Facebook experienced a fake news controversy in 2017, which demonstrates its power to connect and influence worldwide. From the idea of the Harvard Class Directory in 2004 for students to share photos, biographical information, and some personal information, Facebook reached the space to influence US presidential elections (Wells and Winkler (2017). During this period, Facebook employees asserted Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was bending the rules for Trump, allowing racist comments such as banning Muslims. It is important to know Facebook is a social media outlet that allows users to interact or exchange ideas with each other through the Internet. Therefore, Facebook is responsible for ensuring that all users have equal benefits, especially when it comes to politics. According to Tworzydło et al. (2020), a corporation has a responsibility to enhance stakeholder engagement and promote social communication to strengthen its position in the market. This paper analyses the Facebook news controversy, which raised significant public relations issues for its stakeholders. Interactive strategies, including accepting the mistakes and communicating the procedures to address them, are an effective solution since stakeholders pursue their needs and interests to be met.
Issue Identification
In 2016 and 2017, Facebook was accused of altering news stories to polarize public opinion on the US election campaigns. Facebook, in particular, has been accused of publishing fake news articles. According to Wells and Winkler (2017), this fake news was published on users’ timelines to polarize their opinions in favor of Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential elections. In addition, the site’s algorithms placed Trump supporters’ views on the top while those of the opposing side were pushed farther down the users’ timeline comment section (Wells & Winkler, 2017). These accusations have led to significantly reduced numbers of users and the time they spend on the website (Monsees, 2020). The majority of the well-informed Facebook users and employees felt the misinformation in favor of the Republican candidate was a violation of its corporate social responsibility(CSR). According to the Wells and Winkler (2017) case study, some of the content reviewers felt the content of the News feed violated the company code on race and religion, and they threatened to leave.
Interested Strategic Stakeholders
Every organization has stakeholders who have a vested interest in it, and their actions or decisions have a significant impact on its future. Facebook’s main stakeholders include advertisers, users, government, employees, and the general public. The company’s internal and external stakeholders are against its actions to address public relations concerns (She and Michelon, 2019). Starting with the advertisers are against this move since they feel threatened. Preston et al. (2021) state that Facebook’s new move shows that they do not allow people to have control over what they can promote on their website. As a result, it is more likely that their ideas work well with the new Facebook move to avoid public relations issues. The government’s interest in supporting Facebook’s actions is influenced by different political and policy interests to avoid issues related to public relations. Facebook efforts are focused on gaining control of the content shared by the advertisers. Although the public perceives government interventions as efforts to take over media freedom, the efforts are necessary to block fake news before it is shared with the public. The employees, such as the content reviewers, have a responsibility to ensure the content is consistent with the company code of equality and to avoid race and other forms of prejudice (Tworzydło et al., 2020). Generally, it is the expectation and dream of every employee to work in an organization that has a good image and reputation. Moreover, it is in the best interest of the employees to work within an organization that safeguards its core values and appropriately considers the interests of the stakeholders.
Incentive of Stakeholders
The responsibility that Facebook has to the stakeholders.
Facebook has a responsibility to promote and safeguard the interests and needs of all stakeholders. The most significant is to protect the data and not disclose it to third parties for commercial interests without members’ consent (Preston et al., 2021). To the advertisers, the company has the responsibility to provide these stakeholders with efficient and effective advertising services and accurate data. Facebook addresses these interests by implementing automated reporting to reduce human involvement in the advertising process. According to She and Michelon (2019), Facebook has the responsibility to value its employees in terms of their input to the social media business. Facebook is responsible for complying with all policies and interests, which include regulatory requirements. The company should ensure business sustainability and developmental support by offering green technology and the Internet.
The effects of the stakeholder on the company’s performance
Different stakeholders have diverse effects on the organization, including its reputation and financial performance. The users and the advertisers are major sources of revenue, and the negative reputation is harmful to its sustainability (Wells and Winkler (2017). For instance, users and advertisers are the major sources of Facebook’s revenue. This implies that, as they increase, the company will record high income and vice versa. Preston et al. (2021) argue that the government is another stakeholder that can affect the company’s performance. One way that these companies and governments can influence their operations is by implementing rules and regulations that either favor or hurt the company.
Needed Actions
It is imperative to say that quick action is needed. Action is needed to help the company maintain good performance and ensure that stakeholders continue with their support. Preston et al. (2021) stipulate that if this issue is not addressed, most people are more likely to shift to other social media and marketing platforms. The idea is that no one would be willing to use a platform that does not give reliable news and that does not ensure data protection.
The Cost/Benefit of the Company Taking Action
Actions against misinformation can be significant to improve public relations. In particular, the company demonstrates its commitment to the needs of diverse groups. White and Boatwright (2020) state that this move will encourage stakeholders to continue with their support, especially the users or the members. On the other hand, this plan will come with a cost, including opportunity cost. First, the development and implementation of the relevant strategies require time and resources, including an additional workforce. Second, the strategies involve significant opportunity costs since AI supports the use of data for targeted advertisement.
Action(s) by stakeholders that could help or complicate the public relations issue.
The users, including the general public and the government, have a key role in preventing public relations issues. The dissemination of fake news is promoted by the actions of different stakeholders, including the employees (White & Boatwright, 2020). Therefore, the first step to stopping the spread of fake news starts with users. Similarly, the employees have a responsibility to prevent the spread of fake news and enhance the protection of the rights of the other stakeholders.
The company’s objectives are to reduce future public relations issues.
One of the major objectives of Facebook in moving forward is to make positive worldwide connections while maintaining a positive experience for its stakeholders. Wells & Winkler (2017) state that the company has started an effort to filter and flag articles that are found to be fake or that could be misleading to achieve this objective. After the 2017 fake news controversy, Facebook and Zuckerberg started cooperating with the US government to maintain a positive public image while avoiding further public scrutiny. This collaboration has allowed Facebook to work hand in hand with the government to avoid fines and consequences for its mistakes. In addition, the company has been able to rebuild its image and reputation for users, advertisers, employees, and potential business partners to change their attitudes and perspectives towards Facebook.
The interaction strategies can be implemented in stages.
Facebook seeks to explore interactive strategies to address its public relations issues, which involves increasing the engagement of internal and external stakeholders. The first and most interactive strategy that Facebook can implement is for any future public relations issues; it accepts its previous mistakes (Preston et al. (2021). The second step that should be implemented is to create a supportive stakeholder strategy. This strategy entails asking users and other stakeholders to give out their views regarding certain public relations issues and using them as the basis to develop strategies to address the prevailing and possible issues. The third strategy is to implement internal controls to safeguard the credibility of the information (White & Boatwright, 2020). Finally, positive global connections with the government are significant to achieve high privacy standards.
Conclusion
Facebook must be increasingly committed to addressing its public relations concerns. Most significant include interactive strategies to support engagement with different stakeholders.
References
Monsees, L. (2020). ‘A war against truth’ – understanding the fake news controversy. Critical Studies on Security, 8(2), 116–129. https://doi.org/10.1080/21624887.2020.1763708
Preston, S., Anderson, A., Robertson, D. J., Shephard, M. P., & Huhe, N. (2021). Detecting fake news on Facebook: The role of emotional intelligence. Plos one, 16(3), e0246757. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258719
She, C., & Michelon, G. (2019). Managing stakeholder perceptions: Organized hypocrisy in CSR disclosures on Facebook. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 61, 54-76. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1045235418303009
Tworzydło, D., Gawroński, S., & Szuba, P. (2020). Importance and role of <scp>CSR</scp> and stakeholder engagement strategy in Polish companies in the context of activities of experts handling public relations. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 28(1), 64-70. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.2032
Wells, J., & Winkler, C. (2017). Facebook Fake News in the Post-Truth World. https://services.hbsp.harvard.edu/lti/links/content-launch
White, C. L., & Boatwright, B. (2020). Social media ethics in the data economy: Issues of social responsibility for using Facebook for public relations. Public Relations Review, 46(5), 101980. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0363811120301077
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