1 00:00:01,880 --> 00:00:04,960 Speaker 1: Right, Some users of Facebook and Instagram are complaining that 2 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:09,520 Speaker 1: their accounts have randomly started following Donald Trump. Some accounts 3 00:00:09,520 --> 00:00:12,879 Speaker 1: have started following Millennia, and now there's Vice president j 4 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:18,040 Speaker 1: d Vance. Singers Demi Lavata, Levato, excuse me, Demmie Levato 5 00:00:18,360 --> 00:00:21,599 Speaker 1: and Gracy Adams have posted complaints about this and complained 6 00:00:21,600 --> 00:00:24,400 Speaker 1: the meta won't let them unfollow them. In fact, they 7 00:00:24,400 --> 00:00:26,320 Speaker 1: turn off the whole thing. They turn off that they 8 00:00:26,320 --> 00:00:29,120 Speaker 1: got right, they get rid of the entire social media platform. 9 00:00:29,400 --> 00:00:32,640 Speaker 1: They go back on and look at that, it's back 10 00:00:32,680 --> 00:00:36,320 Speaker 1: there again. So how the hell is this happening? Peter 11 00:00:36,400 --> 00:00:39,120 Speaker 1: Griffin is our tech commentator and joins us now. 12 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:46,080 Speaker 2: Hello, good evening, Andrew. So why well, look, it's not 13 00:00:46,360 --> 00:00:51,839 Speaker 2: that suddenly the Trump administration has forced everyone to follow 14 00:00:51,920 --> 00:00:55,120 Speaker 2: the president and the vice president. What's happened is that 15 00:00:55,520 --> 00:00:58,960 Speaker 2: a lot of people on Facebook were obviously following the 16 00:00:58,960 --> 00:01:04,280 Speaker 2: Facebook accounts off Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and others. They've 17 00:01:04,319 --> 00:01:08,399 Speaker 2: been handed over to the new administration. So it looks 18 00:01:08,440 --> 00:01:12,240 Speaker 2: as though suddenly people are following the president and new 19 00:01:12,280 --> 00:01:15,880 Speaker 2: posted coming from that administration. But it's a change of people, 20 00:01:16,880 --> 00:01:19,840 Speaker 2: not a change of the office. What is interesting is 21 00:01:19,880 --> 00:01:22,280 Speaker 2: that then people have gone, ooh, I don't want to 22 00:01:22,319 --> 00:01:26,200 Speaker 2: be following Trump. They've tried to unfollow him, and something's 23 00:01:26,200 --> 00:01:28,960 Speaker 2: gone wrong there. So that seems to be a technical issue, 24 00:01:29,200 --> 00:01:32,760 Speaker 2: perhaps because so many people have tried to unfollow some 25 00:01:32,800 --> 00:01:34,800 Speaker 2: of these accounts at the same time, but it shouldn't 26 00:01:34,840 --> 00:01:37,680 Speaker 2: take any longer than a couple hours for that to resolve. 27 00:01:38,240 --> 00:01:43,280 Speaker 1: Could the technical issue be that Mark Zuckerberg is currying 28 00:01:43,360 --> 00:01:44,520 Speaker 1: favor with Donald Trump? 29 00:01:46,040 --> 00:01:49,320 Speaker 2: Look, I doubt it that would That would really be 30 00:01:49,360 --> 00:01:51,960 Speaker 2: going too far. But what we have seen obviously this 31 00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:55,200 Speaker 2: week is the bending off the knee off the tech 32 00:01:55,240 --> 00:01:59,480 Speaker 2: billionaires to Trump, and Zuckerberg in particular has been the 33 00:01:59,520 --> 00:02:03,240 Speaker 2: first to really start changing policies at his company to 34 00:02:03,320 --> 00:02:06,840 Speaker 2: suit the new new administration. So it's a nice conspiracy theory, 35 00:02:06,880 --> 00:02:09,240 Speaker 2: but I'd put it down to technical gremlins. 36 00:02:09,520 --> 00:02:13,799 Speaker 1: Okay. And so just to repeat, if you followed potus 37 00:02:14,240 --> 00:02:16,799 Speaker 1: or if you follow the first lady and they all 38 00:02:16,840 --> 00:02:19,320 Speaker 1: had their own Facebook accounts, of course they've changed. Therefore 39 00:02:19,360 --> 00:02:23,480 Speaker 1: you end out following uh, Donald Millennia and JD Vance. 40 00:02:24,600 --> 00:02:27,160 Speaker 1: What is Meta saying about all of this, about why 41 00:02:27,200 --> 00:02:29,920 Speaker 1: the people are struggling to unfollow them. 42 00:02:30,400 --> 00:02:33,880 Speaker 2: Uh yeah, as far as I know, they've said that 43 00:02:33,919 --> 00:02:36,760 Speaker 2: it should be an automatic process. If not, try it, 44 00:02:36,919 --> 00:02:40,119 Speaker 2: try it again. So look, they do this all the time. 45 00:02:40,120 --> 00:02:44,160 Speaker 2: They've got, you know, all this cloud infrastructure around the world, 46 00:02:44,200 --> 00:02:47,640 Speaker 2: all this great technology, but often, you know, their platform 47 00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:50,360 Speaker 2: just breaks. So I think it will be a matter 48 00:02:50,400 --> 00:02:54,720 Speaker 2: of that they'll be scrambling to fix it. But you know, 49 00:02:54,760 --> 00:02:57,280 Speaker 2: the bigger issue I think with Meta at the moment 50 00:02:57,400 --> 00:02:59,239 Speaker 2: is the announcement they made a couple of weeks ago 51 00:02:59,240 --> 00:03:02,919 Speaker 2: that they're doing away with fact checking on the platform, 52 00:03:02,960 --> 00:03:06,440 Speaker 2: first in the US, then they will stop doing that internationally. 53 00:03:06,480 --> 00:03:10,359 Speaker 2: They used to partner with in some cases news organizations 54 00:03:10,400 --> 00:03:13,560 Speaker 2: to check some of the real viral hoaxes and the 55 00:03:13,600 --> 00:03:17,200 Speaker 2: real nasty misinformation on their platform. So they're giving up 56 00:03:17,200 --> 00:03:19,799 Speaker 2: on that. They're replacing that with what's called community notes, 57 00:03:20,280 --> 00:03:24,800 Speaker 2: which must uses on Twitter, which is effectively saying we'll 58 00:03:24,840 --> 00:03:27,600 Speaker 2: just let the community decide what is true and what's not. 59 00:03:28,360 --> 00:03:31,680 Speaker 2: And the reality is that's a lot cheaper to do, 60 00:03:31,760 --> 00:03:35,040 Speaker 2: and it really is philosophically for Zuckerberg from day one, 61 00:03:35,120 --> 00:03:37,480 Speaker 2: when he set up Facebook back in two thousand and four, 62 00:03:37,880 --> 00:03:40,000 Speaker 2: he did not want to be the arbiter of truth 63 00:03:40,120 --> 00:03:43,520 Speaker 2: on that platform. He wanted it to be a platform 64 00:03:43,600 --> 00:03:46,200 Speaker 2: where anyone could say what they want. So he philosophically 65 00:03:46,240 --> 00:03:50,760 Speaker 2: believes and freedom of speech, you know, in an absolutist 66 00:03:50,760 --> 00:03:53,920 Speaker 2: sort of way, not really cognizant of the fact that 67 00:03:54,080 --> 00:03:56,720 Speaker 2: he's got four or five billion people on this platform 68 00:03:56,760 --> 00:03:59,440 Speaker 2: and misinformation does a lot of hard I spreading on 69 00:03:59,440 --> 00:04:00,000 Speaker 2: that platform. 70 00:04:00,440 --> 00:04:03,920 Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, well we all know that. But you know, ah, 71 00:04:04,680 --> 00:04:08,600 Speaker 1: the battle of virtue. So Dow, Look, there's another issue. 72 00:04:08,840 --> 00:04:12,880 Speaker 1: People have been saying that the hashtag hashtag democrat was 73 00:04:12,920 --> 00:04:15,520 Speaker 1: also being blocked on Instagram this week. Is that true 74 00:04:15,520 --> 00:04:16,400 Speaker 1: and what is that about? 75 00:04:18,240 --> 00:04:21,200 Speaker 2: Well, you know, again, that would be I would put 76 00:04:21,240 --> 00:04:25,920 Speaker 2: down to a technical issue rather than a deliberate Look, 77 00:04:26,160 --> 00:04:29,440 Speaker 2: if Zuckerberg is saying, hey, it's free reign on freedom 78 00:04:29,480 --> 00:04:33,800 Speaker 2: of speech, now, you know, hashtag democrat is not going 79 00:04:33,839 --> 00:04:37,080 Speaker 2: to be a particular issue. So I would suggest, you know, 80 00:04:37,080 --> 00:04:40,640 Speaker 2: when you have a change of administration like this, a 81 00:04:40,680 --> 00:04:44,120 Speaker 2: lot of people were going on to social media, spiking 82 00:04:44,160 --> 00:04:47,400 Speaker 2: the traffic and they're having problems related to that, rather 83 00:04:47,440 --> 00:04:49,839 Speaker 2: than you know, Zuckerberg sitting in his office in Silicon 84 00:04:49,920 --> 00:04:52,320 Speaker 2: Valley going I'm going to stick it to the Democrats 85 00:04:52,400 --> 00:04:55,440 Speaker 2: now that Trump's in charge. I just don't think there's 86 00:04:55,520 --> 00:04:58,480 Speaker 2: enough iff evidence to stack that up again. I just 87 00:04:58,520 --> 00:05:01,120 Speaker 2: put it down to chnical problems. 88 00:05:01,600 --> 00:05:03,719 Speaker 1: Peter Griffin always loving to talk to you, and I 89 00:05:03,720 --> 00:05:05,200 Speaker 1: thank you for your time Today News. 90 00:05:05,520 --> 00:05:08,680 Speaker 2: For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to 91 00:05:08,800 --> 00:05:11,839 Speaker 2: news Talks it'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow 92 00:05:11,880 --> 00:05:13,640 Speaker 2: the podcast on iHeartRadio.