This Week in Misinformation: Facebook Blames Users, TRUTH Gets Ready to Rumble, Meadows Texts, More Coup Docs, Kanye/Georgia, Vets for Trump's Lie, Metaverse Woes
16 December 2021
This Prism newsletter strives to be the paper of record for all that’s happening in misinformation. For any citizen whose life is impacted by misinformation, it helps you see how storylines evolve from multiple, sourced angles on important stories in one place. For amateur and professional misinformation watchers, it is your go-to resource for updates on peers, platforms, propagandists, and politicians. Learn more about Prism and our other products on our Substack page, follow us on Twitter, or like us on Facebook!
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Reliability scores for media outlets cited in the summary are in parentheses for each, courtesy of the terrific folks at Ad Fontes Media.
Now, on to our top three (quite substantial) stories.
Breaking: social media companies are straight terrible! Here’s the latest reasons why.
Facebook CTO Andrew Bosworth, who is spearheading the company’s move toward the metaverse, told Axios (45.66) that the company has no responsibility for what is said or shared on its platform because the onus for good content is on “individuals.” Of misinformation, Bosworth adds, “people want that information” and so he isn’t comfortable with any content policing. The interview marks a new chapter in the public messaging the about what it will—but mostly won’t—do to fix the toxic content problems plaguing the site.
Donald Trump’s social media company TRUTH has partnered with Rumble (Reuters, 48.81), QAnon and election truthers’ favorite Canadian platform (VICE, 41.42), for its video and audio streaming. What TRUTH will specifically do as a platform is still unclear, as much of the copy used in its promotional materials is lifted from other places on the Internet and doesn't seem to apply (@JuddLegum via Twitter), but for now the company’s website seems to function primarily as a portal to solicit donations for Senate Republicans’ campaigns (Daily Dot, 37.32).
If this top story resonates with your sensibilities, you might like to check out our rundown of last week’s Misinfo Meetup (@Prism_Metanews via Twitter) on “unbreaking social media and news consumption,” featuring expert folks from the misinformation research world and the media industry. Because Congress is nowhere near reining in the tech platforms (New York Times, 44.72), Prism is developing a concept for a new social media company to disrupt the dominant ones that are failing society in the role they play vis-à-vis misinformation. Reach out for more information!
The week in January 6th news was extraordinarily busy. First, there was Mark Meadows and his trove of fascinating texts.
After a buildup of a few days, and following weeks of on-again, off-again cooperation from Meadows, the January 6th Committee voted 9-0 to refer the former White House chief of staff under Trump to the Department of Justice for criminal contempt. The full House quickly took up, debated, and also passed, the referral. Meadows had handed over thousands of pages of materials to Committee investigators with no claim of privilege (@acyn via Twitter), and his refusal to testify about them came at the same time he published a memoir of his months in Trump’s inner circle, including on the day of the Capitol attack (Mother Jones, 39.25).
During the debates, Committee members read text messages to and from Meadows sent between November 2020 and January 2021. In one sent hours after the polls closed, an unnamed Republican lawmaker advanced an “agressive [sic] strategy” to simply stop counting votes and have state legislatures declare Trump the winner (@kyledcheney via Twitter). In another, Trump’s oldest son asked Meadows to “lead” on January 6th and get the attackers to stop. Fox News personalities texted Meadows to say Trump was “destroying” his legacy and that he should make a statement so the attack would end (Washington Post, 43.82). On their shows, these entertainers quickly laid blame for the riot on “antifa” instead of Trump and his supporters (NPR, 46.21) and have spent their coverage of January 6th since lying about what happened (New York Times, 44.72) and criticizing the committee investigating it (CNN, 43.70).
After the vote, Jim Jordan was revealed by The Federalist (@fordm via Twitter) to be the sender of one of the texts released by the Committee. (The article attempts to turn an intern’s typo that didn’t change the meaning into an attempt at “doctoring” the text, because anything to deflect from the point.) Journalist Jake Sherman recognized his own message to Meadows when it was read aloud and announced on Twitter he was its author (Insider, 43.32).
In other January 6th developments, the Meadows materials also brought to light more documents outlining a plan to overturn the election.
The Guardian (43.62) confirmed that the Committee had received from Meadows a PowerPoint describing a coup, and another version of the document circulated publicly (@atrupar via Twitter). Though the role this document played in White House deliberations isn’t clear, it contains many of the debunked claims and invalid legal arguments that others in Trump’s circle have said before and since January 6th. Election conspiracy theorist, promoter of the coup PowerPoint, and reportedly Meadows’ White House guest Phil Waldron (Washington Post, 43.82) was subpoenaed by the Committee Thursday.
Politico (43.41) reported that Trump campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis had outlined her legal theory for how Vice President Pence could reject the certified Electoral College votes in a set of memos, one of which was previously not known publicly. Ms. Ellis, possibly inadvertently, confirmed the memos were real in a tweet complaining that the documents should be protected from media disclosure under attorney-client privilege (@JennaEllisEsq via Twitter).
An email sent by Meadows on 5 January stated that the National Guard would “protect pro Trump people,” presumably if deployed to handle an outbreak of violence on January 6th (Politico, 43.41). When pro Trump people got violent advancing on and into the U.S. Capitol, though, the National Guard inexplicably had to wait hours for the green light to support the police defending the building (The Atlantic, 39.53).
The Attorney General for the District of Columbia announced he was suing extremist groups the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, and their leadership, for inflicting harm and destruction on the city of Washington and its law enforcement and people during the attack (Washington Post, 43.82).
We didn’t do a fourth top story, so the grab bag is sizable! Kanye’s publicist tried to get a Georgia election worker to confess to crimes not committed; a senior Georgia election official begged Mark Meadows to let Raffensperger’s call with Trump be over; Trump is hunting disloyal Republicans; Trump loyalists face few obstacles in gaining control of elections; Reuters on military officer veterans forcefully advancing the election lie; AP’s review of vote fraud finds insignificant levels; The Atlantic on the fake trafficking epidemic; New York Times on the political information reaching Americans via fundraising emails; how the Wayfair panic stymied efforts to combat real trafficking; Pfizer CEO’s wife did not die from COVID vaccine; how anti-vaccine demonstrators got themselves arrested at a New York City Cheesecake Factory; how the Chinese government uses American “influencers”; misinformation in the metaverse; and newly released JFK documents.
That, and a lot more, below. This is This Week in Misinformation.
-- Kevin