Obama tried to give Zuckerberg a wake-up call over fake news on Facebook

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

Obama tried to give Zuckerberg a wake-up call over fake news on Facebook

By Adam Entous, Elizabeth Dwoskin and Craig Timberg September 24 at 7:51 PM

Nine days after Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg dismissed as “crazy” the idea that fake news on his company’s social network played a key role in the U.S. election, President Barack Obama pulled the youthful tech billionaire aside and delivered what he hoped would be a wake-up call.

For months leading up to the vote, Obama and his top aides quietly agonized over how to respond to Russia’s brazen intervention on behalf of the Donald Trump campaign without making matters worse. Weeks after Trump’s surprise victory, some of Obama’s aides looked back with regret and wished they had done more.

Now huddled in a private room on the sidelines of a meeting of world leaders in Lima, Peru, two months before Trump’s inauguration, Obama made a personal appeal to Zuckerberg to take the threat of fake news and political disinformation seriously. Unless Facebook and the government did more to address the threat, Obama warned, it would only get worse in the next presidential race.

Zuckerberg acknowledged the problem posed by fake news. But he told Obama those messages weren’t widespread on Facebook and that there was no easy fix, according to people briefed on the exchange, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share details of a private conversation.

The conversation on Nov. 19 was a flashpoint in a tumultuous year in which Zuckerberg came to recognize the magnitude of a new threat — a coordinated assault on a U.S. election by a shadowy foreign force that exploited the social network he created.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/obama-tried-to-give-zuckerberg-a-wake-up-call-over-fake-news-on-facebook/2017/09/24/15d19b12-ddac-4ad5-ac6e-ef909e1c1284_story.html

[Hoyt]

1. I'm a big Obama supporter, but if they had creditable evidence on Russia,

the Admin should have kicked ass much earlier. In fact, once
Comey started his junk, the hands off should have been replaced with a new strategy.

I know Obama was trying to maintain neutrality, avoid a white wing backlash, and thought Clinton would win anyway, but something could have been done.

[joeybee12]

2. I agree

Didn't do much good to say this after the stolen election

[drmeow]

3. I totally agree

Unfortunately, I think Obama thought Clinton had it locked up and so he felt like he could get away with being neutral. What I don't know is whether he would have done more if he had real concerns that Trump would win - I hope so.

[pandr32]

7. And I agree with you

President Obama faced an avalanche of hate and criticism while in office. He wanted to spare Democrats from charges he tried to influence the election when they were already facing enough vileness. He hoped they would be able to govern without some of his own undeserved baggage piled on.

[Blue_Tires]

8. I think Obama was banking on Hillary winning regardless

and he knew the absolute cataclysmic shitstorm that would have come if he was seen as openly trying to influence to taint the election...

Of course, now that Dicktater Donnie has thrown all the norms out the window, most people wouldn't even give a shit now...

[Hoyt]

9. I agree, and the white wingers would definitely have gone berserk. But it's a shame.

[sharedvalues]

4. Long article. Big news. Worth a read

Quite a few new details and color on the role of FB in the election.

Looks like everybody now agrees Russia ran a sophisticated disinformation campaign to influence our election. That includes Facebook, WaPo, Obama, Senate and House Intel committees. This agreement in and of itself is huge news.

[BigmanPigman]

5. Fuckerberg is guilty of complicity if not collusion.

[radhika]

6. Obama let many things go unchallenged...

I get he wanted to stay impartial.

Still, I would have liked him to tell the American people what he told Zuckerberg about his FB concerns. And was more vocal about Russian hacks, made a bigger case Maybe doing thru surrogates if he wanted to stay apart. It might have made a difference.

I also wish he had legally challenged Mc Connell on the Merrick Garland fiasco. Perhaps the SCOTUS could have allocated that nomination to the sitting president.


Ah well, water under the bridge.