Fight against misinformation wanes at social media giants

YouTube said it always strives to balance freedom of expression with protecting online and real-world communities from harm. Nicole Bell, a spokeswoman for the company, said YouTube removed six videos flagged by Media Matters for violating its policies and terminated a channel for uploading content from a banned creator. But most of the more than two dozen videos flagged by Media Matters did not violate the platform’s rules, she said.

Last year, the International Fact-Checking Network, representing more than 80 organisations, warned in a letter to YouTube that the platform was “one of the biggest conduits for misinformation and misinformation online around the world” and it didn’t solve the problem.

The consequences of easing the fight against misinformation became clear on Twitter. A new report from two advocacy groups, the Network Contagion Research Institute and the Combat Antisemitism Movement, found an increase in anti-Semitic content when Mr Musk took over.

It described a campaign organized by extremists who had previously been banned from the platform. One of them, Tim Goniet, who used the name Baked Alaska online, was recently convicted and sentenced to 60 days in prison for his part in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. Tweeting this month, he press what he called a conspiracy theory: “twitter unblocked us all because their engagement was falling apart without us.”

“It is true that the trust and security efforts we have made to date have been truly broken, but at least there has been effort,” said Mr. Finkelstein, author of the report. “And there was a baby in the bathwater.”

Despite Mr Musk’s admission to favoring unfettered speech on the platform, he has also decided to suspend accounts, such as that of Kanye West, after a series of anti-Semitic remarks.

Nora Benavidez, senior counsel at Free Press, a digital rights and liability advocacy group, said experience on Twitter has shown that moderation of offensive content remains important to the viability of platforms regardless of considerations. economic.

“Content moderation is good for business, and it’s good for democracy,” she said. “Companies don’t because they seem to think they don’t have a big enough role to play, so they walk away.”