Showing posts with label Free Press. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Free Press. Show all posts

Thursday, November 07, 2019

RECLAIMING AMERICA: BREAK UP THE MEDIA MONOPOLIES

THE LONG WAY HOME




BREAK UP MEDIA MONOPOLIES

Beginning with Facebook



“They’ve bulldozed the competition, used our private information for profit, undermined our democracy and tilted the playing field against everyone else.” 

Elizabeth Warren, US Senator and Presidential Candidate


Ten years ago this article would have been about the television and newsprint monopolies.  To some extent it still is.  But more importantly it concerns the social media monopolies – most notably Facebook.  For while more Americans still get their news from television, a 2018 Pew Research Center report found that the fastest growing source of news in America is social media. 
At 20% of respondents, social media passed print newspapers (16%) as the primary source of news.  It trailed radio at 26%, news websites at 33% and television at 49%.  Combining social media and news websites, more people got their news online than from any other source.  Moreover, recent revelations about the role of Facebook in laundering Russian propaganda for the election campaign of Donald Trump have alerted us to the dangers that social media pose.  It is in fact fertile soil for unfounded propaganda, rumor, innuendo and conspiracy theory. 
As a candidate for president, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has proposed breaking up media monopolies, drawing the ire of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.  Recently, the word got out that Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO of Facebook, recently informed his employees at a private assembly that he would fight like hell against the “existential” threat posed by candidate Warren. 
Had he tried he could not have choreographed a more effective endorsement of Warren’s candidacy for president.  Those of us who subsist on less than ten digits in annual income can safely assume that Zuckerberg has no concept of a true existential crisis.  He may have dreams of global domination but he certainly has no understanding of the scourge of monopolies on a free market economy. 
It seems Warren has the audacity to stand up to Facebook, noting that the dominant social media platform has swallowed Instagram and WhatsApp and together they control 85% of the American market.  If Warren succeeds in breaking up the dominant platforms, she argues that they would compete in protecting user privacy and assert greater effort at combating the sort of mass misinformation that corrupted the 2016 presidential election. [1]
Zuckerberg’s counter argument is reminiscent of the big three automakers, the railroads and Standard Oil defending their market dominance.  The historical monopolies claimed that only they had the resources to serve the public interest.  Zuckerberg argues that only Facebook has the power and money to combat misinformation and foreign interests.  The problem of course is that Zuck and company lack motive.  Just like John D. Rockefeller and Henry Ford, their primary motive is to boost market share and elevate the profit margin. 
Mark Zuckerberg has never demonstrated a social consciousness.  He responds with evasion, obfuscation and misinformation every time Facebook faces criticism.  Even if we could believe in his philanthropic values we should not.  History instructs us that corporate entities always serve their own interests.  Always.  Without exception.  How much power and wealth does Zuckerberg need?  The answer is and always will be:  more! 
Where was Zuckerberg’s social consciousness when Russian agents spent sizable sums creating fake accounts to distribute false facts and scandalous propaganda to targeted populations in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in the 2016 election?  Did he know?  Yes.  He had to know.  Several members of Facebook were working directly with Donald Trump’s campaign, working alongside rightwing data operation Cambridge Analytica, in formulating advertisements and targeting Facebook users.  An estimated 126 million users were exposed to Russian propaganda and 85 million had their data stolen by Cambridge Analytica. [2]
There is no doubt that Russia used Facebook and Zuckerberg profited.  At his appearance before congress in April 2018 he testified that “tens of thousands” of fake accounts were identified and taken down in 2017 – after the election.  His solution for new verification requirements can easily be bypassed with shell companies and fake identifications. [3]
Zuckerberg failed to answer questions about the data Facebook provides Russian and other foreign agencies where Facebook operates.  Russia requires Facebook to store their data in Russia where they can access it.  The irony is rich in that Zuckerberg refuses to share data with the US government. 
I’m not suggesting that Facebook should share its data with the US government.  I am suggesting that it should not be sharing personal data with any government.  As it now stands corporations like Facebook operate in a Wild West environment where anything goes.  We have no way of knowing what data it retrieves and stores for analysis and what data it buries.  Moreover, we have absolutely no reason to trust Zuckerberg and his loyal minions.  In fact, we have every reason not to trust him. 
No one on the congressional committee thought to ask Zuckerberg what kind of assistance his employees provided to Russian fronts like the Internet Research Agency.  If they provided data used to target voting populations in critical states, their complicity in defrauding the 2016 election would rise to the critical zone. 
When you take a closer look at the services Facebook typically provides its corporate customers it becomes highly probable that they conspired with Russian interests in tipping the election.  For example, they provide a “custom audience” application that matches the client’s message with a receptive audience.  That is precisely what the Trump team needed to tip the balance in the critical states. 
Between barrages of tech talk that no one outside the industry understands Zuckerberg repeatedly asserted that users have the power to control their own data.  Really?  The truth is we have no idea what Big Brother does with the data we provide.  He repeatedly said they do not sell user data.  That is only true in the most abstract sense.  They use our personal data to feed algorithms that they then sell to advertisers who have something to sell to the user.  Without user data there would be nothing to sell. 
It goes on and on but the bottom line is clear:  Zuckerberg is no friend to American democracy or the public interest.  He and his people are smart enough to find ways to sell us out a million times over and make unconscionable sums of money doing it. 
Elizabeth Warren is right.  The big tech companies should be broken up.  The data monopolies they hold strictly for profit need to be placed under some form of public scrutiny and oversight.  Facebook and its enigmatic leader have earned our distrust.  Zuckerberg has established his place in history as a primary conspirator with Vladimir Putin in getting Donald Trump elected to office. 
If there were a way to put him and his operators in jail for what they did, I’d be all for it.  Unfortunately, the law has not begun to address the wilderness of technology – no less social media. 
Warren’s proposal is just a beginning.  To the extent possible we should break up the media monopolies.  We should also make sure that political ads are delivered with absolute transparency.  If the source is Russian it should be clearly stated.  If the source is Facebook, it should say that as well.  Never again should we be inundated by anonymous popup ads that inform us what to believe without regard for the facts. 
Google, the ubiquitous search engine and owner of YouTube, is even more dominant than Facebook.  In twenty years of existence it has grown to control nearly 90% of all searches on the global market. [1]
It is clear that the algorithms that Google employs to generate sources and their order of presentation have the power to effect our opinions and perspective on the news of the day.  Conservatives complain that Google demonstrates a liberal bias and researchers have found some basis for that complaint.  A media organization called AllSides found in late 2018 that roughly 65% of news sources generated by Google searches yield left-leaning results while only 16% were from the right.  The organization also found that the bias was not intentional per se.  Their algorithms were designed to serve their users and their users tend to be younger and more progressive than the general public. [2]
While we should be more concerned with the validity of news content than perceived political bias, we should be able to access unbiased news through our primary news sources.  It seems to me that some form of user control should be offered if indeed we are unable to break up the monopoly of news. 
Once again, as we transition from traditional news providers to internet-based news sources, we are entering a bold new world of information dissemination.  We need new tools to ensure that what we once called news is not transformed into pure bias-controlled propaganda.  We need standards of journalism to apply to web-based news and we need a non-partisan government agency to monitor the news and enforce fundamental standards of journalism.  That which is not news should be clearly labeled as opinion. 
What do we do about the more traditional news providers?  We know that only a handful of massive corporations with international corporate interests own the primary news sources via television, radio and print media.  We know that the corps of serious journalists and reporters has suffered major cutbacks.  We know that large corporations are nearly impossible to sue for unsubstantiated news or biased reporting due to their deep pockets and scores of high-powered attorneys. [3]
As a consequence, news organizations get away with murder.  Fox News reports one set of facts – adhering closely to the Republican Party talking points – and MSNBC reports another set of facts that too often bear a close resemblance to the Democratic Party talking points.  We suspect that every news organization has a hidden economic and/or political agenda and too often we are right. 
What can we do? 
The first thing that comes to mind is separating news media and journalism from all other corporate entities.  Knowing that opposition will be fierce and buttressed by deep pockets and legions of litigators, multinational corporations with inherent conflicts of interest should have no control of the news industry.  Noting that only media is protected by the first amendment to the constitution, AT&T should be forced to divest itself of CNN.  Walt Disney should be compelled to divest itself of ABC.  Comcast should divest itself of ABC and Media Networks.  In print media, Amazon should divest itself of the venerated Washington Post. 
In radio the picture is even more complex.  The worlds of entertainment, propaganda, news and commentary often overlap.  The same principle should apply.  If we can force the separation of news and journalism from all other corporate interests, we should do so.  To the extent that we cannot separate them, we should require an impenetrable firewall that prevents the corporate masters from influencing the news or informed editorial content. 
The corporate world has spent a lot of time and resources gaining control of the flow of information.  They will not give up that control without a fight.  They hold the reigns of mass messaging.  They will offer dozens of established experts and commentators that will offer a vast array of arguments why it is neither possible nor advisable to break up the media monopolies and separate the news from corporate interests.  They have the money and they have the platforms to deliver their message.  We only have ourselves and common sense. 
In its 2019 report, Reporters without Borders ranked the United States of America 48th in the world for upholding the principles of a free media.  The report noted that our president has declared the press enemies of the people and consistently labels news reports unfavorable to his interests as “fake news.”  The report also notes the failure of the Trump administration to condemn the Saudi Arabian government for the brutal assassination of Washington Post contributor and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi. [4]
Forty-eighth out of 180 countries is hardly good enough for the land of the free. 
If we believe in democracy we must do all we can to ensure a free flow of unbiased information.  Democracy depends on an informed citizenry and an informed citizenry depends on a free and fair press – including the media. 

  1. “18+ stats that show how search and SEO are changing.”  By Rebecca Sentence.
Econsultancy, October 28, 2019.

  1. “AllSides Report on Google News Bias: Analysis of political bias of Google News and
Google News search results.”  AllSides.  October 16, 2018.

3.     “These 15 Billionaires Own America’s News Media Companies.”  By Kate Vinton.  Forbes, June 1, 2016.    

4.     “2019 World Press Freedom Index.”  Reporters without Borders. 


Jack Random is the author of Hard Times: The Wrath of an Angry God and the Jazzman Chronicles – a collection of 99 commentaries on American and International Affairs from 2000 to 2014 (Crow Dog Press).