Despite the statements made to its shareholders and users concerning its involvement in the fight against false information on the climate or Covid-19, Facebook is struggling to convince. The network is even now being sued.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), watchdog of the American stock market, is sending two new complaints to Facebook with the help of the association Whistleblower Aid, which represents whistleblower Frances Haugen. Described by the washington postthese accuse Facebook (now Meta) of having lied to its shareholders about efforts to combat misinformation about climate change and Covid-19.
A “climate” hub not highlighted
On global warming, the complaint identifies numerous misleading content visible on Facebook and relayed by the social network, tending to show that the promises made in terms of moderating climate-skeptical publications are not kept in practice. Promises yet public and reiterated on the occasion of several general meetings of shareholders.
There are also internal Facebook documents attesting to the knowledge of these problems by the chain of command. An employee remarks, for example, that it only took time to type “Climate Change” in the Facebook search engine to fall, in second position, on a climatosceptic video which already had 6.6 million views. Several employees would thus have alerted management to the lack of moderation of these publications, and requested – at a minimum – the establishment of information banners.
In the same way, if Facebook launched its Climate Science Information Center in 2020 to convey verified and credible information on climate change, many internal notes point to the fact that this hub is absolutely not put forward to the general public. . So much so that, according to a study carried out several months after its establishment, climatoscepticism was even more widespread than before on the platform.
Lack of responsiveness to Covid-19
Regarding Covid-19, the SEC complaint is quite similar in its accusations. Facebook is criticized for not having sufficiently matched words with deeds, after its commitments to moderate content denying the reality of the pandemic or circulating false information, whether statistical or relating to vaccination. Conspiratorial publications for some, knowing that many groups of opponents of health measures use Facebook to communicate.
Attached to this complaint, internal Facebook documents show that misinformation about Covid-19 even increased by 20% in April 2020, when the company had already promised to be particularly vigilant about the proliferation of this kind of problematic content. As a reminder, last July, Joe Biden accused Facebook and social networks of “kill people” by letting the anti-vaccine propaganda run its course.
Repeated commitments
Asked by The Verge about these two complaints, Facebook reacted through the voice of Drew Pusateri, one of Meta’s spokespersons. The latter declares: “We have directed more than two billion people to authoritative public health information and we continue to remove false vaccine claims, conspiracy theories and misinformation. […] There is no one-size-fits-all solution to stopping the spread of misinformation, but we are committed to creating new tools and policies to combat it.” Promises to keep, once again.