‘Tech giants use fake news outcry to promote left-wing agenda, censor rival views’ – expert to RT
Under the guise of protecting their users from 'fake news,' Facebook, Google and other tech companies are actually trying to censor the media space and promote a left-wing agenda, political commentator Steve Malzberg told RT.
The purpose of supposedly neutral social media outlets entering the news field is "much more nefarious than simply content-sharing," Malzberg warned.
“They want to control content when it comes to news. They're using the term ‘fake news,’ and the outcry against fake news, which emanates from the Russian investigation, and they're using it as an excuse to monitor and, basically, censor what their users see.”
Earlier these week, Google's subsidiary, YouTube, announced that it would seek out and support what it called “authoritative” news sources around the globe, promising $25 million worth of grants to build out video operations for these outlets.
The pundit said that plans by the video-sharing website raise many questions, including their definition of the term “authoritative” and what criteria are used in sorting the legitimate news sources from the illegitimate ones.
“They're not going to tell us any of that. They're going to pick the news that they think their people should be seeing and promoting it,” said Malzberg.
He believes YouTube and other companies are simply going to promote “left-wing liberal democrat viewpoints and conservative views will be pushed aside.”
The “left-wing bias” is no hoax, Malzberg insists, referring to “many conservatives, who have felt cut off” by the algorithms employed by tech giants in recent years.
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"They've gone after many conservatives – be it on Twitter, Facebook or YouTube. But you don't hear any complaints from liberal sites, bloggers and performers – they're left alone.”
The recent developments in Facebook serve as further proof that the liberal angle is going to prevail in the media coverage controlled by social media platforms, Malzberg said.
“Facebook has a global news partnership division, headed up by Campbell Brown, who used to work at CNN and other liberal networks. And they're looking to partner with news sources. Now, for instance, Facebook is partnering with BuzzFeed. They're going to put up a program [named 'Profile'], hosted by [Audie Cornish] from the NPR (National Public Radio), which is very liberal… They're also paying reportedly Anderson Cooper – another left-winger from CNN,” he explained.
“I don't hear any conservative names, conservative sites, conservative outlets mentioned as Facebook undertakes this endeavor,” Malzberg pointed out.
Tech companies are unanimously deciding on the news people should see and this takeover of the media space is “very dangerous and has to be stopped,” he said, adding that he “wouldn't count on Congress in the US to do anything.”
“The people, who really care about journalism, freedom and the flow of information, have to step up… I would hope that somehow, somewhere conservative groups, consumers and users of these tech companies would fight back and cause a ruckus – peacefully, of course – and have them change their ways.”
Malzberg acknowledged that “it's impossible to be neutral” for a news platform, but said that tech companies at least “can try to be fair through transparency” in their practices. If they're going to tell the people what “good news” is they should appoint experts representing leftist, conservative and centrist views, who are going to work together and explain why certain outlets are being promoted and others left out, he insisted.
“But to do this in secret is the furthest thing from neutral and again it's very dangerous to be going down that road in 2018 as technology continues to increase and information, it seems, going to decrease.”
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