 |
| Gov. Ron DeSantis |
Florida’s showboating governor Ron DeSantis is among reasons why trust in America’s political system is on the rocks.
DeSantis signed legislation into law on May 24 that would fine companies such as Twitter and Facebook if they decide to permanently ban political candidates (e.g., Donald Trump) from their platforms.
He claimed to be protecting Sunshine Staters against those "Silicon Valley elites," who have the power to keep the lies and falsehoods spewed by people like Trump from poisoning their sites.
Since when did a US government entity gain the right to control speech on private websites?
The lame-brained law is a gross violation of the First Amendment rights of social media companies to decide how to run their own businesses.
What’s next for DeSantis?
Will he impose fines on the Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel, Palm Beach Post, Tallahassee Democrat or Mar-a Lago Bugle if they fail to cover his pet issues or preferred candidates.
How is Ron going to get around Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which grants liability protection for web platforms?
The gross hypocrisy of DeSantis’ move is evident as his law exempts companies from the fines in the event that they own Walt Disney World or Universal Studios Florida, a property of Comcast.
The courts will strike down DeSantis’ power grab but he did curry favor among the MAGA crowd.
And that’s what it really is all about.
“Perception hacking” is an emerging problem in social media, according to Facebook’s “Threat Report: The State of Influence Operations” released May 26.
Mark Zuckerberg’s firm describes perception hacking as “rather than running actual on-platform campaigns or compromising election systems, they are attempting to garner influence by fostering the perception that they are everywhere, playing on people’s fear of widespread deception itself.”
Facebook found that in the waning hours of the 2018 midterm elections, the Russian Internet Research Agency claimed they were running thousands of fake accounts to sway the vote across the US. It was a Big Lie.
The IRA even created a website with an “election countdown clock,” which tracked the progress of the fake accounts.
Facebook conducted an investigation in conjunction with other tech companies and law enforcement authorities and found only a handful of accounts set up by the IRA.
The effort was all about creating the perception of influence.”
The Report also tackled the “weaponization of uncertainty” in which influencer operations elevate conflicting voices and drive division throughout the world around major crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, critical elections, and civic protests.”
The good news, according to Facebook: “Authentic voices typically outweigh inauthentic attempts to manipulate public debate.”
The bad news: authentic voices are harder to find in today’s highly-partisan and polarized America in which any individual willing to speak out against the party line is shunned and branded as a traitor.
Hello, Liz Cheney.
Good luck in your re-election campaign.
If you count the nonsense that Trump posts on Truth Social throughout the evening and early morning hours, he may be the hardest working president-ever... Happier days are here for adland as WPP Media upgrades 2025 ad spending forecasts... Martin Sorrell says Omnicom/Interpublic merger fulfills OMC CEO John Wren's desire to retire as the top dog in advertising.
New York Mets have been PR gold for majority owner Steve Cohen, who has snared one of NYC's gambling casino licenses... "Dozy Don" should escape the gilded confines off the Oval Office, which has become an old-age home for the 79-year-old president... Shocking revelation: Extreme weather poses threat to the perceived value of a home, says real estate maven.
Omnicom CEO John Wren isn’t exactly spreading cheer this holiday season as he works to cull another 4,000 people from the payroll in the wake of the Interpublic takeover... Donald Trump would have denied scamming his one-time personal lawyer and PR front man Roy Cohn, who taught him well....Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth enlists "Franklin the Turtle" in his tough-guy campaign to vaporize alleged drug boats.
The debate over when the AI bubble will burst diverts attention from the game-changing technology that it may become some day... Pete Hegseth takes aim at Scouting America. Can't he find something useful to do?... The Cracker Barrel saga winds down as shareholders oust board member who oversaw its marketing disaster... New York Times makes an "awful" editorial decision.
Why MSNBC’s recent MS NOW rebrand won’t help the cable news channel’s flagging viewer numbers if it doesn’t take the opportunity to change its content model and mission.
