November 17, 2020 was an unusual day for "social media." In just a single day, in the U.S.:
Chief executives of Facebook (Mark Zuckerberg) and Twitter (Jack Dorsey), today, were summoned to a Congressional hearing, with Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Senate both raising angry questions about the conduct of those social media platforms, and others.
Republicans (who control the U.S. Senate, and instigated the hearing), called the hearing to publicly accuse Facebook and Twitter of bias against conservatives, and to excoriate them for it.
As "case-in-point," they cited Facebook's blocking of postings, during the 2020 presidential campaign, that accused former Vice President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, of misconduct.
Democrats on the committee, however, had their own complaints -- they complained that Facebook and Twitter did not sufficiently censor falsehoods ("disinformation") (particularly those spread by the President and his allies), and "hate speech" (including hate speech against Muslims).
Both sides seemed to complain that these internet giants had become too big and powerful, and too unaccountable, for the public good. ~RH
Sources:
Twitter announced a new service -- "twitter fleets" -- "Tweets" that disappear after 24 hours, ostensibly leaving no trace. According to Twitter, this provides people a chance to tweet something, regret it, and have it go away.
However, it also creates the opportunity for somebody to start a rumour, innuendo, or accusation -- which can be picked up and echoed and distributed by others -- leaving no trace of whence it originally came.
The implications for accountability in online broadcasting are staggering.
It could make it possible for any person to start something, then have their tracks covered, and never be identified as the originating culprit of a lie, a scam, a fraud, a malicious meme, or any other mischief.
And it could provide Twitter with a way to protect itself from accountability for what it carries and broadcasts online. ("Sorry, judge, that evidence has been erased, as part of our contract with users.")
Sources:
President Trump and his allies have long resented his federal cybersecurity chief, Krebs, who debunked false claims of election security problems, and who created a "Rumor Control" website dedicated to debunking false rumors about the election -- eventually indirectly discrediting his own President's false claims (commonly circulated on Twitter and Facebook).
Krebs expected to be fired, and was. Democrats decried the firing, and some key Republicans praised Krebs work.
Net significance: It's not easy to establish and maintain an honest, government-run, disinformation-debunking operation, even in a democracy. ~RH
Sources:
Trump tweeted Tuesday night that Krebs had put out a statement concerning the election that was "highly inaccurate," apparently a reference to a joint statement Thursday from CISA, the Election Assistance Commission and groups that represent the chief election officers in every state. The statement read, in part, "There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised."
Trump has said repeatedly that the election was rigged, even though no evidence has substantiated the claim and numerous state and federal agencies have said the election was legitimate.
Krebs has been one of the most vocal government officials debunking baseless claims about election manipulation, particularly addressing a conspiracy theory centered on Dominion Voting Systems machines that Trump has pushed.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday fired Christopher Krebs, the U.S. government’s top cybersecurity official, after he [Krebs] spent weeks contradicting the election-related conspiracy theories that Trump and his allies have promoted to deny the legitimacy of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
Krebs, the director of the Department of Homeland Security’s "Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency" (CISA), oversaw the defense of the 2018 and 2020 elections, as well as the protection of federal computer networks...
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As Election Day neared, CISA launched the “Rumor Control” website to collect fact checks about common election misinformation. Krebs, who told reporters he wouldn’t directly correct Trump’s falsehoods, nonetheless stocked the page with information that debunked right-wing conspiracy theories. That continued after the election, as Trump and his allies — including several of Krebs’ fellow agency leaders — falsely alleged mass voter fraud to deny the legitimacy of Biden’s victory.
“The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history,” CISA and its election security partners said in a statement on Nov. 12, as rumors about Krebs’ fate swirled. “While we know there are many unfounded claims and opportunities for misinformation about the process of our elections, we can assure you we have the utmost confidence in the security and integrity of our elections, and you should too.”
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Krebs’ insistence on the sanctity of the process angered White House officials, who took particular umbrage when he dismissed a Republican conspiracy theory about a vote-flipping supercomputer as “nonsense.”
Several government officials expected Krebs to be fired after a POLITICO story published on Tuesday highlighted his pushback against conservatives’ election misinformation, a former U.S. official said.
As it turned out, Rumor Control was only the final straw. The White House’s personnel office “has wanted to fire Krebs for a while,” said a current U.S. official.
"President Donald Trump on Tuesday ousted Chris Krebs, a Department of Homeland Security cybersecurity official who publicly rejected the president’s false claims of widespread voter fraud as part of his ongoing efforts to undermine the election. ...
"Krebs has also been fact-checking Trump’s unfounded conspiracy theories on his government Twitter account and the agency’s “Rumor Control” website. ..."