As Facebook and Twitter have offered a place for Trump and his supporters to gather, these platforms were equally blamed for the attack on the US Capitol. A huge number of protestors against Trump gathered in the US Capitol on Wednesday protesting for the attack that resulted.
Reports informed about the escalation of oppression until 6th January on platforms like Twitter and Facebook, and President Trump by putting groundless statements regarding election fraud intensified that fire on the internet. Dissemination of false information can lead to incidents like that happened on Wednesday.
After Wednesday’s incident, big tech platforms are working to bring the change by deleting Trump’s misinformation posts. Whereas, Facebook and Twitter banned his account last Friday to prevent further misunderstandings. But critics are criticizing that these changes are made after the misinformation has created the problem. Trump and his supporters have been using big online platforms for years to promote misleading information.
These online campaigns easily manipulate people’s minds before letting them share their views on Twitter and Facebook. Such misleading information tends to spread more faster as social media algorithms prefer to display scandalous posts. Lightman cautioned that the platforms that merely add warning alerts on any posts delivering false information are probably not going to do anything for good.
Lightman named it as presumed reality fact that website that specifically call out any news fake are the ones that boost the credibility or authenticity of the other news even though they are fraudulent. He thinks that Twitter has caused more damage instead of serving itself as a useful platform. Like in October, Twitter without giving any justification, suspended the URL of an article which was about Joe Biden’s son. One such example of Twitter being irresponsible is when it removed Trump’s account, which did not do much as he might have turned to other sites such as Gab and Parler. On such sites, Trump will be able to spread more misleading information and fake theories that his die hearted followers will follow undoubtedly.
Platforms like Twitter helps in the fast-spreading of rumors and false news as the algorithms are set to drive more profit and get those users more followers.
Read next: Facebook and Instagram's Attempts At Halting the Anti-Vaccination Movement May Not Be Enough
Reports informed about the escalation of oppression until 6th January on platforms like Twitter and Facebook, and President Trump by putting groundless statements regarding election fraud intensified that fire on the internet. Dissemination of false information can lead to incidents like that happened on Wednesday.
After Wednesday’s incident, big tech platforms are working to bring the change by deleting Trump’s misinformation posts. Whereas, Facebook and Twitter banned his account last Friday to prevent further misunderstandings. But critics are criticizing that these changes are made after the misinformation has created the problem. Trump and his supporters have been using big online platforms for years to promote misleading information.
These online campaigns easily manipulate people’s minds before letting them share their views on Twitter and Facebook. Such misleading information tends to spread more faster as social media algorithms prefer to display scandalous posts. Lightman cautioned that the platforms that merely add warning alerts on any posts delivering false information are probably not going to do anything for good.
Lightman named it as presumed reality fact that website that specifically call out any news fake are the ones that boost the credibility or authenticity of the other news even though they are fraudulent. He thinks that Twitter has caused more damage instead of serving itself as a useful platform. Like in October, Twitter without giving any justification, suspended the URL of an article which was about Joe Biden’s son. One such example of Twitter being irresponsible is when it removed Trump’s account, which did not do much as he might have turned to other sites such as Gab and Parler. On such sites, Trump will be able to spread more misleading information and fake theories that his die hearted followers will follow undoubtedly.
Platforms like Twitter helps in the fast-spreading of rumors and false news as the algorithms are set to drive more profit and get those users more followers.
Read next: Facebook and Instagram's Attempts At Halting the Anti-Vaccination Movement May Not Be Enough
