Photo: Mark Baker/AP Photo
Let’s just get this out of the way, New Zealand’s privacy commissioner John Edwards didn’t lie. In a tweet, he stated that “Facebook cannot be trusted. They are morally bankrupt pathological liars who enable genocide.” He’s right. A U.N. report found that Facebook directly lead to genocide of the Rohingya people in Myanmar. In fact, Facebook was the primary carrier of propaganda and hate speech that lead the dehumanization and genocide of the Rohingya people. Facebook still hasn’t taken a stance against hate speech. In fact, they outright refuse to ban hateful content, because they don’t want to upset hateful Republicans.
Facebook has lied to politicians, to users, and to themselves. Their own employees fear Facebook’s oversight. Harassment within the company is overwhelming and unbearable. They’ve helped sell child brides, deleted political ads that ran contrary to their business interests, leak personal information constantly, and they make it easy to steal someone’s identity.
Facebook is a toxic, dishonest, vile place. Politicians around the globe are finally taking notice. It’s time to rein in Facebook.
Facebook, Home of the Hateful
Rohingya refugees seeking shelter in Bangladesh. The U.N. credited Facebook for spreading hate that lead to the genocide of the Rohingya people. Photo: Sergey Ponomarev for the New York Times
A month ago, a man embodied the greatest evil of humanity. He became the violence and hate he claimed to despise. A man, livestreaming on Facebook, walked into a place of worship in Christchurch, New Zealand. He shot 50 innocent people dead in that mosque, injuring and scaring others for life. Peaceful people, families, gathered to worship, find community, and find love with one another, struck down in a vile and ignorant act of hate. All livestreamed on Facebook for the world to see.
Facebook spread that hate. It didn’t just take hold in news rooms who watched the footage to learn what happened. It took hold in hate groups across the world. Neo-Nazis in the United States cheering on their president’s hate speech against Muslims. Alternative für Deutchland in Germany, fighting to keep Muslims out. Hateful people in Myanmar, carrying out genocide of their country’s Muslim people, the Rohingya. All glorified the murder of 50 people. 50+ families torn apart. Hundreds scarred. The hateful loved it, and they spread it on Facebook.
Last week, ABC News interviewed Mark Zuckerberg. He stated that, despite being a vehicle for hatred all over the world, spreading it and amplifying it, Facebook would not change their rules around livestreaming. They would not work to stop the hate that spreads through their network, not like a cancer, as we’d see it, but to them, as their lifeblood. Hate keeps Facebook alive.
New Zealand: A Country of Action
This AR-15 is now banned in New Zealand. The owner says he’ll turn it in without any qualms. Photo: Reuters
In New Zealand, less than a month after the shooting, the country banned high capacity semiautomatic rifles, often referred to as “assault weapons.” In less than a month, the democratic country banded together and agreed, this kind of hateful violence has no home in New Zealand. The law banned most semi-automatic guns and modifications to weapons to make them more deadly. The law would ban everything from most modern handguns to assault style weapons, that is, semiautomatic large caliber rifles with more than five rounds and detachable magazines for fast reloading.
Gun owning Americans might not like the sound of this new law. However, some parts could work in the United States, such as the ban of all semiautomatic large caliber rifles with fast reloading detachable magazines. These weapons, often called “assault weapons” or are some form of the AR-15, have been used in nearly every mass shooting in the United States. They allow a person to fire large, long range rounds at a fast rate, and reload quickly. It’s the weapon style that killed nearly 60 in a gay bar in Orlando, children in schools, and hundreds at a concert in Las Vegas.
New Zealand, unlike the dramatically slower government of the United States, moved quickly, banning the sale of the most dangerous weapons. It’s a country of swift action to protect its people.
So when Facebook refuses to take action to stop the spread of hate and violence on its network, people in New Zealand don’t hold back.
John Edwards’ Statement
John Edwards, New Zealand Privacy Commissioner
“Facebook cannot be trusted. They are morally bankrupt pathological liars who enable genocide (Myanmar), facilitate foreign undermining of democratic institutions. [They] allow the live streaming of suicides, rapes, and murders, continue to host and publish the mosque attack video, allow advertisers to target ‘Jew haters’ and other hateful market segments, and refuse to accept any responsibility for any content or harm.”
– John Edwards, New Zealand Privacy Commissioner
I personally looked into Facebook’s advertising options, and I couldn’t find a way to target “Jew haters.” However, I was able to easily find misogynistic groups, as well as 4chan, Alternative für Deutschland, and fans of alt-right memes, which are often coded ways for misogynistic, islamophobic, anti-semetic, and homophobic people to connect. There are definitely ways to target ads specifically at racists, toxic people on Facebook.
I have deleted the tweets promoting my discussion about Mark Zuckerberg’s interview because of the volume of toxic and misinformed traffic they prompted. Here is the actual conversation with @SusieFergusonNZ on @NZMorningReport https://t.co/YcCmnFvT7r
— John Edwards (@JCE_IC) April 8, 2019
Facebook Wants Hate. We Don’t.
Edwards has a point. Time and time again, Facebook has had the opportunity to deal with hate on its platform. When certain people make Islamophobic statements like “ban all Muslims from entering the United States,” Facebook allows it. They just allow that kind of hate. They claim it’s because they don’t want to alienate Republicans and other xenophobes worldwide, but what does that make Facebook?
It makes Facebook a platform where hate is acceptable because it’s profitable. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg repeatedly state that Facebook is working to improve the platform, but they’re still allowing hate speech to spread.
That makes them hate spreading pathological liars.
John Edwards is right.
The U.N. is fed up with Facebook. The U.K. is talking about forcing Facebook to block hateful content. New Zealand, a nation that takes quick action, is finally tired of Facebook’s hate spreading, genocide encouraging, violence inciting content.
The governments of the world are finally stepping up. When will the U.S. do the same?
Sources:
- Associated Press via CBS News
- James Borrowdale, Vice
- Guardian Staff, The Guardian
- Patrick Howell O’Neill, Gizmodo
- Eleanor Ainge Roy, The Guardian