A few days ago we published an article entitled “ Facebook bans swearing – the complaining is big! ", published. This article was about what measures Facebook is taking in the fight against fake news.

In principle, it is welcome if false reports are curbed. There are also various ways to point out false reports, as Facebook does, for example.

However, we received an interesting letter to the editor on the subject of deletions, whose thoughts we would like to offer a little space in this article, because the letter deals with the question of whether a company can have deletion authority.

With the help of parts of the thoughts from the letter to the editor, we invite you to discuss and think at this point. This article is not a fact check in the classic sense, but rather a consideration of the question.

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If Facebook deletes...

Is it right to place deletion authority in the hands of the most powerful internet companies? Who decides based on which criteria what constitutes fake news? Above all, where does Facebook determine the information value of a website? What are the differences between highly politically biased blogs and extreme tabloid reporting?

In the past, we have often seen various (tabloid) media falling for satire, reporting untruthfully or reporting in such a shortened manner that the actual article was even falsified. These methods, if used consciously, are of course a form of disinformation.

At this point, one can and should look at the pros and cons when a company like Facebook has deletion authority. Quite clearly: If someone writes something wrong, which is factually wrong, then you can mark it.

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It is interesting, as the letter to us describes it, when it comes to content that does not correspond to the official narrative or is not politically appropriate. When do the borders start here? If a state that has a radical or even extreme government demands that Facebook delete opposing views, how legitimate would these deletions be?

Extended: Who checks the mass media?

There is an exciting final train of thought in the letter to the editor, which also has something to do with deletion authority: Who checks the mass media? Who pays attention when something is reported incorrectly or is intentionally misrepresented due to a production? And how does Facebook deal with it?

We have already shown in some cases that editorial teams have been tempted by time constraints or editorial deadlines to write articles about things that have not yet happened, but which, in their own opinion, are likely to happen. However, it is fatal if this is not the case and in the end the articles go online but the content did not happen that way. Just like the international match between Germany and the Netherlands, which was canceled at the last moment, but the game was reported in the print edition of a newspaper ( see here ).

Who checks the media, the letter to the editor asks us? Who checks whether the media doesn't stage certain content so often until it actually works in the end? Just to be able to report on it.

Who checks what influence the media has on people's voting behavior through one-sided and biased reporting? If major tabloids build a black and white picture and publish misleading headlines, what role does Facebook have in the end to flag manipulative or even staged reporting?

Who is interested in deletion sovereignty?

In the end, one can also ask the question: Who wants to assert their interests against Facebook and, in a certain way, guide the platform's deletion policy? What are the goals behind it? Can Facebook's deletion authority be manipulated so that users ultimately do not see certain content?

At this point, we cordially invite you to discuss the suggestions in the letter to the editor in the comments to this article

Article image topic “Deletion sovereignty” by Marjan Apostolovic / Shutterstock.com


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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )