Facebook has Shown 2.4 Million Users a Doctored Video of Nancy Pelosi, and it Isn't Going to Stop.
The social media site takes a pass on battling misinformation.
Ali Breland
Mother Jones, May 24, 2019
Facebook is letting a video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) manipulated to make it appear as though shes drunk or otherwise unwell stay on its platform even after YouTube has opted to remove it.
The video shows Pelosi talking at a public event on Wednesday, but is slowed down to make her seem less coherent and as though shes slurring her words. Despite the videos obvious inauthenticity, it went viral, accruing over 1 million views before being noticed by The Washington Post, the first outlet to report on it. The video has since racked up many more views after being tweeted by Rudy Guiliani, President Donald Trumps personal attorney.
What is wrong with Nancy Pelosi? Her speech pattern is bizarre, Giuliani wrote in a now-deleted tweet. Guiliani later maintained that he had noticed some sort of shift in Pelosis speech.
The video appears to have originally gone viral on Facebook after being first posted on a page called Politics Watchdog. Facebook told Mother Jones that the video did not violate any of its community standards, and opted to keep the video up. A company representative said it would demote the video in its algorithms, which would preserve the video but make it less visible and harder to stumble onto. Facebook also pointed out that it began to display stories from fact-checking organizations it partners with, like Politifact, adjacent to the video. Most of the comments, however, that Facebook features prominently under the video take it as authentic and lambast Pelosi. As of Friday, the original version had 2.4 million views.
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https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/05/nancy-pelosi-drunk-video-facebook/