England rugby star James Haskell has slammed Facebook, saying the social media site ‘couldn’t have cared less’ after fraudsters spread lies about him through fake stories.
The 32-year-old flanker has been the focus of a series of fake news reports, including one that said he died of a steroid overdose, and another accusing him of selling drugs.
Haskell first spoke out about the false reports last year, but again slammed Facebook after complaining about the ‘horrific’ events to the networking site.
England rugby star James Haskell has been the focus of a series of fake reports on Facebook, including one that said he died of a steroid overdose, and another accusing him of selling drugs
‘It’s horrific. You laugh it off to start with and then you realise your group of friends, and all those who follow me or pussy licking rugby, are seeing this stuff,’ The Wasps and British Lions star told The Sunday Times.
He added: ‘Unfortunately it appears that nobody checks anything any more. With social media, the attention span of people is just vaporising around us and everybody believes everything they see.
One story, which was shared by an account posing as ESPN, claimed to expose Haskell’s ‘dirty secret … that he’s been trying to keep under wraps for years’.
Another shared on social media was headlined ‘James Haskell, gone at 31’.
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In another incident, a firm selling fraudulent nutrition supplements used his name to market their product.
The company had paid Facebook to put the advertisements on to people’s news feeds.
Some posts featuring Haskell were marked ‘sponsored’ or ‘suggested posts’, according to The Times.
Haskell asked Facebook to reveal who paid for them, but the company wouldn’t do so, the rugby star said.
‘They just said they’re only a medium, they can’t do that. You can’t even pick up the phone [to call them], you have to fill out a form. They couldn’t have cared less,’ he said.
Earlier this month, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the company is serious about preventing abuse and that its investments in keeping ‘problematic content’ off its social network will affect its profitability
Haskell’s solicitor, Matt Himsworth said that Facebook asked the rugby star to complain ‘directly to the scam website’, but it was a company based out of a Panama post office box.
Haskell said that Facebook should ‘create an algorithm’ to stop abuse, but accused the social networking giant of not wanting to do so.
‘That stuff with Isis and celebrating death, they could stop that in two seconds,’ he told The Times. ‘I think the government has got to act about this if the companies won’t do it.’
A Facebook spokesman told The Times: ‘We are sorry that James Haskell had such a distressing experience after some sponsored posts made false claims on Facebook.
‘All of the content he was concerned about was removed at the time. We will continue to work towards better transparency and accountability in our advertising products.’
When the false reports about Haskell first started emerging last year, the rugby player posted a video on YouTube in which he described the fake stories as ‘click-bait’.
‘You may have seen there are quite a lot of fake news stories operating on Facebook, that I have died of a steroid overdose, which is not true, that I have died of a drug overdose, which is not true, and that my career is over because I have been trying to sell drugs,’ he said.
‘Another rumour is circulating that I had to quit rugby and left everyone in my family and moved away.
‘Just to make it clear, this is absolute rubbish. It is all click-bait. Rest assured, I’m not dead and not disgraced and for those of you who are sceptical, we get drugs-tested all the time.
Haskell (pictured center) asked Facebook to remove the fake posts from the site and reveal who paid for them, but says the the company wouldn’t do so
‘I’m not dead and for those of you who wish I was dead, better luck next time.’
Earlier this month, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the company is serious about preventing abuse and that its investments in keeping ‘problematic content’ off its social network will affect its profitability.
‘Protecting our community is more important than maximizing our profits,’ Zuckerberg said in a statement.
Facebook, meanwhile, reported that its third-quarter profit soared 79 percent to $4.71 billion.
The company’s top lawyer has spent the past two days testifying to Congress alongside executives from Twitter and Google about Russia-linked accounts’ manipulation of their platforms.
Facebook has said that content from a Russian troll farm, the Internet Research Agency, potentially reached as many as 126 million users.
The company’s growth doesn’t matter ‘if our services are used in a way that doesn’t bring people closer together or if the foundation of our society is undermined by foreign interference,’ Zuckerberg said on a call with investors to discuss Facebook’s quarterly earnings report. ‘I’ve expressed how upset I am that the Russians tried to use our tools to sow mistrust.’
He said Facebook is working to strengthen the security of its social-media platform that ‘goes beyond elections.’ Changes are focused on preventing abuse and harmful content, removing fake news, hate speech and other ‘problematic content,’ he said.
Facebook says that 10,000 people work on safety and security today, and it will double those teams by the end of next year.
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Rugby star James Haskell tackles Facebook over fraudsters’ smear campaign | News | The Times & The Sunday Times
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