Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on February 4, 2020

Author Stephen King has decided to quit Facebook, objecting to the social media giants refusal to fact-check political advertisements.

King, 72, was a big user of Facebook, but deactivated his account on Friday.

In a weird, 21st century twist, King took to another social media platform, Twitter, to announce his departure.

Im quitting Facebook. Not comfortable with the flood of false information thats allowed in its political advertising, nor am I confident in its ability to protect its users privacy. Follow me (and Molly, aka The Thing of Evil) on Twitter, if you like, King wrote to his 5.6 million followers.

King, the author of The Shining and numerous other horror novels, was reacting to Facebooks refusal to ban paid political ads. Facebook has also refused to fact-check political ads, which has also prompted others to leave the site.

Explaining its decision, Facebook wrote that in the absence of regulation, Facebook and other companies are left to design their own policies. We have based ours on the principle that people should be able to hear from those who wish to lead them, warts and all, and that what they say should be scrutinized and debated in public.

On the same day that King announced he was quitting Facebook, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke at at the Silicon Slopes Tech Summit in Utah, vowing to support free speech. Increasingly were getting called to censor a lot of different kinds of content that makes me really uncomfortable, Zuckerberg said.

King follows another Hollywood icon, actor Mark Hamill, in leaving the social media giant.In January, he announced that he was quitting Facebook, also criticizing the companys policy on political ads.

So disappointed that #MarkZuckerberg values profit more than truthfulness that Ive decided to delete my @Facebook account. I know this is a big Who Cares? for the world at large, but Ill sleep better at night, he wrote on Twitter. He hashtagged the post #PatriotismOverProfits.

In his tweet, Hamill linked a New York Times story about Facebooks decision. Rob Leathern, Facebooks director of product management, defended Facebooks decision to accept all political ads, telling The Times, Ultimately, we dont think decisions about political ads should be made by private companies.

In the absence of regulation, Facebook and other companies are left to design their own policies. We have based ours on the principle that people should be able to hear from those who wish to lead them, warts and all, and that what they say should be scrutinized and debated in public, Leathern said.

Other high-profile figures who have deleted their accounts include the singer Cher, comedian Will Ferrell, actor Jim Carrey and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

Borat actor Sacha Baron Cohen criticized Facebook in a November speech as he accepted an award from the Anti-Defamation League, saying that if Facebook had existed during Adolf Hitlers reign atop the Third Reich, he could have posted 30-second ads on his solution to the Jewish problem.

Facebook fired back, saying Cohen misrepresented Facebooks policies because Facebook bans hate speech.

While Hamill may have quit Facebook, he remains active on Twitter and Instagram (which, by the way, is owned by Facebook). Twitter, though, has banned all political advertisements from its platform, with the companys chief executive Jack Dorsey tweeting that he believed political message reach should be earned, not bought.

See more here:
Stephen King Quits Facebook In A Huff For 'Flood Of False Information' - The Daily Wire

Category: Anti-Defamation League
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