Social Media Companies Allow More Misinformation; Why Worldwide Sperm Counts Are Decreasing–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: Nov. 16, 2023

Indy Digest: Nov. 16, 2023

I am not being hyperbolic when I say I’m worried about our country—and many of those worries are due to misinformation, especially as far as social media companies are concerned.

The Wall Street Journal (registration required) reported yesterday:

Meta Platforms will let political ads on Facebook and Instagram question the legitimacy of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, one of several changes the social-media company and other platforms have made to loosen constraints on campaign advertising for 2024.

Meta made the change last year, but it hasn’t gained wide attention. The company decided to allow political advertisers to say past elections were ‘rigged’ or ‘stolen’ but prevented them from questioning the legitimacy of ongoing and coming elections.

Executives at Meta made the decision based on free-speech considerations after weighing past U.S. elections in which the results might have been contested by a portion of the electorate, according to people familiar with the issue.

The updated policy is part of a number of changes Meta has made that might fundamentally alter its influence and reach compared with in past elections, including a move to adjust its algorithm in a way that de-emphasizes organic political content on Facebook, the people said.

Some candidates already appear to have questioned elections in ads. Former President Donald Trump ran a campaign ad on Facebook in August that was within the bounds of the updated policy. ‘We won in 2016. We had a rigged election in 2020 but got more votes than any sitting president,’ Trump said in the ad. ‘We’re going to win like never before.’”

Meanwhile, here is what’s happening at X, formerly known as Twitter, under the ownership of Elon Musk, according to Fox Business:

IBM suspended the entirety of its ad placement on X, the social media platform belonging to billionaire Elon Musk that was previously called Twitter.

The Financial Times on Thursday first covered IBM moving to do so, linking the tech giant’s decision to Media Matters for America reporting ads from the tech giant and pro-Nazi X posts had shown up adjacent to each other. The non-profit said other company’s ads had similar experiences.

IBM told FOX Business it has ‘zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination’ and ‘immediately suspended all advertising on X while we investigate this entirely unacceptable situation.’”

Media Matters included two apparent screenshots of IBM ads near pro-Hitler posts in its report.

There’s also this, as reported by CBS News: “Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and owner of X, the social media network formerly known as Twitter, called an antisemitic post on the platform ‘the actual truth.’ The comment stemmed from an X user’s post that claimed Jews ‘have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.’ Musk responded, ‘You have said the actual truth’ while also criticizing the Anti-Defamation League, an advocacy group that works to combat hate against Jewish people.”

It’s a disconcerting time regarding the relationship between news sources and social media. A whole lot of people say they get news from social media, even though Facebook and X are discouraging, in varied ways, legitimate news sources from using them—while opening the doors to more and more misinformation.

Meanwhile, bad actors in foreign governments are trying to make matters even worse.

So, yeah. I’m worried.

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• Good news: Congress averted a government shutdown by approving a stopgap spending bill. Bad news: That bill could wind up letting Jan. 6 defendants and other subjects for federal prosecutors off the hook. Time magazine explains: “(The bill) includes a 12% cut in funding for federal prosecutors. That number was also almost one-fifth lower than what the DOJ said it needed. Soon after Jan. 6 in 2021, when the agency said it was preparing to handle an ‘increasing number of cases and defendants’ related to domestic terrorism, a Democratic-controlled Congress upped their funding for federal prosecutors to $2.8 billion. Last year, that fell to $2.6 billion. And now, it looks like House Republicans managed to carve that down to $2.3 billion over the next year, a reduction likely to mean hundreds of fewer lawyers and other workers available to take on the department’s caseload. And as some House Republicans complain that new House Speaker Mike Johnson rolled over for Democrats by not demanding more cuts, official talking points from the GOP caucus list all the ways they pushed their policy goals through this spending bill, including, right there on page six, that they managed to roll back DOJ’s reach of prosecutions.”

• The Washington Post just published a devastating piece you should check out—even though you may not want to. The headline, just before a warning about disturbing imagery, is, “TERROR ON REPEAT: A rare look at the devastation caused by AR-15 shootings.” An explanation: “Fired by the dozens or hundreds in rapid succession, bullets from AR-15s have blasted through classroom doors and walls. They have shredded theater seats and splintered wooden church pews. They have mangled human bodies and, in a matter of seconds, shattered the lives of people attending a concert, shopping on a Saturday afternoon, going out with friends and family, working in their offices and worshiping at church and synagogue. They have killed first-graders, teenagers, mothers, fathers and grandparents. But the full effects of the AR-15’s destructive force are rarely seen in public. The impact is often shielded by laws and court rulings that keep crime scene photos and records secret. Journalists do not typically have access to the sites of shootings to document them. Even when photographs are available, news organizations generally do not publish them, out of concern about potentially dehumanizing victims or retraumatizing their families. Now, drawing on an extensive review of photographs, videos and police investigative files from 11 mass killings between 2012 and 2023, The Washington Post is publishing the most comprehensive account to date of the repeating pattern of destruction wrought by the AR-15—a weapon that was originally designed for military combat but has in recent years become one of the best-selling firearms on the U.S. market.“

• This CNN headline isn’t concerning at all: “Common pesticides in food reducing sperm count worldwide, study says.” (Sarcasm alert.) Some details: “Pesticides used in our homes, gardens and lawns and sprayed on foods we eat are contributing to a dramatic decline in sperm count among men worldwide, according to a new analysis of studies over the last 50 years. ‘Over the course of 50 years, sperm concentration has fallen about 50% around the world,’ said senior study author Melissa Perry, dean of the College of Public Health at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. ‘What is not known is the culprit,’ Perry said. ‘While there are likely many more contributing causes, our study demonstrates a strong association between two common insecticides—organophosphates and N-methyl carbamates—and the decline of sperm concentration.’”

• The state today made a major change to lessen the amount utility companies pay for rooftop solar. Here’s an excerpt from a CalMatters piece, but this is a complicated matter, so I recommend reading the whole piece: “After months of debate and two postponed votes, California’s utility regulator unanimously voted today to overhaul incentives for owners of apartment buildings, schools and businesses that install solar panels. The new regulations are the second major step that the California Public Utilities Commission has taken in the past year to reduce power companies’ financial support for rooftop solar. In December, the commission reduced payments to homeowners who sell excess power from newly installed solar panels on single-family homes. Still, for solar advocates, it could have been worse. Thanks to a last-minute regulatory tweak, the new rules today stop short of a previous proposal that solar industry groups and housing-related interests warned would result in the ‘evisceration’ of the multifamily solar market.”

• Lead-tainted apple puree and applesauce are making kids sick. The Associated Press reports: “U.S. health officials are warning doctors to be on the lookout for possible cases of lead poisoning in children after at least 22 toddlers in 14 states were sickened by lead linked to tainted pouches of cinnamon apple puree and applesauce. Children ages 1 to 3 were affected, and at least one child showed a blood lead level eight times higher than the level that raises concern, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. There’s no safe level of lead exposure, but the CDC uses a marker of 3.5 micrograms per deciliter to identify children with higher levels than most. The affected children’s blood lead levels ranged from 4 to 29 micrograms per deciliter.”

• Mark your calendars for a special event honoring and supporting journalism in the Coachella Valley. From a news release: “The Coachella Valley Journalism Foundation will host an exclusive in-person event with former Washington Post editor Martin Baron on Wednesday, February 28, 2024, at Thunderbird Country Club in Rancho Mirage. Baron will discuss his new book, Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos and The Washington Post, his time leading the Post during the Trump presidency, and insights into the future of journalism. The event will also see the inauguration of the Coachella Valley Media Hall of Fame and awards presented to local working journalists. … This event will be emceed by Emmy-award-winning journalist Hank Plante. Inductees into the Coachella Valley Media Hall of Fame will be announced in December.” Tickets are $200, and can be purchased here.

• And finally … could rock music one day replace insulin injections? A professor of pharmacology and toxicology, writing for The Conversation, thinks it’s possible: “In a recent study in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, researchers engineered cells to release insulin in response to specific sound waves: the music of the band Queen. Though it still has a long way to go, this new system may one day replace the insulin injection with a dose of rock ’n’ roll.”

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