Title: Hard Questions: What Effect Does Social Media Have on Democracy? - About Facebook
Headings: Hard Questions: What Effect Does Social Media Have on Democracy?
Facebook
Hard Questions: What Effect Does Social Media Have on Democracy?
Foreign Interference
False News
Echo Chambers
Political Harassment
Unequal Participation
Giving Voice
So, What Effect Does Social Media Have on Democracy?
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Content: We’ve also found these posts often become important magnets for counter-speech, but we recognize reasonable people may disagree with this policy. Our concerns with political hate speech aren’t limited to the online sphere — we also need to be vigilant that social media doesn’t facilitate offline violence. Policing this content at a global scale is an open research problem since it is hard for machines to understand the cultural nuances of political intimidation. And while we are hiring over 10,000 more people this year to work on safety and security, this is likely to remain a challenge. Unequal Participation
While foreign meddling, misinformation, echo chambers and hate speech get the headlines, what worries me most is how social media can distort policymakers’ perception of public opinion. People on Facebook tend to represent every walk of life, but not everyone is using their voice equally. Take women. They represent a majority of the population, yet are under-represented in public political dialogue on Facebook. If politicians mistake the views of a few with the views of many, that can make for bad public policy. Vulnerable populations could end up ignored, and fringe groups could appear mainstream.