Facebook is back in the headlines and the news is not favorable.
A few years back, Facebook changed its newsfeed algorithm to de-emphasize news and emphasize “engagement.”
Turns out, people are highly engaged when they are angry. So, any post that generated lots of anger emojis shot up in the newsfeed rankings.
All of this had the effect of reducing real news on Facebook and replacing it with angry rants. The next thing you know, a mob is storming our Congress.
The media has a critical role in the formation of our nation’s “collective conscience,” a term first pegged by the famous 19th century social theorist Emile Durkheim.
Durkheim theorized that every culture, every nation had a collective conscience that played a critical role in the success and failure of a nation or culture.
In the United States, for centuries, our collective conscience was formed by books, magazines and newspapers. Then television came along and played a fundamental role in changing our collective conscience.
Have you ever noticed how pre-TV letters contain the most magnificent and eloquent language, even from ordinary people? That’s because our collective conscience was formed and maintained by the written word. TV came along and changed all that. One liners, quips, sarcastic remarks become more important than elegant text.
But at least television involved professional writers, editors, directors and producers. Our collective conscience was maintained by professionals.
Then along came social media and our collective conscience became commonized. Ordinary people impetuously posting from their smartphones became the conversation of the nation. Our collective conscience changed from one controlled by professionals to one controlled by the masses.
In the United States, we have lost half our professional journalists in 20 years, from 50,000 to 25,000. But in the media, we have far more content than ever. Where does the content come from? From ordinary people posting whatever. Is it any wonder that many see a decline in the media?
Back in the old days, journalists tried hard not to sensationalize but to report as objectively as possible. Most major newspapers rarely dove into the gutter of rank sensationalism. There were professional ethics. Not perfect, but better than nothing.
Today we have Facebook using artificial intelligence on a global scale to take sensationalism to its highest possible form: clickbait. Much of it is outright lies and fake news. But for the purveyors of clickbait, it doesn’t matter. The more eyeballs, the more ads, the more ads the more money. Truth, objectivity, professional ethics are thrown out the window in pursuit of profits. That’s where we are.
Congress created this monstrous situation with Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1996. Congress was worried that internet platforms would never succeed if they were held legally responsible for their content. So they got a big fat whopping exemption from all lawsuits.
I am legally liable for every word in this newspaper, regardless of whether I wrote it. I am legally liable for every guest column, every letter to the editor.
But Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc. are not. They can publish anything they want: fake, dangerous, terrorist, pornographic and have complete legal immunity.
For the first time in history, a publisher was given immunity for any and all of their content. Congress threw out 500 years of common law. What we are seeing now is the result.
The solution is simple. Make Facebook, Google and Twitter legally liable for all their content. Repeal Section 230. Don’t hold your breath. Congress, by favoring the internet, has now destroyed traditional journalism and replaced it with the most powerful, profitable monopolies in the history of the world. They have created a dangerous situation in which a handful of companies control our media. They control our collective conscience.
Facebook has been running full page ads in the Wall Street Journal calling on Congress to reform Section 230. That’s just window dressing. Their behind-the-scenes lobbyists are fighting tooth and nail, and handing out big bucks, to make sure that doesn’t happen.
If Section 230 was repealed, it would be Big Tech against a unified Plaintiffs’ Bar. What a mud wrestle that would be. The lawsuits would be never ending and social media as we know it would end.
What is to be done? First of all, internet platforms should be responsible for their content, plain and simple, just like any other publisher. This would make mega-platforms like Facebook untenable and would open the door for thousands of local competitors to take their place.
Local social media, subject to traditional libel laws, would be more accountable, more connected to their communities and more responsible. This is where my company is moving.
Instead of secret algorithms, we will have fact checking and content moderation by real local journalists who understand the standards of their communities.
Technological advances in software are giving smaller players a chance to compete. We use the open source content management system called Drupal. The latest version is incredibly powerful. There is nothing we can’t affordably program.
In just a year, Emmerich News has become the largest news network in the state with 750,000 users a month and 20 interconnected local Mississippi websites across the state. We produce over one thousand local articles a week (compared to Facebook’s zero) and we’re just getting started. The growth is explosive.
We envision four main feeds: News, Neighbors, Friends and Simpatigo. Our News feed is pretty much complete and it is based on the fundamental role of what we do as a local news organization. Neighbors will be a way for neighborhoods, small towns and communities to interact, post and communicate. It will be like Nextdoor, but locally owned.
Friends will be similar to Facebook. You pick your friends, get invites, like posts, etc. But we won’t use a secret algorithm to manipulate your Friends feed. You’ll get to see everything your friends post. And when you post something, it will go to all your friends, not just the ones Facebook selects.
Simpatigo will be a feed based on people, events, artists and businesses who share your interests, based on what you like and quizlets you take. The difference is that you, the user, will have total control over your “algorithm.” You can edit your likes, delete your history, start all over, pick which quizlets you want to use or create your own quizlets. If you only want to see posts from people who think the Rolling Stones were the greatest band in history, go for it.
How will our social media differ? It’s local. Run by real journalists in the community who will be accountable for its content. In addition, we plan to cut the whole community in on the gig, by using micro payments to encourage and remunerate local posters.
Having a handful of mega companies dominate the world is dangerous and untenable. The answer is the free market and competition. Emmerich Newspapers plans to be part of that process. We are moving forward rapidly. Neighbors is done. Friends will be done in six months and Simpatigo after that. It’s going to be exciting.
Wyatt Emmerich is the editor and publisher of The Northside Sun, a weekly newspaper in Jackson. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].
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