Facebook’s role in the French protests has polarized observers

A week ago, I looked at some of the early reporting around how the Yellow Vest protests in France had been organized on, and perhaps amplified by, Facebook and its family of apps. Ryan Broderick and Jules Darmanin have a new report in BuzzFeed today looking at the latest round of protests in the weekend, which were broadcast live on Facebook by activists. The reporters describe the Yellow Vest movement as a feedback loop that started on Facebook in so-called “Anger Groups” and generated violent protests in the real world that, in turn, were consumed on Facebook. The Anger Groups finally mobilized in October after a Change.org petition about fuel taxes went viral within a small Parisian suburb. The petition led to a Facebook event, which... Continue reading…