Balancing free speech while curbing misinformation has destroyed content moderation

Extremist groups have used Facebook to propagate misinformation and recruit members

For years, Facebook has been accused of taking a too-light approach to content moderation. While it's made strides in recent years, problematic content continues to thrive on the company's platforms.

Social media can reinforce echo chambers that amplify pre-existing sentiments

A 2023 Nature study showed that exposure to diverse content left participants with unchanged core beliefs, suggesting social media alone cannot create hateful viewpoints. However, such platforms allow rhetoric to spread widely, potentially exacerbating geopolitical tensions.

Governments are now using generative AI to manipulate public opinion

A Freedom House report found that AI-powered disinformation campaigns and censorship tactics are spreading, with 16 countries utilizing the technology to shape online narratives or suppress dissent, as of 2023. In Venezuela, deepfake software was used to push pro-government propaganda with fake news anchors.

Social media algorithms are shaping real-life language through memes

The evolution of the internet in the early 2000s supercharged the creation and spread of memetic content. Now, highly tuned algorithms on platforms like TikTok and YouTube influence the language, phrasing, and content of creators, which shapes how we use language in the real world.

The 'Facebook papers' revealed the company prioritized profit over public safety

A whistleblower came forward with internal documents showing employees warned leadership about the company's role in fueling political unrest and misinformation. Systems like XCheck shielded high-profile users like President Donald Trump from normal content rules, often to avoid PR backlash.

AI is not good at understanding satire

Social media has become rife with misinformation. In response, some organizations have deployed AI-assisted programs trying to curb the spread of this inaccurate content. The problem is that misinformation and satire, rhetorically speaking, often use the same kind of language, something AI struggles to understand.

Data privacy advocates worry that Google collects too much personal information

Politicians have also criticized whether the search engine exerts too much control over gatekeeping online information and influencing what is considered fact or fiction, deviating from its original corporate motto of "don't be evil."

The ease of deepfakes creation may soon overwhelm our sense of digital truth

Shortly after the public release of related technology in 2017, some experts saw the technical limitations of deepfakes as preventing them from becoming widespread tools of disinformation. Since then, the neural networks behind diffusion models and generative AI have eliminated the barriers to creating convincing synthetic media for propaganda.

Tech giants like SpaceX and Meta are increasingly behaving like sovereign powers

Companies now make unilateral decisions once reserved for nation-states, such as controlling satellite internet access in active war zones and influencing global information flows. Lawmakers and the international order are struggling to keep up with technological developments, let alone regulate them.

Facebook launched its 'like' button and Twitter its 'retweet' button in 2009, innovations psychologist Jonathan Haidt argues rewired social media to reward outrage over accuracy.

Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, author of 'The Anxious Generation,' contends that children are losing the ability to pay attention as they spend half their lives perusing social media content designed to hook them.

Global support for free speech and press freedom has declined since 2019

A 2025 Pew Research survey found that the share of people worldwide who consider free speech and press freedom important has declined over the past several years, even though majorities in most countries still say these rights matter.

Mark Zuckerberg apologized for not doing enough to stop the spread of misinformation on Facebook ahead of the 2016 election

Leading up to the 2016 election, misinformation about both Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and even Barack Obama flourished on Facebook. In the final stretch leading up to the election, more than one-quarter of Americans visited a fake news site supporting either Trump or Clinton. Many fake news studies have widely different methods of measuring and assessing the impact of fake news, so the actual impact it had in the 2016 election is unclear.

Aimed at increasing user engagement, social media algorithms will intentionally show content in feeds that is misaligned with users' beliefs because such content is more likely to be commented on.

As of 2026, age verification systems on online platforms have included the collection of personally identifying information, such as government IDs, and biometric age checks that rely on AI-based facial recognition.

Meta's acquisition strategy for Instagram and WhatsApp led to a 5-year-long antitrust lawsuit

In 2020, the Federal Trade Commission sued Meta as part of the agency's efforts to rein in big tech companies. The FTC alleged that Meta overpaid for Instagram and WhatsApp in a "buy or bury" strategy to gain access to those companies' talent and diminish competition. In 2025, a federal judge sided with Meta, citing intense change in the social media landscape.

Conspiracy theories today are often born from online radicalization

New York Times tech columnist Kevin Roose examines how individuals become radicalized while using platforms like YouTube. Hate crimes that took place before the COVID-19 pandemic inspired the podcast, which looks at online commentators, algorithms, and isolation, and possible explanations for how increased online activity can sometimes lead to violent crime.

Safeguards that social media companies created to protect children on their platforms failed at least half the time on Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, according to recent research.

As thousands of lawsuits proceed against social media companies for alleged harm, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt lays out the seven main arguments for holding social media companies legally responsible.

On social media, satire is often mistaken for news

A 2018 study found that satire was often mistaken for legitimate fact, with stories from outlets like The Onion being shared widely without any understanding of their satirical intent. Likewise, the study found that media outlets often mislabeled satire as "fake news," a label that implies disinformation rather than social commentary.

Social media platforms benefit not just from ensuring they have satisfied users, but also from the personal data they scoop up and can then sell to online advertisers.

Deepfake potential ranges from destabilizing democracies to improving accessibility

The technology can revolutionize education, medicine, and art through actions such as helping a disabled person express themselves. However, fictional audio and video can also jeopardize a person's reputation and life or quickly spread misinformation, even without content being flawless recreations.

By 2022, Meta was betting strongly on a metaverse strategy for its products

Moving beyond the controversies over fueling misinformation, division, and harm worldwide, Mark Zuckerberg expressed optimism about technology's role in connecting people. Meta's multibillion-dollar investments in integrative AR and VR technologies have further evolved its founder's vision.

Critics say WeChat is a surveillance tool for the Chinese government.

The majority of Meta's revenue comes from advertising

Since introducing Facebook Ads in 2007, ads have become the main way Meta makes money and keeps the social media platforms free for users. Meta's targeted ad program allows businesses to set a maximum advertising budget and be charged only for the actual number of impressions an ad receives. In 2025, $196.175B of Meta's $200.966B annual revenue came from advertising.

Facebook was sued for $150 billion over the violence against Rohingya refugees

Facebook has been criticized for years for a prevalence of disinformation and hate speech, a problem that's not just confined to digital content. The plaintiffs argue Facebook's algorithm amplified dangerous propaganda in Myanmar, contributing to violence.

Treating X like a product instead of a public space obscures deeper issues

Public outrage over Elon Musk's Twitter acquisition misses the point that the social platform has long failed to address hate speech, not just under Musk's ownership. Over 150,000 mentions of "leaving Twitter" were recorded over the weekend following Musk's takeover.

The dark web protects free speech from censorship and authoritarian oversight

Encrypted networks allow users with internet access anywhere in the world to view blocked content and avoid surveillance when communicating evidence of abuse to independent journalists. The same networks can support democracies by helping activists coordinate protests on dark web forums.

Section 230 is the law that shaped the modern internet—and free speech online

Passed as part of the Communications Decency Act, Section 230 shields online platforms from legal liability for user-generated content while allowing them to moderate it and host speech freely, making it one of the most debated laws governing free expression today.

Explore how free speech and justice coexist and sometimes clash

From the abolition of slavery to South African apartheid, this podcast explores how censorship has historically been used to suppress racial justice movements—and to promote them—and asks whether free speech is a foundation for, or a threat to, equality.

Mark Zuckerberg views Meta as a technology company—not a social media company

Despite Meta's core products being social media apps, Zuckerberg is adamant that Meta is a technology company that has built social media apps, but can build and is comfortable building other technologies—like AI-integrated glasses and virtual reality labs.

Unlike the models made by large AI companies, open-weight models can have their safeguards removed or weakened, a process that has become increasingly easy and may expose users to harmful information.

The dead internet theory suggests that mostly bots are interacting online

The dead internet theory proposes that bots create most online content. These bots are believed to create social media posts to boost engagement and increase advertising revenue. However, the accounts doing the liking and commenting are also believed to be bots. The theory suggests governments use bots to manipulate public opinion.

Why this artist staged a satirical romance with Mark Zuckerberg

Internet performance artist Harriet Richardson is using AI and Meta's social media tools to make it appear as though she's in a serious romantic relationship with Mark Zuckerberg. While the images generate laughs, Richardson also says they're part of a larger satirical project aiming to highlight the larger societal impact of Meta's decision to discontinue fact-checking content across its platforms.

Meta Platforms Inc., which owns both Facebook and Instagram, is the largest social media company in the world.

Deepfakes came to prominence in the form of nonconsensual pornography

The explosion of deepfakes depicting renowned people in both ridiculous and compromising videos has provoked widespread fears they will undermine public trust in authoritative knowledge. However, some scholars argue that real videos will always be distinguishable from deepfakes via the video-sharer's testimony and a broader social context.

According to Bill Nye, science is under threat from an erosion in critical thinking

He states that conducting research online cannot replace consulting with scientific experts who have spent their entire lives intimately studying a field. The former science education show host argues that deepening cynicism towards scientific institutions has been fueled by leaders embracing debunked and unsupported claims.

Douyin is a dominant channel for government propaganda

Driven by strict censorship rules, ByteDance Ltd. spun off TikTok from its sister app Douyin—the version available in China—in order to flourish in international markets. This “60 Minutes” report compares the apps side by side.

Bias can manifest in algorithmic decisions because the program follows rules that may have been written by individuals unaware of their own biases.

Deepfake videos impersonating real doctors are spreading false medical advice

More than 100 videos, found primarily on Instagram and TikTok in August 2025, promoted products related to beauty, wellness and weight loss. While TikTok removed 94% of content violating its policies on AI-generated content, these deepfakes were watched and shared before removal, undermining public trust in medicine.

The unavailability bias says what we don't see must not exist

Before social media, information was more scarce, and it was the norm not to know much about some controversy or episode. This led to a common prejudice: the availability bias, that what is at hand must be true (in business, the courts, finance, and many fields). With information overload today, the inverse occurs: when something is missing (like the photo of a suspect), it makes us think the suspect does not exist.

Excessive social media use is linked to feelings of increased isolation, mental health declines, increased stress and general dissatisfaction among teens.

Hear from both sides of the attempt to ban books across the country, which spiked by more than 1,100% between 2020 and 2022

During that period, more than 2,500 titles were challenged across 37 states, with activists targeting books on race, slavery, and gender identity. This CBS report hears from the founders of Moms for Liberty, a teacher removed for giving students access to banned books, and "Maus" cartoonist Art Spiegelman.

The evolution of X, from startup to Musk-owned giant, reflects rapid tech shifts

Twitter began in 2006 as a side project and grew into a major global platform, widely used for news, activism, and political discourse. Despite mainstream success, it faced ongoing management turmoil, business struggles, and rising concerns over misinformation and user safety.

The US protects free speech more broadly than any other democracy

Well-known First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams explains that the US offers stronger free-speech protections than even close democratic allies, where hate speech is criminalized, libel laws favor plaintiffs, and a "right to be forgotten" can erase truthful information from the internet.

Because they are built on content produced by humans, who possess biases, generative AI tools inherit prejudices and stereotypes from training data, which later appear in their outputs.

Norman Rockwell's 'Freedom of Speech' has become an internet meme

The famous painting, which portrays a man in work clothes speaking up in a crowd of men in suits, has become a companion image for internet users posting unpopular or controversial opinions. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

In this live interview with phone-free childhood advocate Jonathan Haidt, host Ava Smithing—of Gen-Z—presses Haidt on why there isn't more of a research consensus on the mental health implications of social media for children, among other contentious topics.

Randi Zuckerberg, Mark's sister, was Meta's first marketing director

Randi is two years older than Mark and also attended Harvard before working in advertising. Before joining Facebook, Randi worked in digital advertising at Ogilvy & Mather. In 2018, Randi attracted criticism for saying Holocaust deniers shouldn't be banned on Facebook. She's also previously been criticized for her own seemingly contradictory sentiments on Facebook's privacy rules.

Social media can be a valuable public health tool, combating misinformation, advancing health research, boosting social mobilization, and raising awareness of health services and events.