New York Daily News
While the world continues to battle a biological pathogen, two dangerous information viruses just got a big albeit belated setback: Facebook has announced it will no longer tolerate QAnon conspiracy theories, or people denying the historical reality of the Holocaust of 6 million Jews, or paid advertisements from anti-vaxxer groups.
The moves are welcome signs that the online community is finally taking seriously its responsibility to exercise judgment and deem some ideas so false and hateful and toxic they have no business helping them spread.
The thorniest section of the briar patch regards truth and lies. We wouldn't want Facebook to start deciding, for instance, that astrologers or Scientologists or Santa Claus enthusiasts can't trade content, or to require a five-person team to prescreen your claim that you've just grown the biggest tomato in the county.
But lies designed to undermine the election itself should be verboten. Deep-fake videos of either presidential candidate must be disallowed, especially when Facebook is profiting off promoting them.
Not all lies are created equal. Algorithms can't tell the difference. Humans at Facebook must.