Leah Feiger: I can definitely hear that. Obviously though, this is a different place, right? We’ve seen a breakdown in media and social media that we’ve never seen before.
Stacey Abrams: Definitely.
Leah Feiger: In many ways, to me, it feels like the tech platforms have abdicated responsibility this election cycle.
Stacey Abrams: Yes, absolutely.
Leah Feiger: Elon Musk is not just an X owner. He was actually using it to spread election conspiracies, and allowing other big influencers to do the same. How does the Harris campaign deal with that, and what does it make of the role Musk played in this election?
Stacey Abrams: So, a podcast that I do called Assembly Required, we had Esosa Osa to talk about disinformation. The reason for this is that it is not just Elon Musk. It is that Meta and other platforms have weakened their filters. So, Elon Musk has been harassing and purposeful disinformation factory.
Leah Feiger: The machine, it’s really amazing to look at.
Stacey Abrams: He has become his own life industry. Therefore, he deserves his own place in infamy.
Leah Feiger: Good.
Stacey Abrams: Let’s put it that way. We should be angry. We should be concerned, but we should also realize that even though he is the loudest version of this evil dark star, he is not alone. So, to your point, it’s our responsibility to hold all these technology platforms accountable. You should not be allowed to weaken the protection you owe people. If you are going to act as an information tester, you are responsible for making sure that information meets at least a basic smell test. Unfortunately, we’ve seen many tech platforms abdicate that responsibility. Therefore, although I am very happy to criticize and hold Elon Musk especially for taking the bad and making it worse, we have a responsibility on the other side of this election to check everyone who was willing to take this Wild West situation, and make it worse.
Leah Feiger: I mean, absolutely. Yesterday, we ran a big article about how the military is organizing on Facebook, and you know what? Facebook is actually an auto-generated page for the military. Bad to say the least. Obviously with Musk’s thing, he’s bringing in a whole ton of money. That was also wild to watch with his sweepstakes registration fee. There’s just so much going on that I always wonder, “Is the Harris campaign doing enough to fight back, and can they?”
Source link