Facebook for President

Oct 6

Critical Analysis

69 % American are active monthly Facebook users. According to the chart above, what portion of the world’s population are active monthly Facebook users?
Describe two ways that Facebook impacts the American political system?
Last month The Wall Street Journal ran a series of articles, largely based on documents brought to light by Frances Haugen, a former Facebook product manager. The series highlighted how Facebook made decisions that fostered hate speech and misinformation, knew that its products were harmful to teens and studied how drug cartels and human traffickers used the platform to conduct business. Wow. Do you think the U.S. government should regulate social media companies like Facebook?
The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation is composed of 28 Senators and led by Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Ranking Member Roger Wicker, R-Miss. Facebook whistle-blower, Frances Haugen, was called to testify before the Communications, Media, and Broadband subcommittee to share internal Facebook research that Frances Haugen brought to light about the negative impact Instagram has on teenagers. Why do Congressional committees hold hearings?
Two members of the Senate subcommittee, Richard Bluementhal, D-Conn (Net wealth: $81,000,000), and Marsha Blackburn, D-Tenn are fierce ideological and partisan opponents. But they seem to be in complete agreement at the Facebook hearings. Why do you think an issue like Facebook would create widespread bipartisan agreement?
A public good is a commodity or service that is provided without profit to all members of a society, either by the government or a private individual or organization. An example of a public good is national defense, law enforcement, fire protection, and access to clean air and clean water. Make a claim about whether the internet is a public good.
Facebook crashed yesterday for 5 hours. How did that effect you and the nation? Does that seem like a national security issue?
The Federal Communications Commission regulates interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories. An independent U.S. government agency overseen by Congress, the Commission is the federal agency responsible for implementing and enforcing America’s communications law and regulations. Do you think the internet should be added to the regulation of the FCC?
The FCC regulates broadcast stations in the public interest, and these networks have certain provisions against issuing false information. Facebook is under no such regulations, and it is not liable for posted content, as protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.* Do you think Facebook should be responsible for all the misinformation on its site?
Ms. Haugen suggested a change to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the law that protects platforms from being held legally liable for content posted by their users. Specifically, she said she would recommend exempting platform decisions about algorithms from Section 230 protections -- so that Facebook and other apps could be sued for their choices about how to rank content in users’ feeds. Her suggestion mirrored a bill, the Protecting Americans from Dangerous Algorithms Act, that was introduced recently by two Democratic members of Congress, which would exempt platform decisions about algorithms from Section 230’s protections. Do you think Facebook should be more heavily regulated.