In 2013, Facebook paired with internet providers in the Philippines and allowed citizens to access Facebook for free. Alba said about two-thirds of citizens have internet access, and 99% of users have a Facebook account. But during the 2016 presidential election in the Philippines, Alba began to notice a change in the way people in her home country used Facebook. “It started to shift when the presidential election in the Philippines was getting underway, from just like cute cat videos, to this really extreme rhetoric backing certain candidates that had really aggressive platforms like Duterte, who had a law and order platform that he used to promote what he said was the way to solve the country’s problems, which were a war on drugs,” Alba said. The Duterte campaign used social media influencers, blatant disinformation campaigns and general fear regarding drugs to gain support across the country, Alba said. After Duterte was elected, he continued with the disinformation campaign to fuel his war on drugs, which Alba described as a human rights violation. Alba said each of these issues was a focus point for her journalistic work. “When I was conceiving of this story, I wanted the drug war to be part of the story because I wanted to connect the human consequences of Facebook’s platform to the drug war, and just show that it’s not just algorithms operating in the void and changing people’s opinions, but the cost of disinformation is sometimes an actual human death toll,” Alba said. The larger consequences of this issue struck Alba, who emphasized the fact that the dominance of certain social media platforms and new sources could limit what information people are exposed to. “Facebook is all about the world (media) domination,” Alba said. “They obviously started in the U.S., but really, really quickly their ambitions grew to an international scale, and the Philippines, this country that was very ripe to be a testing ground for what a Facebook country could look like.” A similar disinformation campaign to the one that occurred in the Philippines in 2016 happened in the U.S. just six months later, during the U.S. presidential election. However, according to panelist Ceren Budak, a researcher who studies the diffusion of information on social media, the situation in the U.S. was different from the Philippines. Most private citizens in the U.S. have wide internet access, and much of the population still got their news from the mainstream media, rather than from social media. However, as Budak pointed out, Americans have different laws regarding how candidates can contact citizens on social media. “That’s one of the things that we care about in the U.S., is the personalization of information where the political elite can reach out to particular people and give them a very narrow message, and there is no accountability for that,” Budak said. Budak explained how users get their information on social media and said the algorithms tend to expose users to what they already want to hear. Calling social media an “echo chamber,” Budak said it’s important for people to expose themselves to different sources of information. She stressed that people have to carefully choose what news they pay attention to. “From research, once something is out there it is really hard to stop,” Budak said, “So it is important to be able to stop sharing, don’t do it right away, just give yourself a couple of minutes before you share something.” Alba and Budak both agreed the issue of social media disinformation is not an easy one to solve. Because the problem is both social and technological, multiple steps are required to fix the issue. According to the panelists, however, solutions include creating proactive policy, getting individuals to purposefully expose themselves to different ideas, targeting domestic disinformation creators and cutting off the revenue sources to the people who spread disinformation. The issue of disinformation has played a role in several contemporary political issues. According to LSA junior Jackson Hawkins, the events in the Philippines have worldwide relevance. “I thought this was really interesting because even though this was about the Philippines the same thing happens in the U.S.,” Hawkins said. “I really liked the solutions that they offered, such as disincentivizing advertising and disinformation.” Alba concluded the event with thoughts on her home country and how social media disinformation has continued to be an ongoing problem across the world. “With this stuff happening before the U.S. election and the same stuff happening during the U.S. election, it felt like the platforms being American-centric companies instigated the move to scrutinize these platforms and the power of these platforms,” Alba said. “I really wish this didn’t have to go that far and that they had looked at it even when it was going on in the Philippines.” In relation to federal inactivity, Meeker explained the risk assessment process and how it relates to water contamination research. The process involves three steps: hazard identification, dose-response and exposure assessment. He particularly criticized how the United States addresses hazard identification, treating chemicals as “innocent until proven guilty.” Charlotte Jameson, program director of Energy and Drinking Water Policy and Legislative Affairs for Michigan Environmental Council, described the passive way the nation deals with hazardous chemicals, noting the difficulty of having such a large number of potentially dangerous chemicals in existence. “In the U.S., we do not follow precautionary principles when it comes to chemicals of concern,” Jameson said. “You and I, we’re all guinea pigs for toxic chemicals, and there are thousands of them that are in commercial products right now that we don’t have sound information on.” Environment and Sustainability graduate student Colin Welk is currently taking EAS 558: Water Policy and Politics, a class taught by Hughes. “It seems like this is definitely the next area in water policy,” Welk said. “I’m interested to learn more about contaminants and how they’re regulated.” According to panelist Eric Oswald, director of the Drinking Water and Environmental Health Division of the Michigan EGLE Department, Ann Arbor has a well-funded and well-managed drinking water system. However, most other systems in the state don’t have the funds to follow in Ann Arbor’s footsteps, and even with the changes made, Ann Arbor is still far from contaminant-free. The event ended with a Q&A session with the panelists. Attendees asked about the quantitative measures of sources of contaminants, the feasibility of other cities making the changes Ann Arbor has and which contaminants citizens should be focused on. The final question inquired which other states, municipalities or utility districts the panelists thought were leading the change. According to the panelists, on the state level, it was Michigan. In the closing remarks, Public Policy graduate student James VanSteel, acting president of the Environmental Policy Association and mediator for this event, and the panelists encouraged citizens to leave public comments on the Michigan Environmental Council website. The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com News Thursday, January 30, 2020 — 3A CONTAMINANTS From Page 1A FACEBOOK From Page 1A “Tomorrow I will ask the State Transportation Commission to issue state road bonds so we can start fixing the roads,” Whitmer said. “Since it does not require the legislature to act, we can get started right away. That’s important.” Whitmer reflected on progress made in 2019, mentioning bipartisan legislation that decreased the cost of car insurance after six years of Michigan having the highest auto insurance rates in the nation. She also highlighted collaboration with Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to launch redistricting efforts, criminal justice reform and the creation of the environmental justice advisory council. Whitmer detailed these accomplishments and tied them back to the importance of upholding Michigan’s diversity of thought, despite tension between political parties stemming from the national level. “These firsts honor the beautiful diversity that is Michigan,” Whitmer said. “Unfortunately, we’ve also seen an uptick in hateful, harmful language in Michigan and across the country. A lot of it starts in Washington, D.C., and now it feels like it can work its way to Lansing. Whether it’s misogyny in the workplace, or threats of violence online, this is unacceptable. Let’s debate. Let’s disagree. But then, let everyone in this room live up to our responsibility to stand up to hate and harassment. Remember that our children are watching. In Michigan, diversity is our strength.” Whitmer then moved to her next point of discussion — jobs. Though Michigan has boasted 10 years of economic growth, Whitmer said underskilled and overtime workers are still struggling to get ahead. Presenting her policies as part of the solution, she highlighted investment in the auto industry and collaboration with the Canadian government to construct the Gordie Howe International Bridge, a project which is projected to bring in thousands of jobs. Alongside the creation of new jobs, Whitmer emphasized job security and worker rights as integral to creating a healthy workforce. To solve this, she has worked with the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity to expand the right to overtime pay and cracked down on company regulation to pay employees. “We should be able to take time off when our kids are born and afford childcare when we are ready to go back to work. We need employers who invest in a strong workforce,” Whitmer said. “When I was growing up if you worked more than 40 hours a week you were paid over. It was that simple. It should still be that simple.” Whitmer then transitioned to the topic of education. She mentioned Michigan’s ranking at the bottom 10 states for overall literacy, and highlighted efforts to make pre-K universal for districts where test scores are low and providing better access to childcare. Expanding on this, she advocated for literacy coaches and organization partnerships in communities to help families navigate reading laws enacted by her predecessor Gov. Rick Snyder, and continue support through middle and high school by equitably funding schools. “We can get ahead of this problem if we start early, but our work cannot stop with early literacy,” Whitmer said. “All Michigan students should have the opportunity to go to properly funded schools. The one-size- fits-all approach does not work. Any teacher can tell you that every student has potential, but their needs are often very different. This year, together, we move forward with an equitable funding formula.” Whitmer’s final topic of the evening centered on affordable health care. She said while Michigan expanded Medicaid to cover more than 600,000 Michiganders in 2014, many residents still lack access because of a lack of insurance. She emphasized the importance of the Affordable Care Act to protect Michigan residents, highlighting an effort to eliminate disparities in the care of people of color, extending mental health services and addressing the opioid crisis. “So here is the bottom line: the health of our state is only as good as the health of our residents,” Whitmer said. “I want to end where I began. Impatience is a virtue. Sure, it’s good to be patient when you’re waiting in the line of the grocery store, or when you are a Lions fan. But not now. Not when people’s lives and livelihoods are at stake.” In addition to these main topics, Whitmer promised a Thursday follow-up on topics of climate change and protection of Michigan’s water in the coming weeks, addressing the issue of PFAS and rising lake levels’ impact on tourism, agriculture and infrastructure. State Rep. Yousef Rabhi, D-Ann Arbor, echoed the policy points in Whitmer’s address and the importance of her specific focus on the lives of working- class Michiganders, whether that be through the scope of job security, health care or roads. According to Rabhi, it was a notable shift in topics from those addressed during Snyder’s administration. “She highlighted a bunch of the stuff that her administration is working on, but what I also liked is that she highlighted specific things that she is working with the House Democratic caucus on as well, that there are really cool initiatives that we’re all working together on to actually help move our state forward,” Rabhi said. “Policies that are very focused on everyday working Michiganders and fighting for working-class people, that is exactly the kind of stuff that I was hoping she’d talk about, and I’m really glad she touched on those things because we didn’t hear that for the last eight years from our Republican governor.” Rabhi further commented on the division between Republicans and Democrats in Lansing, despite his belief that these should be universally supported issues. “There was a very sharp division on the floor in terms of when she talked about that kind of stuff,” Rabhi said. “And many of the points that she made, we stood up, the Democrats stood up and said, ‘Yes, we support workers’ rights, we support what you’re saying about that.’ And the Republicans just didn’t. And it wasn’t controversial issues, we’re just trying to fight for everyday working- class Michiganders and make sure that people aren’t getting defrauded by employers, and that’s not something the Republicans can even stand up and support.” Rabhi echoed the importance of the topics discussed and emphasized the need for further discussion regarding clean water contamination as a problem that is plaguing Michigan’s most valuable resource in all corners of the state. He mentioned his role in prioritizing clean water on the administration’s agenda, and noted green ooze that was discovered along a highway in southeast Michigan. “Obviously with this green ooze in Oakland County, what I like to say, and what I think is true, is that every single state house district has a version of the green ooze,” Rabhi said. “In Ann Arbor, it’s PFAS, it’s dioxane, and we all have a massive contamination problem in our state, which is why we need laws like the one I introduced last year to make polluters pay to clean up their messes. And that’s a conversation that we need to continue to have, and highlight in the state because we also deserve to have clean water.” The Republican response to Whitmer’s address, however, was far more critical. Laura Cox, chairman of the Michigan Republican Party, said Whitmer’s message of bipartisanship was far from the reality of her past year as governor. “Tonight’s address is yet another reminder of Gretchen Whitmer’s failed first year as governor, and even more of the same empty promises for the future,” Cox said. “Instead of committing to work with Republicans to find common sense solutions to Michigan’s problems, Governor Whitmer made it clear that she’ll go it alone without the legislature if they don’t agree with her tax and spend policies. From her support for impeachment and Medicare- for-all, and her unrealistic road proposal that raises taxes on hardworking Michiganders — Whitmer has proved that she is no different than the same out-of-touch liberal Democrats determined to sabotage the American dream.” Next week, Whitmer will be one of two Democrats, alongside Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, who will deliver the Democratic rebuttal to President Trump’s State of the Union address. Her selection to deliver the rebuttal follows Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s praising of Whitmer’s progressive policies in Michigan, and national attention as a possible running mate to the Democratic presidential nominee. “I’ve noticed that this place (the Union) fills up so I’m assuming that like Ross, the UGLi and Hatcher, they must be less full,” Iyer said. LSA junior Conor Duggan studied in the LSA Building for the first time Wednesday night. Duggan, who normally studies in the Hatcher Graduate Library, the UGLi and the Fishbowl in Mason Hall, said he hasn’t noticed a particular difference in the number of people studying there. “I’ve only studied at the UGLi three times this semester so far, which sounds bad, but it is still early,” Duggan said. “I had no problem getting a seat, but it’s still early, so I mean, exams haven’t happened yet, you know, people aren’t feeling that rush yet. So it’s kind of too early to tell whether or not the space is really opened up.” Majie also noticed the Union was busy and said there were fewer students at more traditional study spaces. “I’ve definitely noticed less people at the libraries since these two places have opened, which is nice in a way, you know, everybody’s like branching out, finding new places to study,” Majie said. Duggan said students shouldn’t have trouble finding a place to work on campus. “I think there’s a lot of resources on campus, like even you could go to like East Hall, the Law Library, the Graduate Library, the UGLi,” Duggan said. “I feel like sometimes it stinks that you have to walk around a little bit to find a place, but I mean after that you can always find a place if you actually look for it.” STUDY From Page 1A WHITMER From Page 1A JULIA SCHACHINGER/Daily Journalist Davey Alba, Ceren Budak and Molly Kleinman discuss how political campaigns around the world are weaponizing social media in Weill Hall Wednesday afternoon.