Zuck's pivot from backing politics to giving AI control
Zuck's pivot from backing politics to giving AI control
Seven years after lauding civic engagement and local news in politics, he's veered in a new direction, putting democracy at the mercy of data...
Welcome from New York where I’m on a two-week speaking tour meeting publishers in Canada and the US, from local mom-n-pop shops to globally renowned news giants.
The message is surprisingly similar. We’ve survived the worst years in our industry’s existence but there’s change afoot with a Google break-up.
What’s been less talked about has been the impact of Meta, which is pivoting its mission from connecting communities to silencing news for a synthetic, AI future.
As Google fades, Meta will come into more focus, and that’s why I’m devoting so much time and research to Zuck’s meandering musings, and evolving strategy.
It’s going to hit every publisher, everywhere.
Canada’s been on the frontline. It was the first country to feel the impact of Meta’s changing attitude, when Zuck pulled out of news.
For almost a year now, when Meta users try to embed a news link in a post on Facebook or Instagram, that link is blocked and replaced with a denial notice.
Meta took action after the Canadian Government sought to get it and Google to pay publishers for content they used, under the Online News Act, known as C13.
Meta’s response was to blow up and shift out. It feared a global precedent which would likely spur other countries to follow suit.
The social network’s action showed it was willing to bypass its own policies, to deny millions of users access to news, and halt them sharing, to protect its business model.
Canada will head back to the polls soon, and the news act looks to be on stony ground. It might not survive if a new government is elected.
Many Canadian publishers told me this week they fear Google’s promise to pay CA$100 million in a multi-year deal will evaporate before a single dollar is paid.
Others told me many electoral candidates were complaining that they were unable to inform their electorates of the policies they stand for, because of Meta’s ban.
What’s interesting is the stark nature of Zuck’s reversal of direction on this issue.
In his 2017 manifesto, which I’ve been serialising over the past few weeks, he wrote: “Local civic engagement is a big opportunity as well as national. Today, most of us do not even know who our local representatives are.
“But many policies impacting our lives are local, and this is where our participation has the greatest influence.
“Research suggests reading local news is directly correlated with local civic engagement.
“This shows how building an informed community, supportive local communities, and a civically engaged community are all related.”
The US goes to the polls in just 17 days for the most consequential election of recent years.
Meta’s new response has been to reduce political content in feeds, Reels and recommendations.
As he revealed in my last post, Zuck thinks it’s making his users angry, and that’s not what he wants Facebook and Instagram to be.
This is again a volte-face for the social scion who said in his manifesto: “The starting point for civic engagement in the existing political process is to support voting across the world.”
But even back then, there were some clues starting to emerge that he was hardening on his platforms’ power to define, and direct, public opinion.
In one ominous tract, he wrote: “From India and Indonesia across Europe to the United States, we’ve seen the candidate with the largest and most engaged following on Facebook usually wins.”
Gulp!
Before we dive in, let me welcome a flood of new subs over the past few days from Reporters Without Borders, Canadian comms, media and telco giant Rogers, French language newspaper Le Devoir in Montreal (was there yesterday), the Toronto Metropolitan University, the Toronto Foundation which distributes tens of millions to civic causes through philanthropic donations, global shipping news Trade Winds based in Oslo, Norway, SEO specialists Growth Trip in the UK, community news toolkit IndieGraf, and local Canadian publishers PEICanada, Niagaranow, the Prince George Citizen in British Columbia, and the remote Haida Gwaii News which is 3,975kms from Toronto, among others. Great to have you :)
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OK, here’s Mark Zuckerberg’s 2017 take on how social media can enable a civically engaged community. It’s in his own words, unedited, and just as he wrote it.
And it’s never been more insightful than today, as he redirects Meta’s platforms - and their 3.1 billion daily users - away from real-life politics, and towards an unmoderated largely AI-generated future.
By Mark Zuckerberg
Our society will reflect our collective values only if we engage in the civic process and participate in self-governance.
There are two distinct types of social infrastructure that must be built:
The first encourages engagement in existing political processes. Voting, engaging with issues and representatives, speaking out, and sometimes organising.
Only through dramatically greater engagement can we ensure these political processes reflect our values.
The second is establishing a new process for citizens worldwide to participate in collective decision-making.
Our world is more connected than ever, and we face global problems that span national boundaries.
As the largest global community, Facebook can explore examples of how community governance might work at scale.
The starting point for civic engagement in the existing political process is to support voting across the world.
It is striking that only about half of Americans eligible to vote participate in elections. This is low compared to other countries, but democracy is receding in many countries and there is a large opportunity across the world to encourage civic participation.
In the United States election last year, we helped more than two million people register to vote and then go vote.
This was among the largest voter turnout efforts in history, and larger than those of both major parties combined.
In every election around the world, we keep improving our tools to help more people register and vote, and we hope to eventually enable hundreds of millions of more people to vote in elections than do today, in every democratic country around the world.
Local civic engagement is a big opportunity as well as national. Today, most of us do not even know who our local representatives are, but many policies impacting our lives are local, and this is where our participation has the greatest influence.
Research suggests reading local news is directly correlated with local civic engagement. This shows how building an informed community, supportive local communities, and a civically-engaged community are all related.
Beyond voting, the greatest opportunity is helping people stay engaged with the issues that matter to them every day, not just every few years at the ballot box.
We can help establish direct dialogue and accountability between people and our elected leaders.
In India, Prime Minister Modi has asked his ministers to share their meetings and information on Facebook so they can hear direct feedback from citizens.
In Kenya, whole villages are in WhatsApp groups together, including their representatives. In recent campaigns around the world - from India and Indonesia across Europe to the United States - we’ve seen the candidate with the largest and most engaged following on Facebook usually wins.
Just as TV became the primary medium for civic communication in the 1960s, social media is becoming this in the 21st century.
This creates an opportunity for us to connect with our representatives at all levels.
In the last few months, we have already helped our community double the number of connections between people and our representatives by making it easier to connect with all our representatives in one click.
When we connect, we can engage directly in comments and messages. For example, in Iceland, it’s common to tag politicians in group discussions so they can take community issues to parliament.
Sometimes people must speak out and demonstrate for what they believe is right. From Tahrir Square to the Tea Party - our community organises these demonstrations using our infrastructure for events and groups.
On a daily basis, people use their voices to share their views in ways that can spread around the world and grow into movements.
The Women’s March is an example of this, where a grandmother with an internet connection wrote a post that led her friends to start a Facebook event that eventually turned into millions of people marching in cities around the world.
Giving people a voice is a principle our community has been committed to since we began.
As we look ahead to building the social infrastructure for a global community, we will work on building new tools that encourage thoughtful civic engagement.
Empowering us to use our voices will only become more important.
I’ll be publishing the final part of this series next week when we’ll hear Zuck explain in his own words his vision for an inclusive community.
He talks about how he sees Facebook and Instagram’s roles in sharing values, from terror to racism, and the very start of his vision for AI, and the role it should play in deciding what should be published, and who should be denied.
See you next time…