Of course , it was all fiction . But this nationwide campaign in hundreds of social media groups turned thousands of angry and well-armed white Americans out into the streets with extraordinarily similar stories and in a precise timeline all across the country .
According to the Mueller Report and the FBI , Putin ’ s troll farms have been targeting Americans via social media for years : they indicted 34 individuals and 3 Russian businesses for their work spreading lies and disinformation to get Trump elected in 2016 . White supremacist groups in America regularly get boosts from Putin ’ s troll farms , which have the power to make messages go viral .
But were the social media platforms that hosted those lies ever punished ?
Did they have to do anything to repair the damage Putin did to America via their companies ?
Is there even a regulatory agency that has the ability to control them , the way the FCC can a radio or TV station , the NHTSA does car manufacturers , or the way the FDA oversees the pharmaceutical industry ? No on all counts . All because of Section 230 .
And the social media companies know this : it ’ s intrinsic to their profit-making strategies , in fact .
An internal Facebook document from October 2019 leaked to the MIT Technology Review and written about by Karen Hao , found that around 15,000 different foreign-troll-farm-run Facebook pages / groups / sites reach 140 million Americans every month . The foreign-run pages included :
• [ T ] he largest Christian American page on Facebook , 20 times larger than the next largest — reaching 75 million US users monthly …
• [ T ] he largest African-American page on Facebook , three times larger than the next largest reaching 30 million US users monthly …
• [ T ] he second-largest Native American page on Facebook , reaching 400,000 users monthly …
• [ T ] he fifth-largest women ’ s page on Facebook , reaching 60 million US users monthly …
When that 2019 report was written , of the top 20 “ American Christian ” sites on Facebook , 19 were foreigntroll-farm-run . Ten of the top 15 African American sites on Facebook , including the one that sits at # 1 , were similarly run by foreign — mostly Russian — troll farms .
Is it any wonder , given this , that evangelicals have bonded to Trump and the Black vote has been inching in his direction ?
The Facebook internal memo , written by former seniorlevel data analyst Jeff Allen , didn ’ t dive into possible political motivations , although the Mueller Report made clear that similar non-US activity on Facebook and other social media exploded prior to the 2016 election , reaching tens of millions of Americans and helping make Donald Trump president .
34 x The Trial Lawyer
That America has allowed this situation to exist and fester for almost 30 years is beyond bizarre .
Consider this thought experiment that hopefully makes the entire situation clear :
Friday night your neighbor puts a sign out in front of his house saying , “ Big Party Tonight ! No Rules ! Everybody Welcome !”
By 2 a . m ., the whole house has filled up with criminals doing their thing : some guy is selling porn in the kitchen , one bedroom has turned into a shooting gallery filled with addicts , while a dealer in stolen guns has taken up residence in the living room . There ’ s a knife fight going on in the backyard .
When the police show up they ’ ll not only bust the reprobates ; they ’ ll also haul off your neighbor . After all , it was his home and he knew that criminal activity was going on inside it .
That ’ s not particularly controversial ; it ’ s been an aspect of the law since at least 1275 with the introduction of the Castle Doctrine into British common law , and probably for millennia before .
You have control of your “ castle ,” but you also have responsibility for what happens in it .
The same is true of businesses . If the manager of your local Home Depot , for example , decided to open the large spaces inside the store to after-hours criminal activity s / he would go to jail along with the criminals themselves .
But here ’ s where it gets weird . What if , instead of a physical location , the “ home ” or “ party venue ” or “ business ” is online and called Facebook or X or TikTok ?
Back in 1996 , a handful of geniuses in Congress thought , “ Hey , let ’ s do away with the entire concept of the homeowner or business owner having responsibility for what happens in their place .”
Seriously . Selling drugs , trading in guns and ammunition , human trafficking , planning terrorist attacks . All good . No problem .
No matter what happens on a social media platform , the owner — the person who opened the place to the world and put out a “ Big Party ” sign — bears no responsibility whatsoever for what goes on inside . None . Untouchable .
The police can bust the crooks , but they can ’ t arrest the guy who owns the online “ castle ” and literally makes billions from the criminal activity that happens on it : no court has any authority to try him , and he ’ ll never , ever see even one day inside a jail cell no matter what happened in his place . Sounds crazy , right ? But , continuing that metaphor about your home or place of business being your castle , that ’ s pretty much exactly what Congress did with Section 230 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 . It wasn ’ t always this way . Back when the internet started , but before hypertext