Facebook’s Power to Undermine Democracy Is Getting Stronger—And It’s Fueling Oppressive Regimes

Gil C/Shutterstock.com

The debate over whether social media helps or hinders political movements in authoritarian-leaning countries is as old as the technology itself.

While Facebook assures western powers, from Germany to the United States, that it will do everything it can to help them defend their democratic processes from malicious actors, it continues to aid, in one way or another, oppressive regimes across the world.

The debate over whether social media helps or hinders political movements in authoritarian-leaning countries is as old as the technology itself, but as Facebook is increasingly becoming the dominant news source in many parts of the world, its power to boost or undermine democracy is only gaining strength.

Censorship and content moderation

In the span of just several years, Facebook became the prevailing source of information in Myanmar, with more people having access to the platform than to steady electricity in their homes, The Washington Post reported. In today’s world, social media platforms are a crucial part of a country’s political transition from authoritarianism to democracy—where there is no long, established tradition of free and independent media, people rely on social platforms to share information, including falsities. From the very beginning, some in Myanmar have been using Facebook to stoke ethnic hatred toward the Rohingya Muslim minority. Now, as the Rohingya are being effectively purged by the Myanmar military, activists say their posts documenting the atrocities are being censored by Facebook, the Daily Beast reported, while government and military representatives spread anti-Rohingya information from their personal pages, according to the Post.

At least part of the problem in the country appears to be Facebook’s content moderation system and rules. Any user can flag a post as undesirable, and content that intends to raise awareness about atrocities or hate speech can be be interpreted by Facebook moderators as a violation of “Community Standards” that prohibit the celebration of violence. Although Facebook says it is giving the situation in Myanmar special consideration, its content moderators are usually all around the world, and, by design, have no context for flagged information.

The “Explore” experiment

While in Myanmar, Facebook’s role has mostly to do with how the information is shared and controlled by the platform, Cambodia’s Facebook-related problem is a direct result of the company’s experiment in the country.

When it turned out that the platform was testing pushing news content out of its main feed into a feature called “Explore,”publishers around the world started panicking about potential loss in revenue—but in Cambodia the move immediately felt like an attack on democracy and freedom of speech. Amid a government crackdown on NGOs and media outlets, Facebook’s experiment caused these institutions to lose even up to 60% of their traffic.

The same thing happened in Serbia, one of the many young democracies in Europe that are still quite fragile. Stevan Dojcinovic, an investigative journalist in the country wrote a poignant op-ed in The New York Times about how his independent news outlet, which relies on Facebook for traffic, was getting crushed by the Explore feed experiment. If the change were to become permanent, “pliant” mainstream news organizations who get funding from the government would be easily able to find alternative ways to reach their audience.

The political power of a Facebook campaign

In the Philippines, Facebook’s involvement has been even more straightforward. Like in Cambodia, the platform is ubiquitous—97% of the population that is online has an account. A feature from Bloombergrecently described just how instrumental Facebook had been in the election of Rodrigo Duterte, the country’s strongman president who has shocked the world with his brutal, deadly anti-drug crackdown. The company’s employees helped train Duterte’s campaign (as well as other candidates’) in how to use the platform’s tools, knowledge the team used very effectively. The problem is, the camp’s promotion of the candidate included spreading false information. After Duterte was elected, Facebook only expanded its collaboration with the new government, while an army of pro-Duterte trolls kept organizing attacks on his opponents, including the free press.

Fake news

Governments have always spread “fake news”—after all, it’s just another term for propaganda. They’ve also always disparaged alternative sources of information.

But the ever-growing heaps of internet trash, “facts” made up from top-to-bottom that reach the public eye largely thanks to Facebook, have given authoritarians or leaders with anti-democratic tendencies all over the world a convenient go-to term to discredit legitimate news that present them in an unfavorable light. The phrase, promoted by Donald Trump, who occupies the position once described as “the leader of the free world,” has entered the vocabularies of the leaders of: Syria, Venezuela, China, Russia, Libya, Somalia, Turkey, and Poland, among many others, Politico reported.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.