RAND Corp. used U.S. government funding to publish research in a report that concluded independent social media platforms are “extreme” and “offensive,” while major social media platforms don’t have any political prejudice.
RAND Corp.’s biased report, “The Online Extremist Ecosystem,” scored pro-censorship, leftist Facebook and Twitter more reliable and politically unbiased than pro-free speech independent social media platforms Gab and Parler.
“We found a natural breaking point between platforms that intentionally cater to an open audience without prejudice to political or social viewpoints—essentially, platforms that are identity-agnostic—and those that knowingly cater to or define themselves as catering to individuals with specific political or social viewpoints,” RAND’s report said. The report noted that RAND defined “identity-agnostic” platforms as “mainstream,” and threw Facebook and Twitter into this bucket.
It’s ironic because both of these platforms allow multiple dictators to post content, while they banned former President Donald Trump.
RAND scored “identity-agnostic” platforms 32 points or higher, and dumped platforms with 31 points or lower into the “fringe or niche” categories. The report noted that even a 1-point difference, “on a practical level,” could represent “dramatically different” discourse and users. Facebook and Twitter received 37 and 36 reliability scores, respectively, while RAND awarded Parler, Gab, and 28 and 27 points to Gab.
Facebook and Twitter both allow dictators, including Iran’s terrorist-supporting Supreme Leader AyatollahKhamenei can now post to their platforms. The use of Twitter allows both Khamenei as well as the Chinese state media outlet Global Times, to post on their platforms. violence uncensored. Twitter and Facebook also have a distinctive leftist bias when it comes to censoring content.
RAND claimed “fringe platforms” host a mix of mainstream and extreme content that could be “coded or obscured” to disguise a violent or racist “underpinning.”
Gab and Parler are in the “fringe” camp, according to RAND, while GETTR and TruthSocial didn’t make the list.
“Determining a breaking point between fringe and niche platforms was more difficult because platforms in both categories—and certainly specific subforums within the fringe category—host very offensive content,” the report said. Considering that the American Nazi Party was classified as a “niche” platform, RAND seemingly said it’s difficult to distinguish everyday content on Gab and Parler from actual Nazi propaganda.
Americans’ tax dollars paid for this biased report, too. The RAND National Security Research Division conducted the research, and stated, “Funding for this research was made possible by the independent research and development provisions of RAND’s contracts for the operation of its U.S. Department of Defense [DoD] federally funded research and development centers.”
RAND, which was funded by the DoD, determined that independent platforms for social media were worse than Nazism.
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