Liberal media panicked over Facebook this week in the wake of several revelations about data and privacy at the social media platform. A few prominent celebs even deleted their accounts.
The New York Times set things in motion when it alleged that Facebook had allowed private companies to look at users’ private messages for advertising purposes. But instead of simply citing concerns over privacy and data, the media focused on “fake news” and Russian interference. Slate reported that a few users who left Facebook “had become perturbed by the misinformation that was spreading on the site during the 2016 election.”
Several outlets posted a guide to “delete Facebook.” The New York Times asked users if they were tired of the “partisan yammering.” The New York Daily News hyped “misinformation” as one of the main reasons for leaving the platform. NBC quoted a user who deleted her account, reasoning, “The political arguing and ads were making me ill.”
Esquire wondered why users even stayed on Facebook after 2016, since the site had “launched anti-semitic attacks against George Soros,” and even had gotten involved in “the blatant selling-out of Western democracy … of which a vomitous wave of depressing, awful proof just keeps washing over us.”
While the Guardian avoided blaming the fall of democracy on Facebook, it did echo the complaint about liberal billionaire George Soros.
Feminist writer Jessica Valenti and Washington Post reporter Kasie Hunt announced their departures from Facebook as well. Hunt argued, ironically in a Facebook post, that the platform was “bad for your brain, divides you from your neighbors, and it’s worse for democracy.”
Singer Cher announced on Twitter that she was leaving Facebook and wouldn’t be using Google, since “They might as well be conspiring with Russia to destroy our democracy.”
Conservatives have been struggling with Facebook and its consistent censorship of rightwing content for years. The Media Research Center released a poll in August which found that 32 percent of self-described conservative Facebook users have left or are considering leaving Facebook due to political censorship.
While the left likes to discredit this movement, any platform that attacks Soros is worthy of liberal disdain.
