What Facebook, Google and Twitter Owe America

POSTED BY: captaincrunch
UPDATED: Monday, July 5, 2021 23:37
VIEWED: 2487
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CAPTAINCRUNCH

Wednesday, February 28, 2018 9:16 PM

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/02/28/what-facebook-googl
e-and-twitter-owe-america-217096

Our freedoms made these companies rich. It’s time they lived up to their responsibilities and cracked down on foreign interference in our democracy.
By FRED WERTHEIMER and NORMAN EISEN February 28, 2018

America has been good to Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The 33-year old entrepreneur’s net worth is $74.2 billion as of February 26, 2018, according to Forbes. Our country has also been very kind to Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Their net worth is $52.4 billion and $50.8 billion, respectively, Forbes tells us. And Jack Dorsey, the founder and CEO of Twitter, has thrived under our system, with a net worth of $3.5 billion.

These individuals, with a total net worth of more than $180 billion, have prospered in our democracy and under our constitutional form of government. But they have not returned the favor to their fellow Americans—at least, not when it comes to dealing with perhaps the greatest foreign, nonmilitary threat our democracy has ever seen. On the contrary, they and their companies have so far largely failed in their responsibilities to respond effectively to the 2016 Russian electoral attack exploiting their platforms—and to defend against the coming 2018 and 2020 attacks. This must change.

Following the 2016 election, the heads of America’s top intelligence agencies concluded “with high confidence” that Russia had interfered with the 2016 presidential election. They found that one of Russia’s goals was “to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process” — the very democratic process under which these individuals were able to attain extraordinary wealth.

Earlier this month, our current intelligence chiefs testified in the Senate that Russia is planning to continue its efforts by intervening in the 2018 midterm congressional elections. Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats testified that there should be no doubt that Russia views its efforts to meddle in the 2016 presidential campaign as successful. Facebook, Google and Twitter were unwitting facilitators of these Russian efforts to sabotage our elections in 2016. They will have no such excuses in 2018 and 2020.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 37-page indictment of Russian individuals and entities for using social media to meddle in our democracy refers to Facebook more than any other technology company. Facebook itself concedes that Russian propaganda dealing with the 2016 election reached some 150 million Americans. According to one independent study, Russian messages could have been seen on Facebook “hundreds of millions — perhaps many billions — of times.” As for Google, the company found that tens of thousands of dollars were spent by Russian operatives on ads across its platforms. Another Google examination identified more than 1,000 videos linked to Google platforms. And according to Twitter, more than 50,000 Russian linked accounts used that service to intervene in the 2016 election.

Even after these various disclosures, we do not know just how extensively Russian operatives used these platforms to sabotage our elections. We do know, however, that they were crucial to Russia’s disruptive cyberattacks. Facebook, Google and Twitter were used to spread false, wildly misleading and vicious messages from Russian operatives. And Americans did not know until after the 2016 election that Russians were responsible for these distorting, campaign-related communications. The tech companies are now fully on notice about the essential role their platforms played in the Russian intervention.

For Zuckerberg, Page, Brin and Dorsey, this should be a code-red warning about the need for their companies to take immediate, effective corrective measures and to treat this matter as their highest priority. These four founders should recognize their responsibilities to a country that enabled them to become some of the richest people in the world. They need to ensure that a foreign power can never again use their s

6IXSTRINGJACK

Wednesday, February 28, 2018 11:46 PM

They don't owe shit to anybody. Nobody using them paid a dime for the services they provided.

Just stop using them if you don't like them.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

CAPTAINCRUNCH

Thursday, March 1, 2018 12:13 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
They don't owe shit to anybody. Nobody using them paid a dime for the services they provided.

Just stop using them if you don't like them.

Missing the entire point as usual - nothing to see here, carry on.

THGRRI

Thursday, March 1, 2018 2:10 AM

Jack, stupid, they were paid through revenue they received because they jack, they provided the platform. Not to worry, when the democrats are back in power these social platforms will be regulated. Why, because they are media outlets and media outlets are regulated. Because of what has happened they lost the free ride of no regulations.

T

AURAPTOR

Thursday, March 1, 2018 2:34 AM

What do CNN, MSNBC , ABC< NBC, CBS owe the American people for lying and promoting the Leftist Democratic agenda ???

FAR FAR more people got and continue to get duped via fake news from those sources.

Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen

I'm just a red pill guy in a room full of blue pill addicts.

" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall

6IXSTRINGJACK

Thursday, March 1, 2018 7:02 AM

They only got paid for that ad revenue because you were buying stupid shit you didn't need on credit. That's another problem with most Americans. Stop buying stupid shit and these corporations won't have so much power to influence things.

Vote with your wallet.

Do Right, Be Right. :)

JAYNEZTOWN

Monday, July 5, 2021 11:37 PM

Judge blocks Trump-inspired Florida law cracking down on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube; DeSantis vows to appeal

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2021/06/30/florida-trump-facebook-
youtube-social-media-law-judge-blocks/7820915002/