Editorial: Facebook and other social media giants must devote more of their enormous power to monitor, label and challenge unreliable and dangerous falsehoods on their platforms
If ever there was a time when the best and worst of social media was evident, the pandemic may have provided that moment. As much of the world's population has bunkered down at home for extended periods of time to slow the spread of COVID-19, social media platforms have seen an enormous surge in usage. As a means of staying connected while socially distancing, they have proven an invaluable source of information and helped to maintain community spirit.
But the social media giants knew the pandemic would reveal a more disturbing side. The 2016 US election of Donald Trump had been the wake-up call on how digital platforms can become a forum for fomenting large-scale discord using misinformation.when the pandemic hit.
that forced the removal of an article about suicide rates during the pandemic. The page was flooded with thousands of comments including threats, abuse, defamation and conspiracy theory material. The attack was led by an Australian group that believes the severity of the coronavirus is exaggerated, or in some cases that the illness is not real, and is a ploy to allow governments to assert more control over the lives of citizens. What has frustrated some media organisations is that Facebook will not allow comments to be turned off, a simple way for such attacks to be stopped.
That social media is awash with bogus information will not come as a surprise to anyone. But during a pandemic, such falsehoods and deception can have real consequences. Irresponsible individual actions can lead to dire outcomes for the entire community.There is no excuse for them not to be doing more to ensure social media platforms are a force of good during such times.editor Lisa Davies writes a weekly newsletter exclusively for subscribers.
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