A buzz of controversies has been associated with the Facebook which is one of the popular social media apps. The controversies are all about Facebook’s internal research documents, classified survey reports and findings of test users. There are 17 American news agencies with many renowned journalists including from the Associated Press who have prepared a project called as The Facebook Papers Project. The aim of the project is to reveal the reality hushed up by Facebook.
These news agencies including The New York Times and Washington Post have gained the access to many internal documents with the help of Frances Haugen, a former product manager of Facebook.
The kernel of the project is that FB has been prioritizing its business and profits over safety of individuals, communities and nations. It means FB has chosen profit over solidarity. It has compromised the agenda of community outreach with its annual gain. Further to this, a serious allegation put by those news agencies is that FB had deliberately hidden its own research findings which covered many serious societal implications.
The FB audiences are growing so as its profit but simultaneously a possible threat has been identified on the children. Its possible role in political violence in many countries cannot be ignored and subjected for further investigation as claimed by The Facebook Papers Project.
The leaked documents say that Facebook is struggling in two fronts. One, it has lost as many as 10% of share in last few years and second, Facebook is unable to attract the young masses. In order to allure the young ones, Facebook has been ignoring hate speech content and fake news. Haugen’s leaked documents have many sensational allegations upon FB. It is alleged that FB employees have not any power to apply moderation filter for politicians and celebrities. The FB management has put the politicians and celebrities under exceptional category. The New York Times reveals that FB has been struggling to include or omit the like and share buttons. Hate speech, misinformation, terrorism, ethical cleansing, drugs and sex trafficking are in the FB content. Some employees are concerned over democracy. They feel FB has put the democratic values at a crossroads.
In USA, January 6 Capital Riots and Stop The Steal Movement were the result of FB. The cultural and language sentiments are also in trouble globally as the language interpretation in FB is mismatching. The Washington Post by referring the The Facebook Papers Project also claims that there was a pact between FB and the Vietnam Government to censor anti-Government propagandas or posts in FB.
As far as India is concerned, the project deciphers an ugly side of social media. FB in India is dominated with fake news, false accounts, and misinformation. It is revealed by the report that anti-Muslim narratives or islamphobic content, misogynist and fear mongering contents can be experienced frequently in India. As per the FB officials, in India the hate speech contents have been reducing. But Haugen's classified documents claim that FB is the platform to celebrate violence in India.
There are as many 35 crore users in India with 22 official languages in FB. A research has been done in India. In that study, a test user was set up to find out the experience of new users as an individual living in India. The result was shocking. A per the leaked paper, Indian Test use claimed FB as a constant barrage of polarizing nationalist content, misinformation and violence and gore. In 2019 general election it is reported that FB was favoring the ruling Governments and thrashing the opposition leaders. The conditions even got worsened during the pandemic when meaningful social interaction policy in India had led to an ocean of misinformation. India is a big market for FB in the sub-continent. But there is less number of resources in India under FB.
The popular social media apps like Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp provide so much news, information or facts that generally users don’t want to read or access. So much news, information and facts put people in a dilemma of knowing and understanding. It also put us in a paradoxical situation of trust and distrust. This creates a gap. Modern digital society is very personalized in its selection and always prefers to live in isolated state of information. Then it is becoming very hard to fill the gap between belief and disbelief. Fake becomes real and real becomes fake in this gap. According to Statista, in 2017 people spent 135 minutes nearly two and a half hour per day on social media. This data was evaluated by Broadbandsearch. According to a report by Broadbandsearch, people spent 153 minutes, nearly two and a half hours each day in 2019 while they spent 144 minutes in 2018 on social networking sites. A study by Similarweb says, time spent within the Facebook platform is 58 minutes per day while on WhatsApp it is 28 minutes and on YouTube it is 40 minutes per day.
One data is collected by Internet and Mobile Association of India to find out the Indians who can curb or identify fake news. This data shows that if news organisations, Government agencies and journalists work together, fake news can be curbed or identified up to 60%. If they don’t bother about and keep tight-lipped then there are 60% of chances to increase. This data also depicts the fact that any fake news is having supporting evidence, trusted format news outlet and more over if it is shared with person you trust more, then it becomes 88%. Only 2.7% of information takes as a form of viral news on social media. The real danger is when the misinformation is disseminated by trusted news organisations or by friends and family. We can see that there are many videos and posts uploaded in social media with the brand names of some popular news channel. We trust the news without challenging its origin. The multidimensional roles of social media cannot be unnoticed. This has become our lifestyle. Even if we want, we cannot ignore it. The use of social media is done in many constructive ways.
50% of youths still believe in the positive power of social media. It showcases the rational aspect of society and individual also. Online activism and supporting social institutions are also taken into forms through social media. We have witnessed the power of social media. It stands for fighting injustice, helping the distress, finding talents and helps us to be motivated. It is a platform for community involvement. It is us who can decide to use the power of social media either in a constructive or in a negative way.
(Dr Parida is an Assistant Professor. email id: abash.parida@gmail.com)
