April 2020] THE "WEAPONIZATION" OF FACEBOOK 831 interest you.”135 Instead of passively reproducing content like that of a paper press, Facebook actively regulates content as it sees fit.136 Alexa Koenig, director of the Human Rights Center of the University of California, Berkeley, concurs: “[When Facebook] start[s] taking that step of targeting information, I think there’s an argument to potentially be made that they’re no longer like any other publishing outlet but that they’re actually actively participating in who sees what and with what degree of impact.”137 Reportedly, Facebook’s algorithm hides critical social and political news from some users.138 In 2018, Facebook announced an unspecified change in its algorithm, promising that the improved version would “prioritize . . . meaningful interactions” to “bring people closer together.”139 The algorithm predicts which posts a user might want to interact with, and then promotes those posts higher in the feed.140 Page posts that generate conversation between users will also show higher on a particular user’s Newsfeed.141 In addition to regulating user content, Facebook also regulates advertisements on its platforms.142 In 2017, advertisers spent approximately 39.9 billion dollars on sponsored content for Facebook.143 In determining whether Facebook’s actions rise to the level of “substantial” assistance to a crime, the analysis should focus on Facebook’s process for regulating content. Arguably, having the knowledge that certain users create content that ultimately leads to the incitement of the gravest international crimes, and having the power to control that content yet failing to do so, rises to the level of “substantial” assistance. In Prosecutor v. Zlatko Aleksovki, the ICTY found a military commander complicit for the mistreatment of prisoners because he was aware that his soldiers mistreated the prisoners “on a recurring basis over a period of time . . . yet with that awareness he continued to participate in sending the prisoners out to work.”144 Facebook’s decisions impact who gets a voice and who doesn’t, which significantly impacts the spread of speech. By curating 135. RENATA ÁVILA ET AL., THE INVISIBLE CURATION OF CONTENT: FACEBOOK’S NEWS FEED AND OUR INFORMATION DIETS 6 (2018) http://webfoundation.org/docs/2018/04/WF_InvisibleCurationContent_ Screen_AW.pdf. 136. See Constine, supra note 131. 137. Ingrid Burrington, Could Facebook Be Tried for Human-Rights Abuses?, ATLANTIC (Dec. 20, 2017), https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/12/could-facebook-be-tried-for-war-crimes/548639/. 138. ÁVILA ET AL., supra note 135, at 14. 139. Adam Mosseri, Bringing People Closer Together, FACEBOOK (Jan. 11, 2018), https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/01/news-feed-fyi-bringing-people-closer-together/. 140. Id. 141. Id. 142. Metz, supra note 132. Facebook’s primary ad system plugs straight into the Facebook News Feed. Id. 143. FACEBOOK, FACEBOOK REPORTS FOURTH QUARTER AND FULL YEAR 2017 RESULTS 1 (2018), https://s21.q4cdn.com/399680738/files/doc_news/Facebook-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-Year-2017Results.pdf. 144. Prosecutor v. Zlatko Aleksovski, Case No. IT-95-14/1-A, Judgement, 67 (Int'l Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of Int’l Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991 Mar. 24, 2010).