Julia Carrie Wong's argument is that the political-ads fight stayed fixated on American rules while Facebook offered no account of how the policy operates anywhere else. That gap matters because the company's later India troubles — hate-speech flags left unenforced and executive favoritism — surfaced in exactly the kind of market the 2019 piece said was being ignored.
First-order effects
Political advertisers and election officials outside the US are operating against a policy Facebook hasn't defined locally, leaving enforcement discretionary in markets such as the Philippines' documented propaganda ecosystem rather than rule-bound.
Facebook's public-defense posture stays concentrated on US scrutiny, while the countries named in its own crisis history — Myanmar, the Philippines — get no equivalent policy explanation.
Foreign regulators gain the case for demanding country-specific ad transparency and election rules instead of accepting a US-derived standard applied unevenly.
Third-order effects
Platform governance hardens into two tracks — a litigated US rulebook and improvised local practice everywhere else — inviting election-ad regulation market by market rather than one global standard.
Integrity investment continues to arrive only after documented harm forces it, following the Myanmar-to-Southeast-Asia sequence rather than anticipating elections in smaller markets.
The trend: Global platform governance is drifting from single US-authored policies toward country-by-country improvisation, until local regulators force written rules into each market.
“Facebook is more accountable to US lawmakers and reporters than it is to any other country's” - yet all@of them ignore that there's a world outside america https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
The debate over political ads on Facebook has entirely ignored the more than 90% of FB users that do not live in the United States. I've asked FB again and again to comment on how it's policy will work in non-democratic countries. They have ignored me. https://www.theguardian.com…
The reaction to FB staffer Katie Harbath's role in this controversy is a perfect example of this US-centric myopia. Harbath's history working for the GOP is treated as a minor conspiracy by liberal pundits. Much more interesting is her actual work for FB. https://www.theguardian.…
“What do Zuckerberg's bromides about democracy mean to Facebook users in Kashmir, where Modi has blocked the internet for weeks? What do his paeans to the free press mean in the Philippines, where Duterte has silenced a journalist working to expose human rights violations?” https…
I'm not saying that Facebook single-handedly killed democracy in the Phillippines, India and Poland. I'm asking FB to respond to questions about how its policies will work in countries beside the US. https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
“Harbath's [Facebook] staff became ‘de facto campaign workers’ for political campaigns in some of the world's biggest democracies...Narendra Modi in India, Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines, the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD)...and Andrzej Duda in Poland” https://…
This column by @juliacarriew criticizes some of my reporting on Facebook as too focused on the United States but you should read it because it is very good column. https://twitter.com/...
Look at the intersection of the rise of authoritarians globally and disinformation around elections brought to you bespoke via Facebook. I'm about to go bang pots and pans in the street, so please read my pinned thread so I don't have to. https://twitter.com/...
It's impossible not to notice that democracy has been severely degraded under regimes that Facebook's election team helped achieve power. https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
And since Facebook is more accountable to US politicians and the US press than it is to anyone else, I'm asking US politicians and the US press to look beyond Democrats vs Republicans to ask Facebook the harder questions. https://www.theguardian.com/ ...
Harbath's team helped Modi become the most popular politician on Facebook. Yesterday Modi dissolved the constitution of Kashmir, where the internet has been blocked for 13-weeks. What use are Zuckerberg's bromides about democracy to Kashmiris? https://www.theguardian.com/ ...