ProPublica: Facebook hosted a surge of misinformation and threats ahead of Jan. 6

ProPublica: Facebook hosted a surge of misinformation and threats ahead of Jan. 6

Transcript¹

NPR's A Martinez speaks with ProPublica reporter Craig Silverman about an investigation² detailing a surge of threats and disinformation on Facebook before Jan. 6, 2021.

A MARTINEZ, HOST:

After the January 6 insurrection, Facebook removed some of the most troubling posts that tried to incite³ violence or spread lies about the legitimacy⁴ of the presidential election. But a team of reporters from ProPublica and The Washington Post has now found at least 650,000 posts on Facebook spreading lies about the election outcome or threatening political violence. And they were posted in the weeks between Election Day and January 6. Some of those posts even called for executions. We'll note here that Facebook's parent company, Meta, pays NPR to license⁵ NPR content.

Craig Silverman of ProPublica helped lead the investigation into the Facebook post. Craig, we've known for a while how Facebook's internal systems, its algorithms, helped double down on lies and disinformation. But what surprised you about this new investigation?

CRAIG SILVERMAN: I think one of the surprising things was, one, you get a sense of the volume of this kind of material. But connected with that was our reporting about what was going on inside the company found that Facebook disbanded a task force that was specifically focused on looking at activity, violative activity, in American political groups on Facebook. And they did this, you know, weeks before January 6. And so it's not a surprise, then, to see the volume that's there when you realize that internally, the company started really backing off its enforcement and oversight⁶ of groups after the election had happened. And then, so of course, then, it makes sense that we would see this surge of, you know, violent threats and of posts and content undermining the results of the election.

MARTINEZ: So it sounds like they weren't even looking for all this stuff that was flowing all over their site. Now, out of all the Facebook posts, Craig, that you and your team analyzed⁷, which did you find maybe especially troubling?

SILVERMAN: Well, one of the things that kind of stood out when it came to specifically the death threats was kind of how casually⁸ people, you know, average American citizens, were talking about hanging political figures, were talking about shooting the traitors⁹. It was like this was normalized conversation to be happening in these groups. And I think that's the thing that stood out to me is people - of course, there were extremist groups active around and on January 6. But the content that we were seeing in these political groups on Facebook was just from average folks who were not necessarily part of extremist groups. And, you know, one of the examples we give in the story is a gentleman who's a retired¹⁰ police officer living in Missouri, where he was running a group with thousands and thousands of members. And he was filling it with complete lies about the election. And there were tons of, you know, violative death threats in that group. But to him, this was just sort of like, well, you know, I don't believe that the election was fair and this is the way we should be expressing it. And I think that that was, really, quite surprising.

MARTINEZ: Did you find any suggestion at all that Facebook knew and then intentionally¹¹ ignored what was going on?

SILVERMAN: So what it seems to be more is that Facebook, you know, scales up its oversight and enforcement around big events like an election. And then its plan is to really relax that and move back to its normal state, which has, you know, less oversight. And so I think it's less about them seeing, yes, there's tons of threats and tons of content that violates our policies, and we're just going to leave it there. But it's more that their plan was to relax things after Election Day. And they - not only did they not sort of alter that plan when they saw how bad things were getting, but they, in fact, took an additional step of disbanding its specialized¹² unit focused on elections integrity.

MARTINEZ: What has been Facebook's response to your reporting?

SILVERMAN: Well, the first thing is that they did not respond at all to the data findings. So they're not questioning that, you know, there were at least these hundreds of thousands of posts. And we looked at a slice of data. So we're not even saying that's all of what was on Facebook. It's definitely much higher. But what they are emphasizing is that, you know, the blame for January 6 lies at the feet of Donald Trump¹³ and others who were spreading these lies. It is not Facebook's fault. And they also said that they don't feel that they stepped back their enforcement of groups. And I think if people read the story, they'll certainly see that there's clear evidence of the steps that they took and they didn't take between Election Day and January 6.

MARTINEZ: And last thing really quick - there are other platforms, Parler, Gab¹⁴. They helped to get information on January 6. How does their influence, their impact compare to Facebook?

SILVERMAN: There's no question that other platforms, as you said, like Parler and Gab, had similar types of content and some very extreme stuff there. But the thing to remember with Facebook is that it is almost ubiquitous in the United States. And as I said before, you have, you know, average people on Facebook engaging in this kind of stuff. So the reach is much greater.

MARTINEZ: Craig Silverman is a national reporter for ProPublica. Craig, thanks.

SILVERMAN: Thank you.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

3 incite   

v.引起，激动，煽动

参考例句：

• I wanted to point out he was a very good speaker, and could incite a crowd.我想说明他曾是一个非常出色的演讲家，非常会调动群众的情绪。
• Just a few words will incite him into action.他只需几句话一将，就会干。

4 legitimacy   

n.合法，正当

参考例句：

• The newspaper was directly challenging the government's legitimacy.报纸直接质疑政府的合法性。
• Managing from the top down,we operate with full legitimacy.我们进行由上而下的管理有充分的合法性。

5 license   

n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许

参考例句：

• The foreign guest has a license on the person.这个外国客人随身携带执照。
• The driver was arrested for having false license plates on his car.司机由于使用假车牌而被捕。

6 oversight   

n.勘漏，失察，疏忽

参考例句：

• I consider this a gross oversight on your part.我把这件事看作是你的一大疏忽。
• Your essay was not marked through an oversight on my part.由于我的疏忽你的文章没有打分。

7 analyzed   

v.分析( analyze的过去式和过去分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析

参考例句：

• The doctors analyzed the blood sample for anemia. 医生们分析了贫血的血样。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The young man did not analyze the process of his captivation and enrapturement, for love to him was a mystery and could not be analyzed. 这年轻人没有分析自己蛊惑著迷的过程，因为对他来说，爱是个不可分析的迷。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 casually   

adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地

参考例句：

• She remarked casually that she was changing her job.她当时漫不经心地说要换工作。
• I casually mentioned that I might be interested in working abroad.我不经意地提到我可能会对出国工作感兴趣。

9 traitors   

卖国贼( traitor的名词复数 )； 叛徒； 背叛者； 背信弃义的人

参考例句：

• Traitors are held in infamy. 叛徒为人所不齿。
• Traitors have always been treated with contempt. 叛徒永被人们唾弃。

10 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

11 intentionally   

ad.故意地，有意地

参考例句：

• I didn't say it intentionally. 我是无心说的。
• The local authority ruled that he had made himself intentionally homeless and was therefore not entitled to be rehoused. 当地政府裁定他是有意居无定所，因此没有资格再获得提供住房。

12 specialized   

adj.专门的，专业化的

参考例句：

• There are many specialized agencies in the United Nations.联合国有许多专门机构。
• These tools are very specialized.这些是专用工具。

13 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

14 gab   

v.空谈，唠叨，瞎扯；n.饶舌，多嘴，爱说话

参考例句：

• The young man had got the gift of gab.那个年轻小贩能说会道。
• She has the gift of the gab.她口才很好。