Homework Assignment: Free Speech and “The Facebook Dilemma”

Homework Assignment: Free Speech and “The Facebook Dilemma”

This assignment will be worth 15% of your final course grade. You must watch both parts of the

documentary. Each part is approximately an hour. You must answer each question thoroughly.

Copy the question and then type the answer beneath that question.

When you upload your assignment, it will automatically go through Turnitin.com. Make sure

that you submit original work. Plagiarism on the assignment will result in a 0 for your grade.

You must submit using doc, docx, or pdf (not pages).

Part I: https://www.pbs.org/video/the-facebook-dilemma-part-one-s43cuc/ 55 minutes

1) According to the film, what happens when Facebook makes its rules regarding speech

on its website? Discuss 2 reasons why the rules weren’t very effective?

2) What is disinformation? How was Facebook being used for disinformation? Is

disinformation on Facebook a threat to democracy and national security? Explain

your answer using an example from the film. How did Facebook view this issue?

Part II: https://www.pbs.org/video/the-facebook-dilemma-part-two-iev1xh/ 55 minutes

1) What is “micro-targeting”? How did Facebook have a financial incentive to allow divisive

or polarizing content? Who edited such content?

2) How did Russia create content “to drive the groups apart and make Americans not trust

each other”? See: https://www.texastribune.org/2017/11/01/russian-facebook-page-

organized-protest-texas-different-russian-page-l/ Discuss what happened with the example

in Houston.

3) Explain what happened in the Philippines.

Review the quote: “What they didn’t realize is that countries like the Philippines…

where institutions are weak and corruption is rampant, these countries don’t have

the safeguards.”

Discuss 2 safeguards you think we have here in the U.S. which are supposed to help to

support the accuracy of free speech. Do you think the safeguards you discussed are

enough? Explain your answer.

4) Facebook argues that the people using the service will hold Facebook accountable. Do

you agree or disagree with this argument? Explain 2 reasons for your answer.

5) Approximately 47 minutes into Part II of the film, Nathan Gleicher of Facebook is

interviewed. He runs the Election team to monitor fake news stories and delete fake

accounts. The interviewer asks if there will be real-time monitoring on Election Day of what

is going in Facebook.

Is he confident that he can do that? What is his reaction? Do you believe what he says?

Explain.

6) To what standards should Facebook be held? A Facebook executive answers, “Amplifying

the good and minimizing the bad. Being transparent.”

Is this answer good enough for you if were a Facebook customer? Is it good enough for

you as an American? Are you more or less worried about democracy in the US after

viewing this documentary? Explain.

7) UPDATE: Mark Zuckerberg was supposed to testify before Congress about his support for

the creation of a cryptocurrency called Libra. Instead, he spent much of the testimony answering

questions about the new protections Facebook had created to monitor fake news and accounts.

Read the Facebook’s article below on its new election security measures.

https://about.fb.com/news/2019/10/update-on-election-integrity-efforts/

Now, read the NPR and Reuters articles on the new election security measures.

https://www.npr.org/2019/10/21/772035601/we-have-a-big-responsibility-facebook-rolls-out-

new-election-security-measures

https://techcrunch.com/2020/02/12/reuters-facebook-fact-checker/

Now, read the article and watch the short video of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s

questioning of Zuckerberg (don’t miss the video!—it’s located half way through the article).

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/10/23/20929350/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-mark- zuckerberg-testimony-green-new-deal

How does the information in Q7 affect your confidence in this year’s presidential elections?

Explain.