Bloomberg Businessweek USA - October 30, 2017

14

 VIEW Bloomberg Businessweek October 30, 2017

Asia’s Big Problem With

Fake News on Facebook

 VIEW

Along with its Silicon Valley brethren,

Facebook Inc. is scrambling to respond to

pressure from Congress about the flood

of fake news and bogus political ads on

its site. The deluge is also doing great

damage far from Washington.

Facebook’s fastest-growing markets

are in the developing world, where fake

news is even more devilishly complicated

and dangerous, if that’s possible, than

in the West. In rapidly changing coun-

tries such as Myanmar, Facebook has

become a platform for hate speech and

incendiary rumors targeted at vulnera-

ble minority groups. Elsewhere, shadowy

political actors and authoritarian regimes

have used the site to smear opponents

and tighten their grip on power.

In such countries, users are often new

to the web, and digital literacy is low. In

many cases, people have been subjected

for decades to laughably inaccurate state

○ In countries such as Myanmar, Indonesia, and India, the platform is

being used to sow violence and sustain repressive regimes

propaganda and lack independent media

alternatives; what appears on Facebook

is widely accepted as news. Where legit-

imate press outlets do exist, they rarely

have the resources to fact-check and

combat misinformation on their own.

As serious as the undermining of elec-

tions and erosion of Western institutions

are, the consequences of letting these lies

circulate unchecked in the developing

world may be even more frightening. In

India, Facebook’s second-biggest market,

fake stories spread on its WhatsApp

messaging service led to lynchings; in

Myanmar, Facebook posts and fake

images have contributed to the hatred

of Rohingya Muslims, more than 500,

of whom have been driven from their

homes since late August. Religious ten-

sions in Indonesia are running higher,

in part because of a fake news campaign

cynically used to demonize and oust

Jakarta’s Christian governor. Facebook

may disavow direct responsibility for

these trends, and it may even be correct.

Yet its platform exacerbates the poten-

tial for violence and social breakdown.

This isn’t to say that Facebook has any

obvious solutions. It doesn’t: Algorithms

are a crude tool; scanning posts for offen-

sive language risks censoring some fair

speech, while hate mongers will find

ways around the filters. Greatly expand-

ing personnel to monitor posts would be

time-consuming and expensive.

It’s not completely hopeless. Civil

society groups can help to build up

digital literacy, inoculate readers against

the most obvious hoaxes, and challenge

inflammatory appeals. Media organi-

zations can pool resources to debunk

hoaxes. Governments can draft clearer

laws against hate speech and force

Facebook and other social media com-

panies to abide by them—though there is

a danger some will use Facebook’s strug-

gles as a rationale for censorship.

At the end of the day, Facebook can’t

sidestep its own responsibility. Yes,

algorithms will have to be tweaked con-

stantly. At the same time, whatever the

cost, the company will have to hire more

human beings to monitor how its plat-

forms are being used. Facebook cannot

contribute to building a global commu-

nity if it’s also giving its users the means

to tear societies apart. 

To read Noah Smith on Thomas

Piketty’s inequality theory and Albert

R. Hunt on Mick Mulvaney’s numbers

troubles, go to Bloombergview.com

prevent people from voting, along with the proposed removal

from office of the democratically elected Puigdemont—have

served only to inflame passions and drive more Catalans to the

independence movement. At the same time, Puigdemont will-

fully broke the law and put his own officials and citizens at risk

of prosecution or worse. His calls for dialogue with Spain, which

have been interpreted by various parties as either noble or cal-

culated, are undermined by the effective lack of debate so far on

the question of secession within the Catalan Parliament itself.

There have been suggestions within Catalonia that

Puigdemont could call his own elections as a way of preempting

any Spanish move to unseat the government. According to

another poll cited by El Periódico, 68.6 percent of the popu-

lation support the idea of elections. But Puigdemont’s own

advisers have said elections aren’t on the table. That leaves

either an admission of defeat or the unilateral declaration of

independence. Such a declaration will make the crisis even

more acute, and Puigdemont himself will likely face arrest

for rebellion. Either way, pro- independence forces—already

furious over a judge’s imprisonment of two of their leaders on

Oct. 17—are promising a long season of civil disobedience and

resistance once Spain starts imposing direct rule.

Whatever happens, it’s hard to see how Spain’s sense of itself

hasn’t been permanently damaged, if not outright destroyed.

Rajoy and the opposition Socialist party are now saying that,

once the situation is resolved, they will undertake the kind of

constitutional reform that might have prevented this crisis in

the first place. But the model of convivencia is dead. And that,

as Raurich, the chef, observes, is a shame. “The sad thing is

that we built this together, Catalans and Spaniards. Together,

we achieved great success, together we earned the world’s

respect.” He was talking about cuisine, but he just as easily

could have been talking about Spain as a whole. 

Abend has reported on Spain for Time, the New York Times, and

Newsweek. She is the author of The Sorcerer’s Apprentices, a

book about Ferran Adria’s El Bulli.