Photo Credit: crime scene
Social media companies say they’re doing it to protect us and keep us safe. But it’s still very alarming that the top social media companies now appear to be working quietly behind the scenes with the FBI once again. There was a brief lull when it was bad optics to be seen working hand-in-glove with the FBI, but that all seems to be changing.
The link between social media and foreign bad actors
Given that it’s election season, you can probably guess why the FBI is suddenly reaching out to social media companies again. Yep, you guessed it, it has to do with foreign bad actors such as Russia attempting to meddle in our free and fair elections. Remember all those “Russia, Russia, Russia” conspiracy theories from 2016 and 2020? Well, they’re back, just with a different spin to them.
This time, says the FBI, foreign bad actors are becoming even more adept at using social media to spread their messages. Apparently, partnering with social media influencers is much more effective than relying on clumsy bots to do their dirty work. And American enemies are becoming much craftier at finding story angles that resonate with social media influencers that identify as “patriots.” So, for example, they spread misinformation and disinformation about what’s happening in America, all to get them to talk about how the “American way of life” is changing for the worse.
By now, you’ve probably heard about a Department of Justice document outlining all the ways that Russia is developing sophisticated ways of reaching out to social media influencers. Sometimes they are even using AI to generate new narratives or story angles that they can spread on social media. And, in other cases, money is actually changing hands, as they pay to have their content or point of view posted all over social media. The case that everyone is talking about, of course, involves the potential connection involving the Kremlin and the Russian propaganda network RT (formerly known as Russia Today).
Just how involved are the big social media companies?
The big question, of course, is just how close the partnership is between the FBI and the big social media companies. If the partnership is too tight, of course, then the optics look really bad. It almost looks as if the White House is using the FBI as a way to clamp down on dissent across certain social media platforms.
If you’re into conspiracy theories, it could be a way for the White House to clamp down on political rivals such as former president Donald Trump. All you have to do is label his supporters as a bunch of “Kremlin stooges,” and you can basically use claims of “misinformation” or “disinformation” as a clever way to discredit political rivals.
So the good news is that the link or partnership does not appear to go that deep. Right now, the FBI says that it only reaches out to the big social media platforms if they have credible evidence from the U.S. intelligence community that foreign bad actors are specifically targeting them. And then social media platforms can either choose to act on the information, or ignore it entirely.
The balancing act of the big social media platforms
There’s no denying that there’s a bit of a balancing act for the big social media platforms. On one hand, they have to show that they are supporters of free speech. On the other hand, they have to show that they are willing to clamp down on content that may cause harm. In the best of all worlds, they would be able to do both. But as we know from the past few years, it’s usually the case that they dramatically err on one side or another.
