Tag Archives: Sheryl Sandberg

Selena Gomez Calls Out Facebook, Twitter & More for Inability to Control Spread of Misinformation & Violent Rhetoric on Their Platforms

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Selena Gomez has some harsh words for the leaders of the world’s biggest social media and web outlets…

After a massive crowd of rioters supporting President Donald Trump violently clashed with law enforcement Wednesday, storming the U.S. Capitol and sending the building into lockdown, both social media outlets imposed temporary freezes on Trump’s social media accounts.

Selena Gomez

Gomez, however, is calling out the tech giants for not doing enough, and for their inability to control the spread of misinformation and violent rhetoric on their platforms in recent months — which has allowed for both the President himself and his supporters to spread baseless claims of election fraud.

In a note shared to Twitter following the chaos in Washington D.C., Gomez specifically called out Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google as entities, plus YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, and CEO of Alphabet Inc. and Google Sundar Pichai.

“Today is the result of allowing people with hate in their hearts to use platforms that should be used to bring people together and allow people to build community,” she wrote, before naming the aforementioned list of tech leaders. “You have all failed the American people today, and I hope you’re going to fix things moving forward.”

Gomez has openly shared her condemnation of Facebook’s misinformation before.

In December, she called out inaccuracies about the COVID-19 vaccine on the platform. “Scientific disinformation has and will cost lives,” she wrote. “@Facebook said they don’t allow lies about COVID and vaccines to be spread on their platforms. So how come all of this is still happening? Facebook is going to be responsible for thousands of deaths if they don’t take action now!”

Selena Gomez Calls Out Facebook’s Failure to Stop Spread of Misinformation About COVID-19 Vaccines

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Selena Gomez has some harsh words for Facebook related to the coronavirus vaccines…

The 28-year-old Mexican American singer/actress has fired off a pointed tweet decrying what she said was the social media giant’s failure to stop the spread of misinformation about the life-saving COVID-19 vaccines that are being rolled out across the country and the world.

Selena Gomez

“Scientific disinformation has and will cost lives. @Facebook said they don’t allow lies about COVID and vaccines to be spread on their platforms,” wrote Gomez, who in September shared a private message she sent to FB founder Mark Zuckerberg and CEO Sheryl Sandberg about what she said were FB and Instagram’s problem with spreading “hate, misinformation, racism, and bigotry.”

“So how come all of this is still happening?” Gomez’s latest call-out continued. “Facebook is going to be responsible for thousands of deaths if they don’t take action now!”

Her tweet included a link to a post from the Center for Countering Digital Hate, in which the group’s CEO, Imran Ahmed, spoke to the BBC News about what he said was the critical, widespread failure of major social media companies to remove coronavirus misinformation in the UK.

“We took a thousand bits of misinformation and got volunteers to report it using the platform’s own reporting systems,” Ahmed said. “And less than 5% of it was taken down. The truth is we’ve been gaslit by the social media companies, they say they’re doing their utmost. But in reality, they’re doing absolutely nothing.” In early December, before the U.S. began distributing the two approved vaccines, the New York Times reported that FB pledged to remove posts containing claims about COVID-19 vaccines that have been debunked by public health experts.

At the time, FB said it planned to take down COVID-19 vaccine falsehoods completely if the claims were discredited or contradicted by health organizations such as the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“This is another way that we are applying our policy to remove misinformation about the virus that could lead to imminent physical harm,” the company said in a blog post. “This could include false claims about the safety, efficacy, ingredients or side effects of the vaccines.”

In a statement to Billboard, a spokesperson for FB said, “We are committed to reaching as many people as possible with accurate information about vaccines, and launched partnerships with WHO and Unicef to do just that. We’ve banned ads that discourage people from getting vaccines and reduced the number of people who see vaccine hoaxes verified by the WHO and the CDC. We also label Pages and Groups that repeatedly share vaccine hoaxes, lower their posts in News Feed, and do not recommend them to anyone. We continue to remove accounts and content that violate our policies and are the only company to work with over 80 fact-checking organizations around the world. ”

Selena Gomez Urges Facebook to Stop the Spread of “Hate, Misinformation, Racism and Bigotry”

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Selena Gomez is going straight to the source in the fight against online misinformation and hate speech…

The 28-year-old Mexican American singer/actress shared on Instagram Stories a direct message to Facebook leaders Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, calling them out for their lack of accountability.

Selena Gomez

Gomez, who has 193 million followers on Instagram (owned by Facebook) and tops 77 million on Facebook itself, asked Zuckerberg, the Facebook founder and CEO, and Sandberg, its chief operating officer, to start talking about misinformation and hate speech.

Gomez didn’t specify what information she classified as belonging to those categories, but called on Zuckerberg and Sandberg to shut down individuals and groups promoting it.

“Facebook and Instagram are being used to spread hate, misinformation, racism, and bigotry,” she wrote, days after a significant push by stars like Rosario Dawson, Kim Kardashian, Jamie Foxx, Kerry Washington, Sacha Baron Cohen, Mark Ruffalo, Dwyane Wade and Katy Perry promoted #StopHateforProfit by blacking out their social media activities.

“I am calling you both to HELP STOP THIS. Please shut down groups and users focused on spreading hate speech violence and misinformation. Our future depends on it.”

Gomez also pointed to the national election in her message. She’s a co-chair of “When We All Vote,” a claimed nonpartisan organization that encourages voter participation. Michelle Obama, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Shonda Rhimes are among its leaders.

“We cannot afford to have misinformation about voting,” Gomez said in her message. “There has to be fact-checking and accountability. Hope to hear back from you ASAP.”

Facebook has not yet publicly responded to Gomez.