Google and Facebook have made bold claims lately regarding their battle against misinformation and the steps they have taken to curb the menace, but a fresh investigation highlights how the two giants are also responsible for funding coordinated misinformation campaigns across the globe. Facebook received quite some flak for allowing content that allegedly encouraged the storming of the U.S. Capitol earlier this year. In the wake of the chilling incident, Facebook quickly put in place a few checks and measures to contain the spread of fake news and vitriolic content.
Starting with Groups, Facebook introduced the ability to designate certain participants as ‘Experts’ to verify and stop the proliferation of problematic content. Similar to rival social media platforms, Facebook also joined hands with health institutions and digital literacy groups to tackle COVID-19 conspiracies and hoaxes. Google was not too far behind. Just over a year ago, Google extended its ban on political ads and also enforced a tighter ban on COVID-related videos that might be spreading harmful information. However, it appears that the two companies also played a fundamental role in creating the problem in the first place.
According to an in-depth investigation by MIT Technology Review, the companies have actually paid out millions as part of their respective content initiatives that have worsened the global misinformation pandemic. Starting with Facebook’s Instant Article initiative, all engagement was hogged by clickbait websites and fake news sources that initially shared plagiarized content, and then started sharing sensational political content that led to a tragic human rights disaster for a minority sect in Myanmar. One of the leaked Facebook internal research documents also revealed that the company knew about rampant plagiarism on its platform, but it didn’t fix the problem fearing legal tussles and a drop in engagement. Tutorials that existed online allowed the growth of content farms, and gaming Facebook’s safety checks became so easy that one individual was said to be solely managing 11,000 Facebook accounts. Clickbait content farms in Kosovo and Macedonia also reached half a million Americans ahead of the 2020 elections, according to the report.
A Fight Against Oneself
The company, which now goes by the name Meta, reportedly paid millions of dollars to these bad actors. Such was the poor state of affairs, MIT Technology Review explains that, at one point, 60-percent of all domains registered with Facebook’s Instant Article program were engaged in spammy activities. Cheap automation tools allow malicious parties to distribute problematic articles, and even push live videos as well as manage Instagram to multiply their reach — all while extracting a stable income from Facebook. Researchers also found over 2,000 pages originating from farms in Vietnam and Cambodia, many of which had over a million followers. Political figures also reportedly paid these scammers to push out content that affected the election conversation and tipped the scales in favor of one party. Another huge problem was the spread of videos with sensitive content that were wrongfully pushed out by scammers as live videos to add some heft to their sensational value.
Facebook was not the only enabler. The report explains how clickbait farms and bad actors also exploited Google’s AdSense system to make money while dispelling misinformation. Overseas clickbait farms that reached the American audience ahead of the 2016 elections were pillared by AdSense dollars. Continuous recycling of content is commonplace, and since algorithms like those behind YouTube push up content with viral potential, these spammers have evaded punitive action. Google Drive folders shared within the clickbait community also provided target details such a the most popular groups in over 20 countries to expand their reach.
Source: MIT Technology Review