Ignore Zuckerberg’s self-serving rubbish. Facebook must be regulated | Simon Jenkins

Let us be grateful for little graces. Thank you Twitter for prohibiting political marketing . Considered that such marketing is by its nature prejudiced, difficult and tendentious to inspect, Twitter is acting as an excellent publisher should. Political leaders might make complete usage of its outlet. That is democracy. As the organisation’’ s chief, Jack Dorsey, points out, with social media awash in ““ micro-targeting, deepfakes, controlled videos and false information””, those who manage it ought to keep it as tidy as possible. Cash might not purchase reality, however it needs to not drown fairness.

Facebook disagrees. Its employer, Mark Zuckerberg, states it “ not right for personal business to censor political leaders or the news ”. He signs up for the romantic view of social “media as the yellow brick roadway of digital ’ s international town. The roadway ought to not determine who takes a trip along it, it must simply gather the tolls. That consists of marketers, the nourishment of Zuckerberg ’ s$ 500bn empire. This argument reruns the popular– or well-known– United States supreme court judgment on Citizens United – in 2010, which reversed limitations on project financing as being an offense versus totally free speech. After that, lobbyists, corporations, magnates, anybody with cash, might invest what they liked throughout an election. It stated open season for phony news, targeted advertisements and dark cash “ Super P air conditioners ”. That season offered us Donald Trump, and has yet to close.

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Read more: theguardian.com