Because even Facebook thinks Jordan Peterson is a joke
On Nov. 11, from around 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., the number nine story on Facebook Trending was “Jordan Peterson.” The University of Toronto psychology professor was indeed in the news for announcing that he was, temporarily at least, backing down from his plans to launch a controversial website to identify leftist courses and profs. But instead of a real piece, Trending linked to a satirical news article from The Beaverton, filled with fake quotes and a false premise.
This came only one day after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg finished a cross country trip across America, touting increased security to help protect the democratic process.
“A lot of people come to Facebook every day to help connect with friends and family and while they’re there, people want to share what’s important to them and discuss the most important things going on,” said Zuckerberg in a talk at the University of Kansas on Nov. 10. “It is absolutely our responsibility to protect the security and integrity of that platform, so people can have those discussions.”
According to Facebook’s “Trending Review Guidelines,” “Trending topics are detected algorithmically,” then checked for authenticity by a review team. The guidelines stipulate that the “Algorithmically Selected Top Article,” which is approved by the review team, should “not present a hoax or contain demonstrably false information.”
The Ontarion reached out to Facebook to find out what happened in this case, but did not receive any comment.
Photo obtained from Facebook