Unchecked Social Media Posts Weaken Public Trust
Social media platforms are under fire for not stopping posts misrepresenting the Trump assassination attempt.
- When the insurrection was attempted on January 6, 2021, the companies had a prompt response.
- This time around, they opted for a hands-off approach, playing the role of a mere conduit.
Social media companies are facing backlash for not squashing false Trump shooting posts, begging the question of whether they are solely to blame for the conspiracies that it was staged.
We’ve been hearing different stances about social media and freedom of speech. Some believe that social networking companies have no business policing what people share and say on their platforms. Others, however, argue that they must ensure that fact and fiction do not mingle and force political correctness onto their users. The latter group believes that it especially applies when there has been a significant incident.
The January 6th Fiasco
On January 6th, 2021, around 2,500 people attacked the US Capitol building to stop Congress from formally announcing Joe Biden as the next President of the US (POTUS). They believed then-POTUS Donald Trump’s claim that the election was fraudulent.
Following this incident, platforms were quick to suspend social media accounts whose posts perpetuated lies, pause political ads, and remove any post praising the US Capitol attack. Some measures included suspending or banning Trump and actively removing social media posts that promoted hate speech, violence, and misinformation, among other things.
Facebook, now Meta, temporarily changed its news feed algorithm to reduce the spread of distasteful content. It also restricted the creation of new groups and implemented tighter controls on existing ones. Twitter, now X, labeled tweets containing misinformation with warnings and links to credible sources. YouTube increased moderation and promoted reputable sources
July 13th
Fast forward to July 13th, 2024, there was an attempt on Trump’s life during his campaign rally in Pennsylvania. Luckily, the business mogul narrowly avoided a bullet to the head. Law enforcement later identified the shooter as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks.
This incident led to a rush of social media posts pushing fake news and false narratives onto users. People’s trust in social media had them blindly believing that the shooting was staged. However, unlike 4 years ago, social media platforms remained hands-off in their damage control. And their response was, as CNN puts it, “tepid”, leaving the public uneasy.
CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), which advocates for tighter regulation of the platforms, Imran Ahmed sees this as a telltale sign that “the months ahead are going to be just as unedifying, as stultifyingly stupid and as confusing as the last few days have been on social media.”
Mixed Signals
These companies should monitor the social media posts on their platforms better. That’s common sense. However, it is reasonable to assume that the reason for this reluctance is that they can’t win when faced with free speech.
If they do something, someone comes out saying they are interfering with the First Amendment. If they don’t, they are condemned for it. You don’t even have to go far back in history to see this happen.
Following October 7th, if platforms started suppressing Zionist posts, they were accused of antisemitism and supporting terrorism. If they suppress Hamas‘ social media posts, people accuse them of condoning genocide and lacking humanity. If they suppress both, they are stopping the world from seeing the truth. And if they do nothing, they are sitting on the sidelines, making them as bad as if they had taken sides.
They really can’t win. We’re not defending social media platforms, but we are saying that the lack of transparency, of details regarding what their roles are, is hindering any proper response when incidents like January 6 and July 13 happen.
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