1 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:03,160 Speaker 1: Cyrus Mussumi grew up in one of the most affluent 2 00:00:03,240 --> 00:00:07,119 Speaker 1: counties in America, and we're in just north of San Francisco. 3 00:00:07,840 --> 00:00:09,840 Speaker 1: There was a lot of wealth around him that his 4 00:00:09,960 --> 00:00:13,720 Speaker 1: family didn't have, and early on he knew exactly what 5 00:00:13,800 --> 00:00:17,480 Speaker 1: he wanted in life. My only thing that I ever 6 00:00:17,480 --> 00:00:19,520 Speaker 1: wanted to do was to come rich. For a very 7 00:00:19,520 --> 00:00:22,760 Speaker 1: long time. When he was in the middle of college 8 00:00:22,800 --> 00:00:27,000 Speaker 1: in Cyrus landed his ticket to big money. He founded 9 00:00:27,040 --> 00:00:31,520 Speaker 1: a news site called Mr Conservative dot com. The plan 10 00:00:31,840 --> 00:00:34,519 Speaker 1: was to use Facebook to get tons of traffic to 11 00:00:34,600 --> 00:00:38,159 Speaker 1: his website and then to turn that traffic into add dollars. 12 00:00:38,760 --> 00:00:43,280 Speaker 1: That required resorting to some controversial tactics. There was a 13 00:00:43,560 --> 00:00:48,400 Speaker 1: vast market of Wall Street journal like Fox News, sort 14 00:00:48,440 --> 00:00:52,400 Speaker 1: of boring headlines, and I was the first one that 15 00:00:52,440 --> 00:00:56,160 Speaker 1: sort of pushed the envelope. Now, there are certain ideals 16 00:00:56,160 --> 00:00:58,600 Speaker 1: that a lot of journalists as included. We'll say we 17 00:00:58,680 --> 00:01:03,600 Speaker 1: live by things being unbiased and accurate. Cyrus essentially through 18 00:01:03,600 --> 00:01:06,400 Speaker 1: that all out of the window. He gave his conservative 19 00:01:06,400 --> 00:01:10,840 Speaker 1: readers what he believed they actually wanted. We know that 20 00:01:10,880 --> 00:01:14,720 Speaker 1: the title has to be tilted. We know that we 21 00:01:14,720 --> 00:01:17,800 Speaker 1: have to exclude the facts because if we say anything 22 00:01:17,800 --> 00:01:20,200 Speaker 1: good about the opponent, then people are like, oh, you're liberals, 23 00:01:20,280 --> 00:01:23,280 Speaker 1: your closet liberals. So there is no room to be objective, 24 00:01:23,319 --> 00:01:25,760 Speaker 1: there is no room to deliver quality. The market has 25 00:01:25,760 --> 00:01:29,880 Speaker 1: always responded, now give me garbage, give me outrage, give 26 00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:34,520 Speaker 1: me you know, a quickbait. Mr conservative dot Com was 27 00:01:34,560 --> 00:01:38,520 Speaker 1: an instant success, and over the years it only got bigger. 28 00:01:39,120 --> 00:01:42,160 Speaker 1: The site ended up amassing a billion page views in 29 00:01:42,200 --> 00:01:45,720 Speaker 1: its lifetime, and all those eyeballs meant that Cyrus was 30 00:01:45,800 --> 00:01:48,760 Speaker 1: finally rich, or at least richer than he ever was 31 00:01:48,840 --> 00:01:51,960 Speaker 1: as a kid. But one day Cyrus realized that his 32 00:01:52,040 --> 00:01:55,080 Speaker 1: creation had gone too far and he had a monster 33 00:01:55,120 --> 00:01:58,640 Speaker 1: on his hands. His sight at snowballed into a phenomenon 34 00:01:58,800 --> 00:02:01,320 Speaker 1: that we've all been taught thinking about for a year now. 35 00:02:02,920 --> 00:02:04,720 Speaker 1: So I sort of view myself as a patient zero 36 00:02:04,800 --> 00:02:18,120 Speaker 1: fake news. Hi. I'm aki Ito, and I'm Sarah Fryer, 37 00:02:18,440 --> 00:02:21,280 Speaker 1: and this week on Decrypted, we're bringing you the story 38 00:02:21,360 --> 00:02:26,560 Speaker 1: of Cyrus's quest for partisan influence online. It wasn't necessarily 39 00:02:26,560 --> 00:02:30,360 Speaker 1: about pushing an agenda. It definitely wasn't about the Russians. 40 00:02:30,800 --> 00:02:34,760 Speaker 1: It was mostly about making money. Cyrus learned what makes 41 00:02:34,760 --> 00:02:37,040 Speaker 1: people click and share and taught a lot of other 42 00:02:37,040 --> 00:02:39,680 Speaker 1: people to build blood sites like his, to the point 43 00:02:39,720 --> 00:02:42,520 Speaker 1: where things spiraled out of control ahead of Trump's election. 44 00:02:43,360 --> 00:02:48,000 Speaker 1: After Facebook started cracking down on fake news, Cyrus shifting gears. 45 00:02:48,680 --> 00:02:51,880 Speaker 1: Now he's focused on building a site that's less vitriolic, 46 00:02:52,480 --> 00:02:55,880 Speaker 1: although he's worried the social network's new roles might crush 47 00:02:55,919 --> 00:03:04,440 Speaker 1: his next projects. Anyway, stay with us, So, Sarah, the 48 00:03:04,480 --> 00:03:08,720 Speaker 1: first time you talked to Cyrus was right after the election. Yeah. 49 00:03:08,800 --> 00:03:12,000 Speaker 1: I had been emailing websites that were spreading fake news, 50 00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:14,760 Speaker 1: curious about how they ran their businesses and how they 51 00:03:14,800 --> 00:03:18,880 Speaker 1: felt about their impact on Trump's victory. Nobody wanted to talk. 52 00:03:19,320 --> 00:03:21,640 Speaker 1: A couple of them forwarded my email to Cirius and 53 00:03:21,720 --> 00:03:24,280 Speaker 1: he reached out, saying he could speak for several publishers 54 00:03:24,280 --> 00:03:28,320 Speaker 1: at once. A lot has changed since then, new details 55 00:03:28,360 --> 00:03:31,960 Speaker 1: on Russian interference in the election and how it ties 56 00:03:32,040 --> 00:03:36,680 Speaker 1: to Facebook ad People get their news from social media, 57 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:40,640 Speaker 1: with Facebook being the top social media news source on 58 00:03:40,720 --> 00:03:44,680 Speaker 1: Capitol Hill. Tech giants Google, Facebook, and Twitter Septis testify 59 00:03:44,760 --> 00:03:47,760 Speaker 1: on how their platforms were used by Russian groups during 60 00:03:47,800 --> 00:03:51,720 Speaker 1: the election campaign, and all of this has had big 61 00:03:51,800 --> 00:03:55,720 Speaker 1: consequences for Cyrus's business, which is why we drove out 62 00:03:55,800 --> 00:04:03,400 Speaker 1: to Napa to go meet the guy. Are we alive, 63 00:04:03,840 --> 00:04:10,600 Speaker 1: We're just we're just talking. We're warming up. Cyrus is 64 00:04:10,640 --> 00:04:13,240 Speaker 1: twenty six years old and lives at his family vineyard 65 00:04:13,280 --> 00:04:16,760 Speaker 1: with his mother. Now that sounds luxurious, but he said 66 00:04:16,760 --> 00:04:19,440 Speaker 1: it can actually be pretty boring. His relationship with the 67 00:04:19,480 --> 00:04:23,360 Speaker 1: media started a decade earlier in high school in Marwin County, 68 00:04:23,560 --> 00:04:27,479 Speaker 1: just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. I 69 00:04:27,560 --> 00:04:31,080 Speaker 1: was a loner. I was bullied. Uh, I never had 70 00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:33,680 Speaker 1: any friends. All I ever wanted to do was be 71 00:04:33,839 --> 00:04:36,480 Speaker 1: rich because I grew up in Bay Area and everybody 72 00:04:36,480 --> 00:04:40,000 Speaker 1: else was rich. And although my family was rich, my 73 00:04:40,040 --> 00:04:42,599 Speaker 1: grandparents were rich, my mother was a single mother, and 74 00:04:42,600 --> 00:04:45,560 Speaker 1: I had to move around a lot, I think ten times. 75 00:04:46,320 --> 00:04:48,320 Speaker 1: And then, like, you know, your friends all living like 76 00:04:48,360 --> 00:04:50,400 Speaker 1: a five to ten million dollar house, and you can 77 00:04:50,400 --> 00:04:55,280 Speaker 1: feel very poor. So it's very easy to build up 78 00:04:55,360 --> 00:04:59,040 Speaker 1: a lot of resentment and become a contrarian. And that's 79 00:04:59,080 --> 00:05:02,600 Speaker 1: what happened. One day when he was a senior in 80 00:05:02,720 --> 00:05:05,720 Speaker 1: high school, all that resentment bubbled up into a screed 81 00:05:05,800 --> 00:05:08,880 Speaker 1: he wrote criticizing people in the County for what he 82 00:05:08,920 --> 00:05:12,640 Speaker 1: saw as hypocrisy. He said, they would say they're open minded, 83 00:05:13,160 --> 00:05:17,080 Speaker 1: but they didn't like his conservative ideas. He published a 84 00:05:17,120 --> 00:05:20,600 Speaker 1: paper called the Deadwood Barf, a play on his high 85 00:05:20,600 --> 00:05:24,440 Speaker 1: school newspaper that was called the Redwood Bark. It gave 86 00:05:24,520 --> 00:05:28,640 Speaker 1: his own take on gay marriage, environmentalism, and his fellow residence. 87 00:05:29,320 --> 00:05:33,200 Speaker 1: It was pretty offensive, and the school suspended Cyrus for 88 00:05:33,320 --> 00:05:36,920 Speaker 1: five days. It became a spectacle covered in the local news. 89 00:05:37,440 --> 00:05:40,280 Speaker 1: At age seventeen, Cyrus got to go on the radio 90 00:05:40,440 --> 00:05:43,919 Speaker 1: and give quotes to local papers. I found that I 91 00:05:43,960 --> 00:05:46,640 Speaker 1: am in love with the media. I love politics, I 92 00:05:46,720 --> 00:05:51,640 Speaker 1: love debate, I love argument, and I decided that controversy 93 00:05:52,240 --> 00:05:56,120 Speaker 1: was my forteme. Controversy was also how he was going 94 00:05:56,240 --> 00:05:59,640 Speaker 1: to become rich. Cyrus went to college and Facebook started 95 00:05:59,640 --> 00:06:02,760 Speaker 1: to catch on. He learned everything he could about how 96 00:06:02,800 --> 00:06:07,360 Speaker 1: it made information spread. Back then, people weren't really sharing 97 00:06:07,400 --> 00:06:11,120 Speaker 1: news on Facebook, but they were selling t shirts. Cyrus 98 00:06:11,160 --> 00:06:14,880 Speaker 1: started selling t shirts with conservative slogans on them. That 99 00:06:14,960 --> 00:06:18,000 Speaker 1: was his first attempt at building a wider community of 100 00:06:18,040 --> 00:06:26,760 Speaker 1: people who cared about the issues that he did. Once 101 00:06:26,800 --> 00:06:30,120 Speaker 1: IRUs figured out how to build a community through Facebook ads, 102 00:06:30,560 --> 00:06:35,520 Speaker 1: he started his own news business called Mr Conservative dot Com. 103 00:06:35,560 --> 00:06:38,920 Speaker 1: His partner wanted to cater to educated people with real 104 00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:43,320 Speaker 1: influence in Washington, but Cyrus he wanted to target the 105 00:06:43,320 --> 00:06:46,760 Speaker 1: people who were the most profitable, people who cared less 106 00:06:46,760 --> 00:06:51,080 Speaker 1: about being informed and cared more about being validated. People 107 00:06:51,120 --> 00:06:54,719 Speaker 1: looking for highly partisan content that even when a step 108 00:06:54,760 --> 00:06:57,600 Speaker 1: further than Fox News is willing to go. To grow 109 00:06:57,600 --> 00:07:00,920 Speaker 1: his audience, he got people to like miss their Conservatives 110 00:07:00,960 --> 00:07:04,840 Speaker 1: Facebook page. He purchased ads on the platform to attract 111 00:07:04,880 --> 00:07:10,360 Speaker 1: conservative readers. Facebook self service online ad buying system allows 112 00:07:10,440 --> 00:07:14,520 Speaker 1: businesses to target their advertising based on people's political beliefs. 113 00:07:15,080 --> 00:07:18,440 Speaker 1: This is from data Facebook collects by watching user behavior. 114 00:07:19,720 --> 00:07:24,560 Speaker 1: How do you buy fans? There's a user interface Facebook 115 00:07:24,640 --> 00:07:28,360 Speaker 1: dot Com slash ads, slash manager, and you create ads, 116 00:07:28,640 --> 00:07:33,680 Speaker 1: and then you create an image and advert um. So 117 00:07:33,720 --> 00:07:37,400 Speaker 1: like let's say, for example, an image of Obama, and 118 00:07:37,440 --> 00:07:39,520 Speaker 1: it will say like if you think Obama is the 119 00:07:39,520 --> 00:07:43,560 Speaker 1: worst president ever, um for Trump, like like if you 120 00:07:43,560 --> 00:07:47,520 Speaker 1: think Trump should be impeached and uh. Then you pay 121 00:07:47,560 --> 00:07:52,280 Speaker 1: a price for those fans, uh, and then you retain them. 122 00:07:52,520 --> 00:07:56,040 Speaker 1: You pay a heavy upfront cost per fan. But then 123 00:07:56,120 --> 00:07:58,200 Speaker 1: every month, let's say you make a little bit of 124 00:07:58,200 --> 00:07:59,880 Speaker 1: that back, and then the hope is is that, ok, 125 00:08:00,200 --> 00:08:02,280 Speaker 1: after a year, year and a half, whatever, you pay 126 00:08:02,280 --> 00:08:06,720 Speaker 1: it off. At first, he says, he tried to make 127 00:08:06,760 --> 00:08:09,640 Speaker 1: a real news site with the goal of informing people. 128 00:08:10,360 --> 00:08:14,200 Speaker 1: He invested in video and long form stories, but that 129 00:08:14,320 --> 00:08:17,920 Speaker 1: wasn't what actually worked to get readers. So he gave 130 00:08:17,960 --> 00:08:21,120 Speaker 1: them what they wanted. So Mr Conservative was actually the 131 00:08:21,160 --> 00:08:29,480 Speaker 1: first conservative, truly conservative thing on Facebook. And I understood 132 00:08:29,560 --> 00:08:33,440 Speaker 1: that the people that we were appealing to were sort 133 00:08:33,480 --> 00:08:41,640 Speaker 1: of breathless Fox News viewers who longed for highly partisan content, 134 00:08:42,600 --> 00:08:46,840 Speaker 1: and Cyrus finally got what he wanted. As a result, 135 00:08:47,120 --> 00:08:50,160 Speaker 1: he was making tens of thousands of dollars a month. 136 00:08:56,440 --> 00:08:59,240 Speaker 1: That meant that for the first time, Cyrus had a 137 00:08:59,240 --> 00:09:02,920 Speaker 1: lot of money, which is what Cyrus wanted all these years, 138 00:09:03,520 --> 00:09:05,880 Speaker 1: but it led to all kinds of problems for him, 139 00:09:05,880 --> 00:09:10,080 Speaker 1: both personal and professional. Within a very short period of time, 140 00:09:10,520 --> 00:09:13,360 Speaker 1: I was making forty or fifty month, and that led 141 00:09:13,400 --> 00:09:16,760 Speaker 1: to a lot of personal problems because when you have 142 00:09:16,800 --> 00:09:18,120 Speaker 1: wanted money on your life and then all of a 143 00:09:18,120 --> 00:09:20,440 Speaker 1: sudden you're making forty or fifty month, and then it 144 00:09:20,640 --> 00:09:25,480 Speaker 1: lends itself to going out and doing bad things. He 145 00:09:25,640 --> 00:09:30,440 Speaker 1: was partying NonStop, He crashed two mercedes, He got arrested 146 00:09:30,480 --> 00:09:34,440 Speaker 1: repeatedly for being drunk in public. All that meant that 147 00:09:34,600 --> 00:09:37,439 Speaker 1: Cyrus wasn't dealing with some of the problems that were 148 00:09:37,480 --> 00:09:40,760 Speaker 1: emerging in his business. It got to a point where 149 00:09:40,840 --> 00:09:45,200 Speaker 1: I thought that there was no editorial value to any 150 00:09:45,240 --> 00:09:49,439 Speaker 1: of the content on Mr Conservative, publishing the occasional fake story, UH, 151 00:09:49,520 --> 00:09:53,320 Speaker 1: publishing misleading clickbait fairly often. UM, I think that towards 152 00:09:53,360 --> 00:09:56,280 Speaker 1: the end of Mr Conservative it was extremely misleading, and uh, 153 00:09:56,320 --> 00:09:59,120 Speaker 1: there was a lot of clickbait. He says he never 154 00:09:59,360 --> 00:10:02,920 Speaker 1: intend finally published fake news. He says he'd asked his 155 00:10:03,040 --> 00:10:05,680 Speaker 1: editors to delete it when they found it, but everything 156 00:10:05,760 --> 00:10:08,880 Speaker 1: was moving so fast and the metabolism for content was 157 00:10:08,920 --> 00:10:12,720 Speaker 1: so great that there just wasn't much time to check everything. 158 00:10:13,440 --> 00:10:15,840 Speaker 1: This is your sort of an accidental byproducts of the 159 00:10:15,840 --> 00:10:18,680 Speaker 1: fact that you have too many people competing for too 160 00:10:18,679 --> 00:10:23,000 Speaker 1: smaller the news feed, trying to outdo one another, trying 161 00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:25,320 Speaker 1: to find the most interesting stories. If you were seven 162 00:10:25,400 --> 00:10:28,559 Speaker 1: days a week doing let's say fifteen stories a day, 163 00:10:28,920 --> 00:10:30,880 Speaker 1: like let's say three months of that, when you come 164 00:10:30,920 --> 00:10:33,240 Speaker 1: across the fake story, it doesn't look that fake to you. 165 00:10:33,840 --> 00:10:35,600 Speaker 1: It's like your mind is just trained. It's like, oh that, well, 166 00:10:35,640 --> 00:10:37,679 Speaker 1: I must be sure, because you know, I'm just I've 167 00:10:37,679 --> 00:10:41,120 Speaker 1: in't it doing this all day. After a while, Cyrus 168 00:10:41,160 --> 00:10:44,240 Speaker 1: finally got his act together, and that was when the 169 00:10:44,280 --> 00:10:48,079 Speaker 1: realization set in. I think that I started feeling bad 170 00:10:48,080 --> 00:10:53,720 Speaker 1: about it in late two sixteen, But you still kept 171 00:10:53,760 --> 00:10:59,120 Speaker 1: this site up. I did. Why Why Why does a 172 00:10:59,200 --> 00:11:03,840 Speaker 1: lawyer do work for a client that he disagrees with? 173 00:11:05,160 --> 00:11:07,720 Speaker 1: What do you think he meant by that? But people 174 00:11:07,840 --> 00:11:10,320 Speaker 1: do things for a living even if they don't morally 175 00:11:10,320 --> 00:11:14,400 Speaker 1: agree with it. You know, I disagreed with the editorial. 176 00:11:14,520 --> 00:11:16,960 Speaker 1: I told my editor whenever we spoke how much I 177 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:19,319 Speaker 1: disagreed with it, I would tell her to run clean stuff. 178 00:11:19,320 --> 00:11:25,960 Speaker 1: We ran clean stuff. We couldn't get traffic. The site 179 00:11:26,040 --> 00:11:30,199 Speaker 1: ran on all cylinders through, hitting its peak just before 180 00:11:30,400 --> 00:11:34,080 Speaker 1: the US presidential election. At that point, it was making 181 00:11:34,080 --> 00:11:36,840 Speaker 1: a hundred fifty thou dollars in revenue a month, with 182 00:11:37,000 --> 00:11:42,000 Speaker 1: fifty thou dollars in profit. Cyrus started several other conservative sites, 183 00:11:42,040 --> 00:11:45,400 Speaker 1: to which he declined to name for US. He did 184 00:11:45,400 --> 00:11:47,800 Speaker 1: say that other people in the industry who had learned 185 00:11:47,800 --> 00:11:51,440 Speaker 1: from him were making millions. Okay, so here's some sample 186 00:11:51,520 --> 00:11:57,480 Speaker 1: headlines from Mr Conservative dot com in October. Obama's darkest 187 00:11:57,520 --> 00:12:01,480 Speaker 1: secret leaks. He never wanted us to find this. Entitled 188 00:12:01,559 --> 00:12:06,439 Speaker 1: Muslim employee makes insane demand. Patriotic boss hits him back 189 00:12:06,679 --> 00:12:11,199 Speaker 1: with this breaking Hillary Clinton caught a major lie. This 190 00:12:11,360 --> 00:12:16,240 Speaker 1: could destroy her and then we all know what happened next. 191 00:12:19,000 --> 00:12:30,880 Speaker 1: I've just received a call from Secretary Clinton. She congratulated us, 192 00:12:31,080 --> 00:12:37,000 Speaker 1: it's about us on our victory, and I congratulated her 193 00:12:37,559 --> 00:12:40,800 Speaker 1: and her family on a very very Frump's victory would 194 00:12:40,840 --> 00:12:44,040 Speaker 1: alter the course of global affairs, as well as the 195 00:12:44,080 --> 00:12:48,040 Speaker 1: booming business that Cyrus had created. That's coming up next. 196 00:12:59,040 --> 00:13:02,880 Speaker 1: So let's pick up our story in November, right after 197 00:13:02,920 --> 00:13:08,160 Speaker 1: Trump selection. His victory surprised pretty much everyone, although Cyrus 198 00:13:08,200 --> 00:13:11,000 Speaker 1: says he saw it coming, and lots of people started 199 00:13:11,040 --> 00:13:15,040 Speaker 1: blaming Facebook for allowing fake news to proliferate on its 200 00:13:15,080 --> 00:13:20,719 Speaker 1: platform and influence voters. Misinformation from many sources certainly had 201 00:13:20,760 --> 00:13:22,360 Speaker 1: an impact on this election, and you can look at 202 00:13:22,400 --> 00:13:26,040 Speaker 1: that at all kinds of levels. Remember, neutrality was also 203 00:13:26,160 --> 00:13:29,640 Speaker 1: Facebook's first defense for how it pummeled users with pro 204 00:13:29,800 --> 00:13:33,640 Speaker 1: Trump fake news during the general election for lots of voters. 205 00:13:33,679 --> 00:13:36,520 Speaker 1: This was when it really became clear what a wide 206 00:13:36,559 --> 00:13:40,840 Speaker 1: reach these heavily partisan or fake news sites achieved on Facebook. 207 00:13:41,400 --> 00:13:44,040 Speaker 1: Although Cyrus had known about the power of these kinds 208 00:13:44,080 --> 00:13:46,600 Speaker 1: of stories for years and he made a lot of 209 00:13:46,640 --> 00:13:50,240 Speaker 1: money from exploiting that. Do I think that I turned 210 00:13:50,280 --> 00:13:53,400 Speaker 1: any votes now? I think that that's very fanciful thinking. 211 00:13:53,440 --> 00:13:57,480 Speaker 1: It costs exponentially more money to reach independence, and I've 212 00:13:57,480 --> 00:14:00,280 Speaker 1: always approached it as a business model. So you know, 213 00:14:00,320 --> 00:14:02,680 Speaker 1: for example, like let's say it costs five cents to 214 00:14:02,760 --> 00:14:05,559 Speaker 1: target a conservatives, to target a liberal, let's to buy 215 00:14:05,559 --> 00:14:07,920 Speaker 1: an independent on my cost of dollar, and they're going 216 00:14:08,000 --> 00:14:11,240 Speaker 1: to visit your website lass. So the proposition of Facebook 217 00:14:11,240 --> 00:14:13,280 Speaker 1: has never been to target independence. It's always been to 218 00:14:13,880 --> 00:14:19,120 Speaker 1: um sort of accentuate people's already partisan views, whether you're 219 00:14:19,160 --> 00:14:21,280 Speaker 1: a liberal or a conservative. If you're somebody who gets 220 00:14:21,320 --> 00:14:25,280 Speaker 1: here and news on Facebook, you're like a crazy person 221 00:14:25,360 --> 00:14:27,840 Speaker 1: who only has friends just like you, or the few 222 00:14:27,840 --> 00:14:30,680 Speaker 1: people who might disagree with you just disregard your views. 223 00:14:31,240 --> 00:14:34,880 Speaker 1: It's not like anybody shared a story, you know, saying 224 00:14:34,920 --> 00:14:38,640 Speaker 1: that the pope in doors Trump say a conservative and 225 00:14:38,640 --> 00:14:41,840 Speaker 1: then a liberal read oh, the popen door Trump. Well, 226 00:14:41,840 --> 00:14:43,680 Speaker 1: I'm going to go out and change my vote. Now 227 00:14:44,320 --> 00:14:52,560 Speaker 1: show me one. Can the media produce one? You know, 228 00:14:52,600 --> 00:14:56,800 Speaker 1: he sounds pretty defensive there. Well, he's right that, taken 229 00:14:56,840 --> 00:15:00,600 Speaker 1: in isolation, one story is unlikely to have sway. But 230 00:15:00,760 --> 00:15:03,280 Speaker 1: the thing about Facebook is that people spend an average 231 00:15:03,280 --> 00:15:07,120 Speaker 1: of fifty minutes there every day. That's a lot of exposure, 232 00:15:07,480 --> 00:15:11,520 Speaker 1: and repetition has a strong effect over time. Also, when 233 00:15:11,560 --> 00:15:14,320 Speaker 1: content is shared by friends and family, it carries much 234 00:15:14,360 --> 00:15:19,080 Speaker 1: greater weight than something you're saying see on a news website. Yeah, 235 00:15:19,080 --> 00:15:21,920 Speaker 1: and I said that people who may have thought they 236 00:15:21,920 --> 00:15:25,680 Speaker 1: were on the political fringes can find like minded community 237 00:15:26,080 --> 00:15:29,480 Speaker 1: and feel stronger about their stance. So, for example, they 238 00:15:29,560 --> 00:15:32,240 Speaker 1: might have turned out on election day for Trump when 239 00:15:32,520 --> 00:15:35,520 Speaker 1: otherwise they might have worried he had no chance of winning. 240 00:15:36,240 --> 00:15:39,320 Speaker 1: And Cyrus himself told us he definitely reached more people 241 00:15:39,360 --> 00:15:42,400 Speaker 1: than the Russians. He told us a single conservative meme 242 00:15:42,520 --> 00:15:46,600 Speaker 1: could reach twenty million people. He estimates that Mr Conservative 243 00:15:46,680 --> 00:15:49,640 Speaker 1: got about a billion page views in total over the years. 244 00:15:50,520 --> 00:15:55,040 Speaker 1: Compare that with the Russian propaganda firm, the Internet Research Agency, 245 00:15:55,080 --> 00:15:58,480 Speaker 1: which reached a hundred fifty million people on Facebook and 246 00:15:58,560 --> 00:16:04,040 Speaker 1: Instagram combined. I spoke to Brook Minkowski, an editor at 247 00:16:04,040 --> 00:16:07,160 Speaker 1: the fact checking site Snopes. Fans of the show will 248 00:16:07,160 --> 00:16:09,720 Speaker 1: remember her from our episode on fake News last year. 249 00:16:10,200 --> 00:16:13,400 Speaker 1: I told her how Cyrus feels. She said, she's heard 250 00:16:13,400 --> 00:16:16,560 Speaker 1: it all before. That's what they always say, that's what 251 00:16:16,680 --> 00:16:18,680 Speaker 1: helps him sleep at night. Sure, you know you enjoy 252 00:16:18,760 --> 00:16:20,360 Speaker 1: that while you look at your bank account. But the 253 00:16:20,360 --> 00:16:22,840 Speaker 1: truth is in the aggregate. All of this stuff is 254 00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:28,200 Speaker 1: dramatically affecting society for the much worse. And you know, 255 00:16:28,240 --> 00:16:30,520 Speaker 1: you can kid yourself and say, well, nobody ever read it, 256 00:16:30,520 --> 00:16:33,320 Speaker 1: it didn't really affect anything. But if people shared it, 257 00:16:33,640 --> 00:16:36,360 Speaker 1: they shared it to their friends and their family members 258 00:16:36,400 --> 00:16:38,640 Speaker 1: who weren't perhaps well informed, or don't care to be 259 00:16:38,680 --> 00:16:41,160 Speaker 1: well informed, or they're fifteen years old and they're still 260 00:16:41,160 --> 00:16:44,320 Speaker 1: developing their worldviews. You know, he can't say that. That's 261 00:16:44,400 --> 00:16:48,400 Speaker 1: really disingenuous of him. It is so obviously them trying 262 00:16:48,400 --> 00:16:50,760 Speaker 1: to distance themselves from the damage that they have done. 263 00:16:51,600 --> 00:16:54,720 Speaker 1: I told Brooke about how Cyrus said he never intended 264 00:16:54,760 --> 00:16:57,800 Speaker 1: to publish fake news, and Brooke did a search for 265 00:16:57,920 --> 00:17:01,680 Speaker 1: times Snopes had written about what Mr Conservative had published. 266 00:17:02,040 --> 00:17:07,080 Speaker 1: She sent me an example from October. Mr Conservative, which 267 00:17:07,280 --> 00:17:11,800 Speaker 1: Snopes described back then as an unreliable website, had posted 268 00:17:11,840 --> 00:17:17,000 Speaker 1: the headline warning Obama opens first concentration camp in US 269 00:17:17,040 --> 00:17:22,440 Speaker 1: plans to detain conservatives. A story in had the headline 270 00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:27,840 Speaker 1: ten facts that suggests Obama's birth certificate is fake. This guy, 271 00:17:27,880 --> 00:17:31,399 Speaker 1: in particular Mr Conservative was a birther or is a 272 00:17:31,400 --> 00:17:34,440 Speaker 1: birth I don't know who pushed a story about Obama 273 00:17:34,520 --> 00:17:38,879 Speaker 1: opening FEMA camps for political dissidents. Um. I think that 274 00:17:38,960 --> 00:17:42,600 Speaker 1: he probably was never that concerned about actual news to 275 00:17:42,600 --> 00:17:45,920 Speaker 1: begin with. And I've heard that particular excuse that that's 276 00:17:45,920 --> 00:17:47,960 Speaker 1: what the people want for a long time. He was 277 00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:50,600 Speaker 1: pushing disinformation, whether he wants to admit it or not. 278 00:17:50,640 --> 00:17:52,240 Speaker 1: And I don't care if that's what the people want. 279 00:17:52,320 --> 00:17:54,280 Speaker 1: If you're gonna call yourself a journalist and say that 280 00:17:54,320 --> 00:17:57,200 Speaker 1: you're dealing with journalism, you should not be putting out 281 00:17:57,440 --> 00:18:09,639 Speaker 1: misinformation or disinformation or straight up propaganda. And knowingly, the 282 00:18:09,680 --> 00:18:13,680 Speaker 1: public outcry after the election forced Facebook to roll out 283 00:18:13,680 --> 00:18:16,440 Speaker 1: a bunch of changes to the way it prioritizes news 284 00:18:16,440 --> 00:18:20,800 Speaker 1: stories on its platform. The company has been very intent 285 00:18:20,880 --> 00:18:25,160 Speaker 1: on looking for signals for pages that might be low quality. 286 00:18:25,320 --> 00:18:27,919 Speaker 1: It says that they're starting to de rank them in 287 00:18:27,920 --> 00:18:31,359 Speaker 1: in the news feed algorithm and make sure that people 288 00:18:31,400 --> 00:18:34,080 Speaker 1: don't have a bad experience when they click on these places. 289 00:18:34,560 --> 00:18:38,000 Speaker 1: And according to Cyrus, those changes had a huge impact 290 00:18:38,080 --> 00:18:42,840 Speaker 1: on his business as well as his competitors. Facebook is 291 00:18:42,880 --> 00:18:47,000 Speaker 1: specifically sought to destroy the conservative sides Facebook face. Do 292 00:18:47,000 --> 00:18:50,640 Speaker 1: you think Facebook tried to do that to your sides too, well, 293 00:18:50,840 --> 00:18:52,800 Speaker 1: Mr Conservative, Well, of course, I mean it was annihilated, 294 00:18:52,800 --> 00:18:56,359 Speaker 1: but it was not annihilated is in a profound way 295 00:18:56,880 --> 00:18:59,320 Speaker 1: as some of the people who are misbehaving more than me. 296 00:19:01,520 --> 00:19:05,439 Speaker 1: When Cyrus says that Mr Conservative was annihilated, he means 297 00:19:05,520 --> 00:19:09,439 Speaker 1: that traffic to the site did substantially. That happened in 298 00:19:09,440 --> 00:19:11,760 Speaker 1: increments's face were rolled out more and more changes that 299 00:19:11,760 --> 00:19:14,480 Speaker 1: were meant to curb fake news. You know, it's a 300 00:19:14,520 --> 00:19:17,520 Speaker 1: decision between like, Okay, I'm not gonna run a garbage website, 301 00:19:18,520 --> 00:19:22,719 Speaker 1: uh that is barely profitable after you know, we've had 302 00:19:22,760 --> 00:19:25,960 Speaker 1: eighty eight percent of our revenues kicked out after the 303 00:19:25,960 --> 00:19:30,480 Speaker 1: fake news crisis. Should I say or am I gonna 304 00:19:30,520 --> 00:19:32,119 Speaker 1: run a clean website and then I'm not gonna have 305 00:19:32,160 --> 00:19:35,600 Speaker 1: to pay whatever it is. You know, months just keep 306 00:19:35,600 --> 00:19:39,800 Speaker 1: it up and running. This past August, Cyrus shut down 307 00:19:39,960 --> 00:19:43,040 Speaker 1: Mr conservative dot com. If you try to go to 308 00:19:43,080 --> 00:19:46,000 Speaker 1: the U r L or any of the connected domains today, 309 00:19:46,400 --> 00:19:57,000 Speaker 1: you get nothing. And in the months leading up to 310 00:19:57,040 --> 00:20:00,639 Speaker 1: the election, he did something you might not expect. He 311 00:20:00,760 --> 00:20:04,359 Speaker 1: created a new site in July last year called Truth Examiner, 312 00:20:04,600 --> 00:20:07,240 Speaker 1: purchased a whole new set of bands on Facebook who 313 00:20:07,280 --> 00:20:11,760 Speaker 1: identify as Democrats, and hired a team of authentically liberal 314 00:20:11,920 --> 00:20:14,560 Speaker 1: editors to run it. He says he did this partly 315 00:20:14,680 --> 00:20:19,680 Speaker 1: because he was convinced Trump was gonna win. I started 316 00:20:19,720 --> 00:20:26,280 Speaker 1: Truth Examiner because, uh, I have a sort of genetic need. 317 00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:30,160 Speaker 1: It's just on a cellular level to oppose those in power. 318 00:20:31,520 --> 00:20:35,000 Speaker 1: Anyone who's powerful needs to be challenged, regardless of their 319 00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:38,119 Speaker 1: political orientation. And he would think that a site like 320 00:20:38,240 --> 00:20:42,720 Speaker 1: this catering to anti Trump outrage would thrive under Trump's presidency. 321 00:20:43,160 --> 00:20:46,000 Speaker 1: Cyrus worked hard to stay within the bounds of facebooks 322 00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:48,399 Speaker 1: and rules. So, you know, so we look at all 323 00:20:48,440 --> 00:20:52,080 Speaker 1: the guidelines that they've published, like these are the advertisements 324 00:20:52,080 --> 00:20:53,960 Speaker 1: that you should have. This is the type of content 325 00:20:53,960 --> 00:20:57,119 Speaker 1: that you should produce. I literally have I have IVY 326 00:20:57,200 --> 00:21:02,280 Speaker 1: League people and professors writing breaking news in the exact 327 00:21:02,320 --> 00:21:05,359 Speaker 1: way that has been specified, and despite what he says 328 00:21:05,359 --> 00:21:08,560 Speaker 1: were his best efforts, there was a huge drop off 329 00:21:08,560 --> 00:21:12,119 Speaker 1: and how much they clicked on truth Examiner's posts that 330 00:21:12,240 --> 00:21:15,239 Speaker 1: coincided with a big change Facebook rolled out to its 331 00:21:15,320 --> 00:21:28,119 Speaker 1: news feed. It's not easy being clean. I spoke to 332 00:21:28,160 --> 00:21:32,000 Speaker 1: Cyrus's editor in chief his liberal wedsite, Nicole Jaynes. She 333 00:21:32,080 --> 00:21:35,360 Speaker 1: said she's been intently reading Facebook's blog posts about how 334 00:21:35,400 --> 00:21:39,520 Speaker 1: to play it straight, give readers high quality content, avoid 335 00:21:39,560 --> 00:21:43,520 Speaker 1: click bait headline. Although I do see this headline right now. 336 00:21:43,960 --> 00:21:47,200 Speaker 1: Here are the Facebook ads Trump only wants his loyal 337 00:21:47,240 --> 00:21:51,800 Speaker 1: supporters to see. They are disturbing. Disturbing in all caps. Okay, 338 00:21:51,920 --> 00:21:55,119 Speaker 1: maybe she writes a few clickbait headlines, but traffic on 339 00:21:55,160 --> 00:21:58,920 Speaker 1: truth Examiner has remained dismal since Facebook's crackdown in March, 340 00:21:59,560 --> 00:22:02,280 Speaker 1: and Cyrus doesn't get it because he says he's playing 341 00:22:02,359 --> 00:22:05,439 Speaker 1: by the rules. And it makes Cyrus mad because he 342 00:22:05,520 --> 00:22:09,120 Speaker 1: still sees plenty of other sites thriving, even though they're 343 00:22:09,200 --> 00:22:13,000 Speaker 1: using the same shady tactics that Facebook's reportedly cracking down 344 00:22:13,040 --> 00:22:18,560 Speaker 1: on clickbait, sensationalism, fake news. Cyrus thinks that if Facebook 345 00:22:18,640 --> 00:22:21,240 Speaker 1: is giving advice on how to be a good website, 346 00:22:21,760 --> 00:22:25,080 Speaker 1: their platform might need to change to actually support the 347 00:22:25,160 --> 00:22:29,119 Speaker 1: people who follow it. So, Sarah, was there anything that 348 00:22:29,200 --> 00:22:33,840 Speaker 1: surprised you about Cyrus's story? Well, it just goes to 349 00:22:33,880 --> 00:22:38,000 Speaker 1: show that businesses, however shady, live and die on Facebook's whim. 350 00:22:38,040 --> 00:22:41,000 Speaker 1: This company has an enormous amount of power to sort 351 00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:45,200 Speaker 1: of dictate what we consume in media, and they don't 352 00:22:45,240 --> 00:22:48,920 Speaker 1: see themselves as the arbiter of that power. In fact, 353 00:22:48,960 --> 00:22:52,000 Speaker 1: they really shy away from it. But that doesn't mean 354 00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:54,520 Speaker 1: they don't have it, and it's getting stronger. Yeah, it's 355 00:22:54,560 --> 00:22:58,120 Speaker 1: scary that a single company has this much power, even 356 00:22:58,119 --> 00:23:00,880 Speaker 1: though we can all agree that less fake news on 357 00:23:00,880 --> 00:23:04,760 Speaker 1: Facebook is a good thing, right, But I think that 358 00:23:04,880 --> 00:23:08,720 Speaker 1: the way that they're wielding it is really confusing to 359 00:23:08,880 --> 00:23:11,440 Speaker 1: people who just want to be successful in the platform. 360 00:23:11,440 --> 00:23:16,400 Speaker 1: I'm not saying Cyrus's business is an upstanding one, but uh, 361 00:23:16,520 --> 00:23:19,800 Speaker 1: I think that the company has been trying to be 362 00:23:19,880 --> 00:23:22,760 Speaker 1: a little bit more transparent with a lot of blog posts, 363 00:23:22,800 --> 00:23:27,160 Speaker 1: a lot of outreach collaboration with journalistic organizations, but they 364 00:23:27,160 --> 00:23:30,800 Speaker 1: still can't agree on where the gray lines are and 365 00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:33,400 Speaker 1: how hard they should be pushing to curb this kind 366 00:23:33,440 --> 00:23:37,359 Speaker 1: of stuff and what veers too far into the direction 367 00:23:37,400 --> 00:23:41,120 Speaker 1: of being an editorial person, right And if they're too transparent, 368 00:23:41,240 --> 00:23:44,600 Speaker 1: then you end up encouraging people who are kind of 369 00:23:44,640 --> 00:23:48,320 Speaker 1: like Cyrus who try to game the system again, right, Well, 370 00:23:48,359 --> 00:23:50,280 Speaker 1: and people will always try to gain the system. And 371 00:23:50,280 --> 00:23:53,159 Speaker 1: that's something that Facebook has been pretty open about that 372 00:23:53,200 --> 00:23:57,840 Speaker 1: they see fake news and information campaigns by foreign governments. 373 00:23:57,840 --> 00:24:01,280 Speaker 1: They see it is is something like like spam, or 374 00:24:01,320 --> 00:24:05,600 Speaker 1: hacking or or phishing scams, like another set of of 375 00:24:05,960 --> 00:24:08,720 Speaker 1: issues that a tech company has to deal with in 376 00:24:08,800 --> 00:24:12,199 Speaker 1: this day and age. So aside from the dent that 377 00:24:12,240 --> 00:24:16,000 Speaker 1: Facebook has made on Cyrus's business, do you think Facebook's 378 00:24:16,040 --> 00:24:21,120 Speaker 1: made serious inroads and curbing actual fake news? Well, I've 379 00:24:21,119 --> 00:24:24,160 Speaker 1: been looking into that, and when it comes to stopping 380 00:24:24,160 --> 00:24:27,080 Speaker 1: fake news, they have this team of fact checkers. Brooke 381 00:24:27,160 --> 00:24:30,280 Speaker 1: Mnkowski is one of them. I interviewed a bunch of 382 00:24:30,320 --> 00:24:32,920 Speaker 1: them a couple of weeks back, and it turns out 383 00:24:32,920 --> 00:24:35,600 Speaker 1: they have this dashboard where they go through and marked 384 00:24:35,760 --> 00:24:38,760 Speaker 1: stories as true or false. But it barely scrapes the 385 00:24:38,760 --> 00:24:41,520 Speaker 1: surface in terms of the amount of content that's actually 386 00:24:41,600 --> 00:24:47,040 Speaker 1: on Facebook. And they're not really focusing on the biggest, 387 00:24:47,119 --> 00:24:50,480 Speaker 1: most influential people like if. Cyrus says, if Facebook were 388 00:24:50,480 --> 00:24:52,879 Speaker 1: had just come to him, you know, he could gather 389 00:24:53,040 --> 00:24:54,919 Speaker 1: up all the other people in the industry and they 390 00:24:54,920 --> 00:24:57,800 Speaker 1: couldn't have a nice little meeting in Menlo Park. Instead, 391 00:24:57,800 --> 00:25:01,000 Speaker 1: they're going at it from the prospective of of taking 392 00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:04,040 Speaker 1: down the stories once they're up, which will maybe take 393 00:25:04,040 --> 00:25:12,000 Speaker 1: a lot longer. For now, Cyrus says he's focused on 394 00:25:12,119 --> 00:25:15,520 Speaker 1: building out Truth Examiner, which he wants to sell to 395 00:25:15,600 --> 00:25:19,080 Speaker 1: a big publisher like the Huffington Post for eight figures 396 00:25:19,119 --> 00:25:23,440 Speaker 1: down the road. Whatever he does, Cyrus says he won't 397 00:25:23,520 --> 00:25:26,520 Speaker 1: risk going back to his old ways. Even if he's 398 00:25:26,560 --> 00:25:30,439 Speaker 1: frustrated with Facebook. His business is completely dependent on it, 399 00:25:30,640 --> 00:25:33,520 Speaker 1: and he worries that if he crosses the line, Facebook 400 00:25:33,560 --> 00:25:49,920 Speaker 1: could ban his page altogether. And that's it for this 401 00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:53,840 Speaker 1: week's episode of Decrypted. Thanks for listening, listeners. Is there 402 00:25:53,840 --> 00:25:56,480 Speaker 1: a way you'd like to get your political news on Facebook? 403 00:25:56,880 --> 00:25:59,959 Speaker 1: I'm always interested to know how you're interacting with the company. 404 00:26:00,440 --> 00:26:02,920 Speaker 1: You can send us a message to Decrypted at Bloomberg 405 00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:06,000 Speaker 1: dot net or find me on Twitter. I'm at Sarah 406 00:26:05,960 --> 00:26:08,960 Speaker 1: Fryer and I'm at aki Ito seven. If you enjoy 407 00:26:09,080 --> 00:26:12,960 Speaker 1: listening to Decrypted, please recommend us to your friends, and 408 00:26:13,040 --> 00:26:15,480 Speaker 1: if you haven't already, take a moment to rate and 409 00:26:15,560 --> 00:26:19,440 Speaker 1: review our show that helps us find new listeners. This 410 00:26:19,520 --> 00:26:24,000 Speaker 1: episode was produced by Pia Gadkari, Liz Smith, and Magnus Henderson. 411 00:26:24,480 --> 00:26:29,119 Speaker 1: We'll see you next week, yeah,