PERRY: In the growing social media war against journalism, reality becomes collateral damage

Amid the cacophony of weird and wild events during the past few weeks came one flashing red light on the global dashboard that spells serious trouble .

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau clobbered Facebook parent company Meta this week for suppressing Canadian news content about deadly wildfires in northwest Canada.

“It is so inconceivable that a company like Facebook is choosing to put corporate profits ahead of ensuring that local news organizations can get up to date information to Canadians,” the prime minister told reporters this week.

Seriously?

Since the beginning of the internet, companies like Yahoo and Google have systematically stolen the expensive work of news media around the world and used it to lure advertisers to their own search engines and websites.

Giants like Facebook and Twitter only perfected the scheme where newspapers from The Sentinel to The New York Times would voluntarily broadcast their journalism anywhere and everywhere for free.

After decades of being bled to death by the scheme — where news media organizations went willingly — suddenly people like Trudeau are realizing the danger in the loss of real journalism brought on by social media companies and others.

You see, Meta officials threatened earlier this summer to block real news content from Canadian Facebook users because of a new law there requiring giant tech companies like Meta, Google, Twitter and others to pay real journalism publishers for linking to or repurposing news content.

Canadian officials figured that Meta would make an exception for life-and-death news stories about the catastrophic wildfires in that country’s Northwest Territories.

They figured wrong.

Companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google only became wildly profitable because they didn’t have to pay for the content that drew billions of viewers, which then became attractive to advertisers.

The problem for all of the planet is that these tech companies have bled off almost all the advertisers that funded the journalism that has informed, entertained, saved lives and ensured democracy for a very long time.

Trudeau, like many others, can plainly see that as newspapers and news media starve to death, the dearth of credible journalism and news threatens lives during a crisis and overall.

So as Canadian officials pleaded with Facebook to relent on their threat and allow users to share legitimate news about fire escape routes or smoke threats, Meta told all of Canada to suck eggs.

“This is Facebook’s choice,” Trudeau said. “In a democracy, quality local journalism matters, and it matters now more than ever before when people are worried about their homes, worried about their communities, worried about the worst summer for extreme events that we’ve had in a very long time.”

This is all coming to a Facebook or Twitter account near you.

Meta social media Facebook, Instagram and its new Twitter-competitor, Threads, have all made clear they’re no longer “interested” in allowing their users to see legitimate news content.

The Sentinel is among others who’ve seen the effect of Facebook algorithms ratcheting down how many of our Facebook followers can see our news posts. Legit journalism companies have seen the squeeze from Twitter as well, which has essentially called all-out war against credible news sites.

Social media aren’t alone in refusing to hand over cash to journalism companies and orgs that keep people looking.

“Google’s owner, Alphabet, also said it planned to remove Canadian news links in response to the new law, although it hasn’t followed through yet,” the AP wrote last week.

Instead, the 25% of Americans who get their news via social media will get retweets of Donald Trump’s rampant, racist rants and lies, unadulterated by credible journalists able to separate fact from fiction and propaganda.

Between the cat videos, front-seat-of-the-car snark and kitchen-video voice-overs, first Canadians, and eventually everyone, will be substituting the weird and dangerous rants of extremists for real news of the day.

While you may still dial into the Sentinel, the Denver Post or the Dallas Morning News for your daily dose of reality, millions of others will scroll past endless indoctrinations by the likes of former GOP gubernatorial candidate Heidi Ganahl, who posted endlessly about local schools being overrun with “furries” kids who peed in elementary school litter boxes.

Really.

There will be endless social-media fury from Colorado GOP Congressperson Lauren Boebert, who yesterday assured readers on Twitter, “Biden just issued more restrictions on energy production…When your gas prices continue to go up, be sure to thank a Democrat!”

In reality, the United States is producing more oil than it ever has, and has is an oil exporter. The United States became the world’s top oil producer in 2018 and continues to be, according to oil industry sources. Gasoline prices are the result of market forces, not political whims. 

And absent legit media sources on Twitter and other social media, Donald Trump will be able to continue his malevolent schemes unchecked.

“IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!” Trump wrote on Truth Social earlier this month, clearly threatening witnesses in a federal criminal case against him.

Without credible, legit media presence, social media will become a dream come true for propagandists and extremists.

It doesn’t mean that everyone should just turn off their Facebook accounts. But press back. Share news stories that matter. Most importantly, dial direct into your local newspaper, subscribe and donate at least as much as you spend on an iced latte once a week to keep democracy and reality, along with news media, alive.

Follow @EditorDavePerry on Threads, Mastodon, Twitter and Facebook or reach him at 303-750-7555 or dperry@SentinelColorado.com