Thread by @donie, A thread about America and Facebook/ A few months ago I saw [...]

A thread about America and Facebook/

A few months ago I saw this @Acosta interview with Trump supporters and wondered what had made them convinced that masks were useless and Covid a hoax?

Was it all what Trump was saying all rallies or how was what people were reading online playing into it?

Around the same time @ddale8 and I had fact-checked a false video that purported to show Biden falling asleep during a live TV interview. https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/01/tech/trump-facebook-twitter-fact-check/index.html

Republicans are flooding the internet with deceptive videos and Big Tech isn't keeping up

A series of deceptively edited and misleading videos shared by prominent Republicans have run up millions of views across Facebook and Twitter in just the past few days. And while both companies have...

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/01/tech/trump-facebook-twitter-fact-check/index.html

Then I went to a Trump rally and one of the first examples a guy mentioned for Biden not being fit for office was that very false video.

Quite the story. But maybe a one-off...

But no, I go to another Trump rally. The day after the first debate. A false viral YouTube/Facebook video is cited repeatedly to me as proof Biden was wearing an earpiece at the debate. https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/02/tech/biden-debate-wire-conspiracy/index.html

How a crease in Biden's shirt spawned a debate conspiracy theory

Before the first Presidential debate, a baseless conspiracy theory inundated many Americans: that Democratic candidate Joe Biden might wear a secret earpiece to assist him in his debate against...

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/02/tech/biden-debate-wire-conspiracy/index.html

How to stop the spread of lies on social media?

Maybe fact-checkers.

But fact-checkers who work for Facebook like @AlanDukeNews have about as much trust among some Trump supporters as someone like me who works for CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/29/tech/fact-checkers-facebook-trump/index.html

Facebook fact-checkers to Trump supporters: We are not trying to censor you

"Anything I put on there about our president is generally only on for a few minutes, and then all of a sudden they're fact checking me," one woman outside a rally for President Trump in Bemidji,...

https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/29/tech/fact-checkers-facebook-trump/index.html

And that brings us to a few days after the election. Where people who read viral misinformation alleging election fraud took to the streets saying the election was rigged. And who didn’t believe the fact-checkers because they didn’t trust them.

And some of those folks were never going to accept the facts. Some of them were always going to believe and embrace misinformation.

But saying *all* of it wouldn’t have happened without Facebook is also ignoring the facts.

As @cwarzel shows here. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/24/opinion/facebook-disinformation-boomers.html

Opinion | What Facebook Fed the Baby Boomers

Many Americans’ feeds are nightmares. I know because I spent weeks living inside two of them.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/24/opinion/facebook-disinformation-boomers.html

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