How Meta ‘Nuked’ A Climate Story, And What It Means For Democracy

What happens when someone famous tries to hide something? In 2003, singer Barbra Streisand attempted to sue a photographer for uploading an aerial photograph of her Malibu home to a website. The lawsuit was thrown out, but the publicity generated by the case caused the photo to be downloaded hundreds of thousands of times. The Streisand Effect has since become shorthand for situations where an attempt to draw attention away from something ends up attracting massively more attention to it.

It’s a mess that speaks to the multiple harms that one firm’s monopolization of so much media can have on journalism, and consequently on democratic processes. As film producer Dave Kendall wrote in the article that caused Meta to block: “The implications of such policies for our democracy are alarming. Why should corporate entities be able to dictate what type of speech or content is acceptable?"Meta’s decision to limit political content goes back to the 2016 U.S.

What is certainly true is that, in the 21st century, campaigns of all types live or die by social media. An effective campaign likely won’t be successful in the real world if it doesn’t take off in the digital one. And that has implications for democracy.If journalists, activists and democratic institutions stand to lose from Meta’s policy to limit political content, who stands to gain?

But beyond its communication function, Gatheru sees social media as a force that can help bind communities together in the real world. She says this was shown most vividly earlier this year on Louisiana’s Gulf Coast, where a campaign action, led mainly by Black women leaders, attempted to block the development of new liquified natural gas facilities in that state. The action was successful, and caused the Biden Administration to pause all LNG permit applications.

The ultimate and perhaps most ambitious promise of social media was that it would strengthen democratic processes—not weaken them. So, to campaigners like Gatheru, Meta’s policy of limiting political stories and voices puts it on the side not of David, but of Goliath. And that’s a choice.If Meta’s current path is so harmful, what route could it take if it wanted to be part of the solution?

Gatheru, however, isn’t so sure about relabelling climate content. “If you come from a sociological perspective, everything is political, right?” she says. “And whatever Meta is parsing out as political or not has a bias, and choosing to limit political content is inherently political in and of itself.”On the other hand, there are serious doubts over whether the corporation and its platforms are able to discern the difference between valuable climate information, and misinformation.

Energy Energy Latest News, Energy Energy Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

You don’t have to admit there’s a climate crisis to be fighting climate changeAlthough many Americans and policy wonks see climate change as the major existential issue of our time, it ends up feeling like a relatively small piece of the American political conversation, which is more focused on the economy, immigration and democracy.
Source: cnni - 🏆 326. / 59 Read more »

UN climate chief says 2 years to avert worse climate changeGovernments, business leaders and development banks have two years to take action to avert far worse climate change, the U.N.'s climate chief said on Wednesday, in a speech that warned global warming is slipping down politicians' agendas.
Source: KSLcom - 🏆 549. / 51 Read more »