I’ve ever witnessed in my lifetime.”
Smith made the remarks shortly after being sworn in as premier in Edmonton. During the leadership race, Smith had promised to bring fundamental changes to Alberta Health Services and to strengthen laws to avoid “discrimination” based on medical decisions.
Shanghai Shuts Down Schools, Gyms, Bars as COVID Returns
Shanghai is quietly shutting down schools and a raft of other venues as officials try to rein in a COVID-19 flare-up that has hit the financial hub just days before one of China’s most important political events.
Several schools dotted throughout the city have suspended in-person classes as the fear of infection spread grows, according to parents and social media posts.
At least five districts have closed entertainment venues, including cinemas, bars and gyms, in an effort to stamp out transmission, according to statements issued by COVID-19 prevention offices.
The authorities said on Sunday there is no citywide school shutdown after speculation rippled through social media that the measure would be rolled out. But the creeping suspensions, as well as a ramp-up in other restrictions such as the lockdown of neighborhoods and individual residential compounds, have left Shanghai’s 25 million residents on edge.
COVID Officers to Receive Powers to ‘Break and Enter’ in Western Australia
The Western Australian Labor government looks set to pass an impending law for the “ongoing management” of COVID-19 that grants law enforcement extensive powers, including the authority to “break into and enter any place or vehicle.”
A debate has been ongoing since the end of September 2022, with opposition MPs refusing to back the Emergency Management Amendment (Temporary COVID-19 Provisions) Bill 2022.
Under a COVID-19 declaration, the Bill authorizes “COVID-19 officers” to “break into and enter” any place or vehicle and exercise these powers without a warrant or consent from the owner. Officers can also take control or make use of any place or vehicle to enforce a health order.
Section 77N also gives officers the power to force individuals to undergo quarantine and “submit to infection prevention and control procedures.” While Section 77O can be used to compel owners of businesses, places of worship and entertainment venues to close for a specified period.
As Victoria’s COVID Pandemic Declaration Lifts, Vaccine Mandates and Policies Being Scrutinized
As Victoria’s COVID-19 pandemic declaration comes to an end, a behavioral scientist says the continuing use of vaccine mandates may be “ethically problematic” and should be carefully scrutinized. On Wednesday, the state government’s mandate will only apply in healthcare, in many other sectors vaccination requirements will remain in place.
Professor Julie Leask — whose work focuses on vaccination — said although mandates did have an important role to play during the COVID-19 pandemic, continuing them was “ethically problematic.”
Companies such as Woolworths, Coles, ALDI, Virgin and Telstra are among those who told the ABC they would retain policies requiring staff to be vaccinated.
“You’ve got to ask whether it’s reasonable to exclude the completely unvaccinated from certain workplaces,” said Leask. “I think it’s getting increasingly difficult to justify that, given the limited ability for the vaccine to stop you getting COVID, [which would therefore mean] you’re a vastly reduced transmission risk.”
Facebook Whistleblower, Former Defense and Intel Officials Form Group to Fix Social Media
A Facebook whistleblower, two former U.S. defense secretaries, several past lawmakers and intelligence chiefs are forming a new group to address the harmful impacts social media can have on kids, communities and national security.
The Council for Responsible Social Media, publicly launched on Wednesday, is a project of the cross-partisan political reform nonprofit Issue One, which focuses on strengthening U.S. democracy and works with many former members of Congress on solutions.
Some well-known names joining the council include former Secretaries of Defense Chuck Hagel and Leon Panetta, former Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., former Facebook employee-turned-whistleblower Frances Haugen and former Google design ethicist Tristan Harris.
Elon Musk Claims Twitter Forced Whistleblower to Burn Evidence
The Twitter v. Musk lawsuit may be on hold for now, but information about the stayed case continues to emerge. In the latest revelation, the billionaire’s legal team accused the social media company of making its former executive (and current whistleblower) Peiter “Mudge” Zatko destroy documentation of his time at Twitter, including evidence of the company’s security faults.
Getting rid of the documents was allegedly a condition of the $7.8 million severance package that Zatko received in June. He spent about a year as the company’s security chief before being fired.
“Twitter negotiated a unique ‘severance package’ with Mr. Zatko in June 2022 that was plainly intended to procure Mr. Zatko’s silence and prevent him from coming forward with his whistleblower disclosures,” wrote Edward B. Micheletti, one of Musk’s lawyers, in an October 3 court filing, which was unsealed on Monday.
Specifically, Zatko said that he burned 10 handwritten notebooks containing information from meetings with Twitter execs and deleted more than 100 electronic documents, according to the legal filing.
Twitter Reviewing Policies Around Permanent User Bans
Twitter is reviewing its controversial policies around permanently banning users, potentially bringing its content moderation more in line with Elon Musk’s vision for the social media platform regardless of whether the Tesla chief becomes its owner.
The Silicon Valley company has been assessing whether there are other content moderation tools that could replace its harshest penalty for the violation of certain rules, according to multiple people familiar with the situation.
