Meta should look within for real 'misinformation'

Talking about their freshly released "explosive" report on "misinformation", Meta's global threat intelligence lead Ben Nimmo revealed in a recent interview what sins the accounts they are targeting had committed. He mentioned accounts that were "posting articles and cartoons and videos that basically praise China, criticize the United States and Western countries, and then criticize anybody who criticizes the Chinese government".

Intentionally or not, the intelligence lead revealed Meta's definition of "misinformation", namely the act of praising China and badmouthing the West. As can be seen, it is all about the political stand, they care little about facts.

By adopting this definition they have betrayed a most basic principle of modern society, namely freedom of speech. Everybody has the right to praise or criticize any entity without the fear of any form of reprisal from any organization or political force. However, for long, freedom of speech seems to hold a different meaning in the West, namely slamming China for whatever reason. In fact, it is this very mentality that makes Meta equate "praise for China" with "misinformation".

Nimmo also blamed the accounts for "criticizing the US and Western countries". One only needs to check Facebook to see how much criticism the US and the West face every day. The intelligence unit at Meta will have a harrowing time rounding up all such accounts that criticize the US.

Also, by calling the views of Chinese patriots "misinformation", Meta is closing its doors on 1.4 billion people. This kind of action amounts to isolating oneself from the rest of the world, which usually precedes the decline of an empire, in this case the United States.

In March 2020, an essay published in the journal Nature Human Behavior concluded that Facebook is the worst perpetrator of fake news, worse than Google, Twitter, AOL, Yahoo! and Gmail. It seems that's the reason why Meta is trying to find a scapegoat.

As the parent company of Facebook, Meta should instead try and find out where the real "misinformation" lies.