Mark Zuckerberg denies whistleblower's claims that Facebook harms children
Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., reacts to the Facebook whistleblower's testimony, says Big Tech's power needs to be reigned in
Journalist Glenn Greenwald feels the Facebook whistleblower is a tool to halt content which "offends the sensibilities and beliefs of Democratic Party leaders and their liberal followers."
In a Substack entry headlined, "Democrats and Media Do Not Want to Weaken Facebook, Just Commandeer its Power to Censor," Greenwald wrote whistleblower Frances Haugen is being embraced by the left because she helps advance the quest for more control over online political discourse.
"Democrats do not make any secret of their intent to co-opt Silicon Valley power to police political discourse and silence their enemies," Greenwald wrote. "Haugen is just their latest tool to exploit for their scheme to use the power of social media giants to control political discourse in accordance with their own views and interests."
WHISTLEBLOWER SAYS FACEBOOK IS A US 'NATIONAL SECURITY ISSUE'
Haugen, a former civic project manager for Facebook’s misinformation team who leaked internal corporate documents to the Wall Street Journal for a series of damning reports against the social media giant, told lawmakers Tuesday that she believes her former employer is a "national security issue."
Haugen also asserted that Facebook has not only known its platform causes harm to U.S. security interests and to the well-being of minors using the platform, but that the site relies on negative interactions to drive engagement.
Frances Haugen, a former civic project manager for Facebook’s misinformation team who leaked internal corporate documents to the Wall Street Journal for a series of damning reports against the social media giant, told lawmakers Tuesday that she believes her former employer is a "national security issue." (Photo by Jabin Botsford-Pool/Getty Images) (Jabin Botsford)
Greenwald agrees that companies such as Facebook and Google are "grave menaces," but noted that platforms such as cable news and fashion magazines also spread misinformation, cause body image obsessions among young girls and push polarizing political content. He also noted social media companies have censored news that could have been harmful to then-candidate Joe Biden and "united to effectively remove" former President Donald Trump from the internet.
Haugen has been the media’s heroine du jour, according to Greenwald, but the independent journalist doesn’t think the fawning over her has anything to do with the "genuine dangers" facing the nation.
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"Congress has taken no steps to curb the influence of these Silicon Valley giants because Facebook and Google drown the establishment wings of both parties with enormous amounts of cash and pay well-connected lobbyists who are friends and former colleagues of key lawmakers to use their D.C. influence to block reform," Greenwald wrote. "With the exception of a few stalwarts, neither party's ruling wing really has any objection to this monopolistic power as long as it is exercised to advance their own interests."
Greenwald feels Facebook’s true political problem is "not that they are too powerful but that they are not using that power to censor enough content from the internet that offends the sensibilities and beliefs of Democratic Party leaders and their liberal followers, who now control the White House, the entire executive branch and both houses of Congress."
Greenwald noted that Haugen is being "guided" by a longtime Obama operative and she has clearly indicated that her beef with Facebook is over its refusal to remove content she regards as "hate violence and misinformation" which coincides with the left’s agenda.
Journalist Glenn Greenwald feels the Facebook whistleblower is being embraced by Democrats intent on controlling political discourse. (AP)
"Agitating for more online censorship has been a leading priority for the Democratic Party ever since they blamed social media platforms… for the 2016 defeat of the rightful heir to the White House throne, Hillary Clinton," he wrote. "This craving for censorship has been elevated into an even more urgent priority for their corporate media allies, due to the same belief that Facebook helped elect Trump but also because free speech on social media prevents them from maintaining a stranglehold on the flow of information by allowing ordinary, uncredentialed serfs to challenge, question and dispute their decrees or build a large audience that they cannot control."
Greenwald then detailed Democrats who have urged tech giants to censor more political speech in the past and provided a survey indicating Democrats support internet censorship.
"This, and this alone, is the sole reason why there is so much adoration being constructed around the cult of this new disgruntled Facebook employee," he wrote. "What she provides, above all else, is a telegenic and seemingly informed ‘insider’ face to tell Americans that Facebook is destroying their country and their world by allowing too much content to go uncensored, by permitting too many conversations among ordinary people."
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Fox News’ Caitlin McFall contributed to this report.