U.S. presidential candidates, beware, your votes may be swayed to another competitor if Facebook ever decides to influence its users.
The social media giant, on average, has about 1.04 billion users who use the site for their personal entertainment, status updates and acts as a source for their daily news.
But what if Facebook suddenly decides to actually use its hold on people in the coming elections?
Previous reports have revealed that the company had done an experiment in the past wherein they altered people's news feed to understand their reactions. About 1.9 million users had their feeds curated in such a way that people would be "coerced" into reacting in a positive or negative way. The company had apologized since then, albeit, lacking.
Currently, a leak from Gizmodo has detailed that employees of the company have added a question to an internal poll in preparation for a weekly Q&A with their CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. The question reads, "What responsibility does Facebook have to prevent President Trump in 2017?"
Should Donald Trump be worried?
Recently, the presidential candidate had been very open about his plans in keeping America "walled up" from the world, getting various reactions from tech companies.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, though not referring to him directly, had been vocal about his comments during this year's F8 developer conference, stating that he hears "fearful" people calling for walls to be "built" around America, distancing the country from what they label as "others."
"I hear them calling for blocking free expression, for slowing immigration, for reducing trade, and in some cases, even for cutting access to the internet," Zuckerberg adds.
These statements are expected as Silicon Valley's political consensus is "pro-immigration, pro-trade, [and] pro-expansion of the Internet."
If Facebook so wishes to align with another candidate, they could. Eugene Volokh, a UCLA law professor, says in an interview that the company has the freedom to promote any candidate they choose, explaining that "Facebook has the same First Amendment right as the New York Times. They can completely block Trump if they want. They block him or promote him."
However, a University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor in Journalism Ethics, Robert Drechsel, adds that Facebook, while not necessarily a media company, has the same responsibilities like those of media outlets and should provide content that is "thorough, fair, accurate, complete, and contextual."
In any case, Trump can now breathe easy as Facebook has responded to the issue, stating that the company will not be influencing people's votes.
Photo: Alessio Jacona | Flickr
