Facebook is ripe for exploitation – again – in 2020

Facebook claims to have cleaned up its act. But the platform remains vulnerable to the same sorts of divisive propaganda

Siva Vaidhyanathan
Tue 9 Jul 2019 07.00 BST Last modified on Tue 9 Jul 2019 20.25 BST

We won’t need Russia in 2020. We will hijack our democracy ourselves. And Facebook is sure to be a major factor in that hijacking – once again.

The platform is ripe for further exploitation by domestic forces bent on distorting the political conversation and stirring up irrational passions in a way sure to benefit Donald Trump’s re-election efforts. The continued proliferation of white supremacists on Facebook, and its refusal to block a heavily doctored video of House speaker Nancy Pelosi, are just the latest demonstrations of Facebook’s cowardice.

Despite scrutiny in the three years since Facebook’s troublesome role in Trump’s 2016 election – embedding Facebook staff in the campaign itself, hosting millions of dollars of targeted ad spending, and distributing false and divisive messages sponsored by Russia and meant to divide the United States and promote Trump – Facebook remains vulnerable to the sorts of divisive propaganda that motivate nationalist and authoritarian movements. This was evident in recent elections in Brazil, Italy, and India, where nationalist forces assumed power with the aid of Facebook-centric election campaigns filled with vitriol and conspiracy theories.

Such propaganda starts with a concerted effort using platforms other than Facebook, such as Reddit, YouTube, state-sponsored systems like Russia’s RT, or private media like Fox News in the US. The messages then migrate to Facebook, with its 220 million American users and 2.4 billion users worldwide. Once there, Facebook’s algorithms take over, amplifying extremist content and connecting susceptible people who might never otherwise find each other. It’s a complex ecosystem that can’t be examined properly by isolating its elements. What happens on Reddit and Fox changes Facebook, and what happens on Facebook changes Reddit and Fox.

US intelligence agencies and the Mueller investigation have extensively documented Russian efforts to spread divisive and pro-Trump propaganda through Facebook. But much of the same sort of content came from domestic sources, such as the National Rifle Association or groups supporting Texas independence. Russian propaganda did not inject unfamiliar thought into American politics. It just amplified and extended latent radicalism already flowing at the margins of society.

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