Online safety expert and KOMI Group co-founder Ryan T Williams has slammed Mark Zuckerberg’s partnership with Donald Trump, claiming it’s nothing more than a strategic business move.
Zuckerberg, as you’re probably aware, yesterday announced that he would be removing fact checkers and huge swathes of content moderation from Meta sites including Facebook, Threads and Instagram, leading to fears of hate speech, misinformation and “turning into Twitter” among users and the social media industry alike.
“Whilst it makes perfect business sense to partner with the incoming president who happens to have a paranoia about China and will likely ban Meta’s biggest competitor, TikTok, Zuckerberg has just exposed our children and us to a wave of misinformation and abuse,” Williams said. “Just before Christmas, he was promoting the tools that keep our kids safe on their platforms, and now he’s just opened up the opportunity for absolutely anyone to post whatever they want, which directly puts our children in harm’s way.”
Williams is the exited co-founder of KOMI Group, a social media agency that created some of social media’s most popular pages, such as It’s Gone Viral, Slow Sports News, Happiest and more.
Since exiting the company, he has started Ryan’s Creator Academy to help parents keep their children safe online. It features a series of short courses that take parents through all the key information and settings they need to protect their children from harm online and support them to keep conversations open around the online world by empowering parents with knowledge.
“The internet is full of dangers that our children are directly impacted by,” Williams continued.
“There’s been a huge spike in online grooming and misinformation that’s deliberately designed to hurt our kids, without fact-checkers and other tools to protect our children, how are they meant to survive in a world where a presence online is a social norm?
“When Zuckerberg created Facebook, he had the same youthful hope that we all had for social media, it was designed to share ideas and connect with each other. There’s no way he could have predicted the rise in online abuse, hate, fake news and misinformation that we all face today. However, to just relinquish himself of all responsibility and expect community notes to protect us from the horrendous abuses of his platform is wholly irresponsible.
“With the advances in technology we’ve seen in recent years, there’s nothing stopping him from developing innovative technology that sweeps Meta to ensure harmful content isn’t freely available. He’s developed DIY keyword blockers that have already been breached with deliberate spelling mistakes getting past them to allow users to send online abuse that’s not been updated which leaves users wide open to targeted attacks. He’s created AI-driven bots to eradicate duplicated content to drive up monetisation revenue but didn’t include a check for fake videos, violent content or other content that threatens our safety. Also, he apparently can’t develop the same sort of technology to remove racist abuse, misogyny, homophobia or any other forms of online abuse.
“A simpler solution to this issue would be to make all users verify their identity. A lot of what the fact checkers and other safety measures were supposedly set up to do was to prevent crimes committed online. In real life, a lot of the abuses committed online would be considered a public order offence or crimes of other natures. But because they happen online, the law is full of grey areas or non-existent legislation to prosecute with. Additionally, the anonymity allowed to users makes it incredibly difficult to bring a case before a judge because it’s often the case that the perpetrators can’t be traced. Forcing users to prove their identity, doesn’t take away freedom of speech, but it will go a long way to significantly reduce the horrendous crimes committed online.
“The writing was on the wall for this move to remove fact checkers a while ago, and now he’s found a way to make it benefit him by partnering with the President who happens to be the most paranoid about China. Zuckerberg will be looking to have TikTok removed from the US and no doubt hopes to utilise President Trump’s power to have it banned worldwide. Whilst that makes great business sense, he’s doing that at the expense of our safety and the safety of our children.
“Maybe when his children reach the age that they will use social media, he will make major changes, but until then many people will be significantly impacted by this business move that only he will gain from.”
