Double standards? Facebook cancels renowned specialised medium
Yes, you read correctly. marineforum.onlinethe portal of the just 50 year old magazine marine forum was deleted from Facebook. Apparently on the panic hunt for pro-Russian and right-wing extremist accounts, the META Group is paralysing a democratically reputable specialist medium.
50 years the marine forum now publishes news from the fields of shipping, navy, maritime security and technology from experts for experts. The publisher is the German Maritime Institute e.V. (DMI), founded by naval officers, which can boast the crème de la crème of German and international security policy at its events and has even had the honour of welcoming the Chancellor. The former high-ranking retirees have also been successful online for three years, with 100,000 users and more at times, who want to find out about current topics such as maritime infrastructure and, right now, the deployment of the "Hessen". Standing firmly on democratic ground, the editorial team is anything but pro-Russian. And the often young users appreciate the fact that the old men meet them on various social media channels. They have 10,000 followers on Facebook alone.
Apparently, the search for Russian disruptors who are using deceptive copies of genuine media such as the Süddeutsche Zeitung According to Correctiv, even those that can be clearly distinguished from fakes have now been captured. New Facebook pages with arbitrary names such as "Furtive Toes" or "Steadfast Pets" have been appearing daily since 2023, spreading propaganda texts and AfD content - and deceiving the platforms with tricky links. AfD members of the Bundestag such as Harald Weyel benefit from this, as posts on the network lead to a video featuring him. Facebook actually wanted to have the unwanted intruders switched off, but the pro-Russian disinformation campaigns are extremely active. They spread fake news articles, fake government pages and Nazi content. The Federal Foreign Office uncovered a large-scale pro-Russian media attack in Germany, as reported by Der Spiegel at the end of January. Experts from the ministry uncovered more than 50,000 fake accounts on X that agitated against German support for Ukraine. Analysts also attribute this wave of attacks to the so-called doppelganger campaign, which has been running throughout Europe since spring 2022. T-Online wrote "Putin's troll army attacks Germany" and META confirmed "Facebook: Huge troll attack came from Russia". According to the ministry, it appears that part of the campaign is automated. AI fuels disinformation. If there are no reliable mechanisms that can distinguish between good and bad, then this raises serious questions about the algorithms and moderation practices of social media platforms like Meta.
The marine forum probably hit the nail on the head because Russian lies had already been exposed in a factual and neutral manner, e.g. when pipelines were damaged, using similar key words as Putin's deceivers might have done. And this is how propaganda networks always manage to break through. This is a fatal outcome for free reporting. Platforms like Meta must take their responsibility seriously and take effective measures to combat the spread of misinformation - while of course protecting the freedom of legitimate expression. And the deactivation of followers of the marine forum in the five-figure range borders on scandalous. In the worst case scenario, companies can be brought to their knees by something like this. The efforts of the Hamburg agency, which requested the reactivation of our profile on behalf of the publisher, ended up in a chat room in which people with names like "Alexander" or "Marc" from the "Meta Pro Team" make nice comments with the phrase "thank you for contacting Meta", but don't actually do anything. Facebook hasn't activated the account for months - presumably someone doesn't want to admit a mistake or, worse still, doesn't realise it. Calls? No answer, not wanted. This isn't just a minor mistake by call agents who don't realise what's going on - this is a betrayal of trust and credibility in digital communication. In the run-up to the elections in Germany, recognised disinformation campaigns against democratic processes should lead to an outcry at the executive level. Speaking of which: Tino Krause, Facebook's Head of Germany and Central Europe, said when he took office that the company wanted to "continue to offer people in Ukraine and around the world the opportunity to network" (Horizont). The marine forum can no longer even do this in Germany! You should really be shouting: "Mr Krause, wake up, you've got the wrong people!".
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