Facebook spreads Republican disinformation and promotes right-wing conspiracy theories. Meet Joel Kaplan, Republican operative and Zuckerberg fixer.
"Kaplan is Facebook's vice president of global public policy. He is a former energy company lobbyist and worked in the Bush Administration official. He is a strong conservative voice within Facebook and has helped place conservatives in key positions in the company. He advocates for right-wing websites like Breitbart News and The Daily Caller within the company and has had Facebook's algorithm changed to promote the interests of right-wing publications. He prevented Facebook from closing down Facebook groups that were alleged to have circulated fake news, arguing that doing so would disproportionately target conservatives." - Wikipedia
Mapping Joel Kaplan
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What's a relationship map?
Relationship maps (also called power maps) reveal connections between people, companies and events. They help reveal facts which are often hide to see in words. This interactive relationship map was created with the free Kumu app using publicly available information. See how well you know Joel with this short quiz. Answers below.
- Joel was the Brooks Brother's Riot in Miami which demanded an end the recount favoring Al Gore?
- Kaplan helped 'quarterback' Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court?
- Zuckerberg changed Facebook's policies to be more lenient on Alex Jones at InfoWars who claimed that the Sandy Hook shooting was a "giant hoax" carried out by crisis actors?
- Facebook altered the language of its advertising policy to allow political candidates to lie in Facebook ads?
- Rudy Giuliani's digital strategist worked at Facebook?
- Facebook hired the former Republican Chairman of Federal Communications Commission (FCC)?
- Facebook gives the right wing Daily Wire almost ten times as much engagement as the New York Times and Washington Post?
The Daily Wire
"The Daily Wire, the right-wing website founded by pundit Ben Shapiro, is a cesspool of misogyny, bigotry, and misinformation. Its toxic content is also fantastically successful on Facebook, with each story reaching more people than any other major media outlet. A Popular Information investigation reveals some of this success is attributable to a clandestine network of 14 large Facebook pages that purport to be independent but exclusively promote content from The Daily Wire in a coordinated fashion.
This kind of "inauthentic coordinated behavior" violates Facebook's rules. Facebook has taken down smaller and less coordinated networks that promoted liberal content. But Facebook told Popular Information that it will continue to allow this network to operate and amplify The Daily Wire's content."
"One representative example is this video by Daily Wire host Andrew Klavan explaining why "gender equality" is a "leftist lie." The Daily Wire specializes in anti-LGBT bigotry. In this video, Daily Wire host Michael Knowles says that "gay people" don't really "want to be tolerated by society and accepted by society." His evidence is the concept of LGBT "pride," which he calls "the worst sin of all."
The Daily Wire is also a source for misinformation and conspiracy theories. The Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro, whose site was bankrolled by Texas oil magnates, falsely claims that "there is not that much we can do" to combat climate change. Shapiro also says that the "radical left" is plotting to prevent you from giving money to The Daily Wire and your local church." - Popular Information
TakeAway: Use network maps to expose hidden relationships and agendas - especially if a company is making money by destroying civil society and democracy.
Deepak
DemLabs
Answers: All true (unfortunately). See the Joel Kaplan network map for details.
Resources used to create Joel Kaplan relationship map
Popular Info
The Guardian
Politico
Gizmodo
BuzzFeed News
Business Insdier
CNN
The Mary Sue
Miami Herald
Popular Resistance
Washington Post
How to use the Joel Kaplan network map
