In 2016, it became clear that Facebook and other social media had transformed from an innocuous way of staying in touch to a disinformation machine.
Finding after finding revealed that foreign actors had been buying advertising on the platform to spread falsehoods and contribute to a country-destabilizing election in the United States.
It worked.
The years following that election became some of the ugliest in recent history.
The rise of white supremacy, the alt-right, QAnon and Info Wars showed how social media could bring out the worst in people.
Facebook then pledged to become more transparent and crackdown on misinformation.
“We’ve attacked the economic incentives to spread misinformation. We’ve worked more closely with governments — including in Germany, the US and Mexico — to improve security during elections,” wrote Mark Zuckerberg in a lengthy Facebook post in 2018.
“And we’ve set a new standard for transparency in the advertising industry — so advertisers are accountable for the ads they run.”
They have failed Squamish completely in that last statement.
An anonymous advertising group called Squamish Voices has been posting thousands of dollars worth of political attack ads since March.
People deserve to know who is behind the account and where that information is coming from.
By all means, it smells of an astroturf organization — a publicity campaign being paid for by third-party actors pretending to be a “grassroots” movement.
Yes, the District of Squamish deserves to be scrutinized and criticized, but residents have a right to know where their information is coming from.
Facebook, despite its promise of transparency, has refused to tell The Chief the identities of those who operate the account, citing privacy concerns.
Its refusal flies in the face of Zuckerberg’s promise for transparency.
To date, all we know about the account is that it is not some local-only grassroots organization.
An address linked to the account is located in Toronto.
This is far from Squamish.
Are we going to let some unknown actor in the middle of Toronto’s financial district dictate the conversation here in town? They seemingly do not live here or volunteer here or contribute in any way to the community.
Whatever your answer is, one thing is clear — Facebook doesn’t care.
