Facebook’s Role in Brexit – and the Threat to Democracy
Take your notes in your English notebook in the section dedicated to Brexit.
1) Surf the Web and do some research into the newspaper "The Observer".
- When was it established?
- Is is a quality newspaper or a tabloid?
- How left-wing or right-wing is it?
2) In April 2019, an investigative journalist gave a TED Talk on Facebook’s role in Brexit. Watch the video and choose the best summary.
[ ] Carole Cadwalladr investigated the links between political interest and online participation on Facebook and she found out that the use of Facebook lowed the barriers for expression of opinions during the 2016 referendum campaign.
[ ] Carole Cadwalladr investigated the weight of social media interference in the elections and asked for more transparent online campaigns.
[ ] Carole Cadwalladr found out that British electoral laws and British data laws were broken during the 2016 referendum campaign, mostly because British Facebook users were targeted with online misleading political messages which influenced public opinion.
3) Answer the following 6 questions.
- When did the journalist start her investigation ?
- Where did she start it?
- Why did she go to Ebbw Vale?
- What were the four main reasons why a lot of people in Ebbw Vale voted to leave the EU?
- Why was it strange, according to Carole Cadwalladr?
- What influenced people living in Ebbw Vale to vote to leave the EU?
Watch the video again and check.
4) Check all your answers here.
5) Do you agree with Carole Cadwalladr when she states that “the gods of Silicon Valley are on the wrong side of history”, facilitating multiple crimes in the referendum in 2016, or not? Leave your personal comment in the comment box. Remember to choose "anonymous" as an identity, but write your name and the initial of your surname before starting to write.
NOUHAILA.Z
ReplyDeleteI, personally, agree with everything she said. And I think that this is not just about England, but all the present democracies where sovereignist and populist parties take advantage of the crisis of representation in parliament trying to place themselves as the only representatives of the popular will.
And the words of these parties are very dangerous for our democracies, because they convince people that they can easily solve their problems, often, through fake news and conspiracies without any foundation, relying on the fear of migrants and the European Union. And this is exactly what has happened in England: populist parties have relied around eurosceptic and Turkey's entry propaganda, directing public opinion towards the wrong side of history.
stefania g.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with Carole Cadwalladr. Nowadays we live in a world completely corrupt and if on the one hand the technology improved and brought the progress of human society, on the other hand it made it greedy and dark.
Technology and social platforms are supposed to help people, but on the contrary, they just create disinformation and persuade people by directing them towards the wrong and drastic choices. Social media has become a crime scene, where business and people with the power can control everything by popularizing people’s truth and ideas.
Gabriele M.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with what Carole Cadwallad said, because it showed how Facebook, and other companies in Silicon Valley have participated actively (and illegally) in the campaign for "leavers" in favor of Brexit.
As the journalist said, democracy is disappearing in this way, and I also think it would be right for Facebook and other companies such as Cambridge Analytica to tell the truth and prove the illegality committed.
ELISA BLENCIO
ReplyDeleteI agree with Carole Cadwalladr and her views on the crimes of the 2016 referendum. The United Kingdom and a large part of its population made an important decision like Brexit based on false information taken from Internet. To date, in fact, people prefer to rely on social media, as in this
case on Facebook, instead of inquiring from official sites or in general from reliable means.
Unfortunately the choice has been made and there is no going back and that is why it is necessary to act against those which gave rise to this fraud, depriving the citizens of a democratic State of freedom of choice and imposing themselves on them with authority.
Gabriele D.
ReplyDeleteI personaly agree with Carole Cadwallad , she was brave enough to blame the c.e.os of the Silicon Valley, that nowadays control all the media and produces all the supplies for their use . The condemn that she threw to those people it’s very heavy . But it’s fair , if we really want a democracy we have to leave all the fake news and persuasions back and star to be reasonable and think with our brain .
Roberta T.
ReplyDeleteI personally agree with the journalist, Carole Cadwalladr. In this case some people in the UK made decisions keeping in mind some informations found on the internet ( like Facebook), which were false. On the internet we can find both true and false informations, but to be sure they're correct we should rely on the official newspapers or official sources of information.
Rita B.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Caroline Cadwallar said during the TED talk. Surely today we have to pay attention to fake news which browse the web. I think that it’s necessary that new laws are adopted to save democracy and maybe first of all governments should fight ignorance to ensure that the population develops a critical spirit.
But the internet or social media also has some advantages, they can help us to load information so we can be always up to date on what happens
SVEVA B.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Carole Cadwallad. Nowadays, social media like Facebook have a place on our everyday lifes. One of the biggest problem of this "new way of communication" are fake-news, that more often appear on internet. In this case, they were so widespread that they influenced the vote of millions of peolpe.
Furthermore, the fact that Mark Zuckerberg never showed up to give explanations is very suspicious.
In conclusion, I don't think that this woman would have exposed herself so much if she hadn’t had certain evidence of what she condemns.
Martina T.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Caroline Cadwallar said and I think that this phenomenon is becoming serious.
Most of the population nowadays is getting information through the wrong platforms and there are too many malicious people who have the power to spread fake news.
In the past people only got information through newspapers, which are generally the most truthful. Persuasions have arisen since television has been used; in recent years, with the use of the internet, they have grown unconditionally. It’s very important that many more journalists find out about these events and that they are minimized.
Sara L.
ReplyDeleteI personally agree with what journalist Carole Cadwalladr said. Nowadays social networks, like facebook, play a fundamental role in our society, people are increasingly using social networks to inform themselves and no longer uses safer sources.
Unfortunately the advent of the Internet has many advantages but also many disadvantages, such as the spread of "fake news" that can influence people even in important situations such as that of Brexit.
I think that what was done by facebook and the others gods of Silicon Valley during the Brexit period was very serious and as the journalist said put at risk our democracy. I belive that mesures should be taken and people should open their eyes and inquire from safe sources to put end to this problem.
Giada B.
ReplyDeleteI fully agree with what the journalist Carole Cadwalladr said, because she says that today every democracy has lost its value because of corruption, so I agree with her when she says that there is no longer any kind of democracy.
As for technology, this has led to a general development, but being in the hands of everyone anyone can spread all kinds of news, creating a large number of disinformation, like what happened to Ebbw Vale.
Eleonora N.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Carole Cadwalladr said. Nowadays all people can write what they think on social media, both real and fake information, and just some of the false information are deleted from the social.
The United Kingdom population has faced an important choice based on what they saw written on social media because they think that there should only be true information in these but, because of corruption, it is not so. For this reason we must inform ourselves only on the official sources.
Elisa G.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with Carole Cadwallard. I think that technology and social media are becoming more and more powerful.
Facebook, for example, is part of everyday life; it’s a platform where people can read and see information about all over the world, but the problem is the fake news. It’s a way to confuse people, and therefore, Facebook can control the mind of everyone.
In conclusion I think that the journalist is very brave to say her opinion and to expose herself.
Susan R.
ReplyDeleteI agree with that sentence, and with everything Carole Cadwalladr said. The reason why I agree is that Facebook, that can be defined god of the Silicon Valley, and Cambridge Analytica decided to sabotage a democratic referendum by spreading fake news, just for money. I personally think that they were highly aware of the power of a social media such as Facebook, and of the seriousness of what they were doing, and they did it anyway. I think that governments should really start worrying about what happened, and make laws that can prevent such events from happening, in order to protect our democracies.
Erika C.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with Carole Cadwalladr and what she said. In my opinion on the social media everybody can write everything they want and also the comments or post inappropriate photos. In addition, the social media and the technology are becoming more powerfull. Like Facebook that it is part of our lives, because we pass most of our time on Facebook or on other social media.
Obviously there are a lot of false information on the internet but most of us believe everything that reads. This is the phenomenon of corruption and to ensure that this does not happen, we must find more reliable and secure information.
Elisa M.
ReplyDeleteI fully agree with Carole Cadwallar. We live in a society obsessed from technology although often through these technologies and especially on the internet, there’s a lot of fake news. This happens on social media such as facebook, that corrupts human minds and makes people believe things that are not true and better inform yourself in the newspapers with more reliable news.
Alessia G.
ReplyDeleteI personally agree with almost all of what Carole Cadwalladr said. The parties abused of advertisements on Facebook and other social media at the referendum in 2016, because I think that most of them are fake and their aim is to manipulate people’s ideas, convince them that what they are saying is the right thing, they made think people that EU never did something for them, which is not true.
MARIANNA D M
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with the journalist Carole Cadwallar.
I think that technology and social media can be very dangerous if they are used in a dangerous way.
I’m so scared to know that the majority of the British population voted to leave EU because they were suggested by some fakes informations on Facebook.
In that time Facebook was full of information created by some agencies only for money.
Everybody can spread informations online, so we can’t trust everything that we read!
I hope that mesures to stop that way of crime will be taken by next years!
Barbara S.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with Carol Cadwallad. Nowadays every single social media, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, gives everybody the opportunity to be politically, ideologically and personally free. The problem that consequently becomes more relevant, is precisely the phenomenon of fake news. Unfortunately, they are very well studied, especially to confuse and convince as many users as possible, as happened in the case of Brexit. Therefore, each of us has the duty to defend ourselves from false news, and others from the dissemination of them, through the observance of more reliable information, which can be found in newspapers or on the news.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with Carol Cadwallad. She said and showed how facebook and others companies in Silicon Valley have supported supported the campaign for the exit, and it was illegaly.
Ithink it isn't a democratic and Facebook and the other companies have to say the truth and to pay for what the have done.
Fabrizio C.
Alex K
ReplyDeletePersonally I agree with the journaliste Carole Cadwalladr because I think that social medias are more powerful and in my personal opinion is a very good thing. Social media are everyday part of life for everyone because people can read all the news, follow people they know and see posts about topic they like.
Angelica B.
ReplyDeleteI think the same thing about what Carole Cadwalladr said.
Today our society is surrounded by technology 24 hours a day.what she said.
Technology has developed and is still growing now, and it’s a means that each of us uses, starting with mobile phones.
In fact, technology being in everyone’s hands, anyone can write fake new, as happened in Ebbw Valley.
The example of the journalist Carole is that of Facebook, where false news was spread in Ebbw Vale and that conditioned the vote of the 2016 referendum.
Finally, I agree with what Carole said about democracies. By now, democracies have no value and are only corrupt.