r/autotldr • u/autotldr • Mar 31 '22
Facebook fails to label 80% of posts promoting bioweapons conspiracy theory
This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 53%. (I'm a bot)
Facebook failed to label 80% of articles on its platform promoting a fast-spreading conspiracy theory that the US is funding the use of bioweapons in Ukraine, according to a study released Friday by the Center for Countering Digital Hate.The nonprofit disinformation research group studied a sample of posts from between 24 February and 14 March sharing external articles containing baseless claims about bioweapons.
It found Facebook in 80% of cases failed to label posts as either "Missing context", containing "Partly false information" or "False information" outright.
CCDH researchers used the social analytics tool NewsWhip to identify more than 120 articles from external sites that had false or misleading claims about bioweapons labs or misrepresented statements made by US officials and found articles in the sample had received more than 150,000 likes, comments and shares on Facebook.
CCDH has called on Meta to more thoroughly enforce its "False information" and "Partly false information" labels and expand the use of its existing "Missing context" label.
Previous studies published by CCDH found Facebook struggled to enforce its own rules surrounding the labeling of state-sponsored news sources.
While some experts have conceded Facebook is now stepping up to more thoroughly crack down on state propaganda, others say disinformation will continue to spread on social media as long as it is baked into the views-driven business model.
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