Let's face it, when you go onto Facebook you are not looking for an exchange of alternative ideas to your own. Venture capitalist Roger Macnamee, speaking on CNBC today, stated that Facebook has to come clean to its Users regarding the existence of propaganda on their platform. He said on CNBC in an interview this morning that consumers should realize the real reasons that they are using the platform. Consumers of Facebook go there not only to exchange photos of family, friends, and events, but to exchange ideas with like-minded people.
Facebook gives you what you want to see
Facebook needs to let their users know that their algorithms are very sophisticated and that they are feeding consumers what they want to read. Until now, If that entails Fake News propagated by a bot program (i.e. not a real person) and initiated by a foreign national -- so be it.
Management admits that Russian bots were on the platform
It has come to light that Russian bots were found utilizing the Facebook platform, ostensibly to put fake news or propaganda out to the many users of Facebook. This happened, particularly during the 2016 election campaign.
Many users get their news from Facebook, along with feel-good communications with friends. This has all come to the forefront since the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S.
presidential election got underway.
Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook needs to come clean to his audience regarding what we know as of now, according to Macnamee.
What Zuckerberg needs to tell the over 1 billion users of Facebook is that while Facebook did not knowingly collude with Russian advertisers or purveyors of fake news, some Facebook users did -- undoubtedly -- come into contact with either news, propaganda, or advertising, put forth by bots or persons inside Russia during the 2016 election.
Is Zuckerberg apologetic given the circumstances?
Again, this is most important because of the underlying belief that the users of Facebook have, that the people they are interacting with on the platform like to do the same things they like to do, and that they are not robots with an agenda that falls outside the lines of posting photos, talking about events, and connecting with family and friends.
In the final analysis, Zuckerberg and his team need to do whatever they have to do to keep bots off of Facebook. Whether they apologize or not is up to them, but they have to speak up to regain our trust.
