Facebook and Twitter don’t make the determinations alone. They contract internationally recognized fact checking organizations. Is it perfect? No. Do we need to curtail online disinformation at a platform-level? Yes, clearly we can’t rely on the critical thinking skills of the reader to make a rational determination — if we could, we wouldn’t have this problem in the first place.
This and several posts on this thread seem to think it’s impossible to discern fact from fiction, that every opinion, even if false and presented as factual, deserves equal time.
I fear that if we cannot have factual, cogent policy debates, our democracies are doomed.
>> They contract internationally recognized fact checking organizations. Is it perfect? No
The fact-checking organizations have themselves been independently vouched for by several highly trusted organizations. They are as close to perfect as we can possibly get.
Unfortunately there are too many bad actors in this country who are hell-bent on destroying our democracy. Huge segments of the population are actively engaged in the misinformation campaign so that's why radical steps need to be taken.
We cannot let people with ill intent ruin the country by misleading the public and stirring up controversies and conspiracy theories.
Clearly, everything is fine. The economic recovery has been very quick; everyone made a lot of profit recently and it's all going great now (stocks prices have been soaring in fact) - But you wouldn't know it from reading all these fake news on Facebook. These social manipulators need to be stopped.
Everything is not fine. The economic recovery is not quick. Stocks prices are controlled by opaque shadow forces and have little basis in reality.
Something that is grounded in reality is being able to pay down your home loan. Now that mortgage forbearance is expiring in the United States we in the mortgage industry are seeing a trend where pre-pandemic mortgage delinquency rates will not return to pre-pandemic levels for 24 months since the first wave of COVID. Compare this to 11 months of recovery after both Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma. 24 months is the best case scenario right now. 2021 will be a slow and painful year for economic recovery. We still don't know if we will endure another shock.
