Facebook admits social media is not always healthy for democracy in most self-critical post yet

Facebook's post today is the most self-critical assessment of the company's impact to date, complete with an admission that its efforts may not be successful. Getty Images

Bloomberg News
 
Facebook Inc. acknowledged today that social media can have a negative impact on democracies, and that the company has more work to do in order to ensure that the good outweighs the bad.

“From the Arab Spring to robust elections around the globe, social media seemed like a positive,” Katie Harbath, who runs the Facebook team that builds relationships with governments around the world, wrote in a blog post. “The last U.S. presidential campaign changed that, with foreign interference that Facebook should have been quicker to identify, to the rise of ‘fake news’ and echo chambers.”

Misinformation campaigns are not amateur operations. We will always have more work to do...http://thestarphoenix.com/technology/facebook-says-social-media-not-always-healthy-for-democracy/wcm/18f6255c-27dc-4713-8068-fe8ce66ec684