After watching “The Facebook Dilemma” it really opened my eyes as to how Political Campaigns can capitalize off of using the platform for fake news. Facebook is a large, and more complex network then your average social media site, so it is easy for stories to take off on there. Thus, due to the structure of the platform, it is easier for misinformation to spread rapidly. Initially, facebook was honestly fine with this, as all they care about is advertising dollars from clicks, and website traction. Due to this negligence, far right conspiracy theories played a massive role in the outcome of the 2016 election. These crazy stories ranged from Hilary Clinton Having a body double, to her running a child sex trafficing ring in the basement of a pizza shop. This largely benefited the Trump campaign, as they had no direct ties to these stories, but allowed them run rampant by not denying them. This spread of fake information benefitted Trump massively, and is largely to blame for his victory in the 2016 election. A large factor in creating these crazy and far fetched stories is the Russian Government. Russia saw the American Political political landscape as being volatile, and in a fragile state, and seized on their opportunity to pit american citizens against each other. Russia would create fake accounts on facebook, and they would push these wildly false stories about american politicians. The goal of this is to make one side hate the other, and it ultimately is a threat to society. The goal of hackers from countries like Russia is to destroy democracy at all costs, and this film depicts that Facebook was just a pawn in Russia’s game. Ultimately, this film depicts that we as Americans are in a very fragile state right now, and who knows what the future holds in the digital world.
Jake's Takes 