Dave Farber
2018-08-03 02:54:18 UTC
Date: August 3, 2018 at 00:03:41 GMT+9
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Taibbi: Beware the Slippery Slope of Facebook Censorship
Taibbi: Beware the Slippery Slope of Facebook Censorship
The social network is too big and broken to properly function, and these âfixesâ will only create more problems
By MATT TAIBBI
Aug 2 2018
<https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/facebook-censor-alex-jones-705766/>
You may have seen a story this week detailing how Facebook shut down a series of accounts. As noted by Politico, Facebook claimed these accounts âsought to inflame social and political tensions in the United States, and said their activity was similar â and in some cases connected â to that of Russian accounts during the 2016 election.â
Similar? What does âsimilarâ mean?
The death-pit for civil liberties is usually found in a combination of fringe/unpopular people or ideas and a national security emergency.
This is where we are with this unsettling new confab of Facebook, Congress and the Trump administration.
âTodayâs disclosure is further evidence that the Kremlin continues to exploit platforms like Facebook to sow division and spread disinformation⊠I also expect Facebook, along with other platform companies, will continue to identify Russian troll activity and to work with CongressâŠâ
This was in a story in which Facebook stated that it did not know the source of all the pages. They might be Russian, or they might just be Warnerâs idea of âsowing division.â Are we comfortable with that range of possibilities?
Many of the banned pages look like parodies of some paranoid bureaucratâs idea of dangerous speech.
A page called âBlack Elevationâ shows a picture of Huey Newton and offers readers a job. âAztlan Warriorsâ contains a meme celebrating the likes of Geronimo and Zapata, giving thanks for their service in the âthe 500 year war against colonialism.â
âWe must unlearn what we have learned because a conditioned mind cannot comprehend the infinite.â
Facebook also wiped out a âNo Unite The Right 2â page, appearing to advertise a counter-rally on the upcoming anniversary of the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Facebook was âhelpedâ in its efforts to wipe out these dangerous memes by the Atlantic Council, on whose board youâll find confidence-inspiring names like Henry Kissinger, former CIA chief Michael Hayden, former acting CIA head Michael Morelland former Bush-era Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff. (The latter is the guy who used to bring you the insane color-coded terror threat level system.)
These people now have their hands on what is essentially a direct lever over nationwide news distribution. Itâs hard to understate the potential mischief that lurks behind this union of Internet platforms and would-be government censors.
As noted in Rolling Stone earlier this year, 70 percent of Americans get their news from just two sources, Facebook and Google. As that number rises, the power of just a few people to decide what information does and does not reach the public will amplify significantly.
In a way, this is the other shoe dropping after last weekâs much-publicized brouhaha over Infowars lunatic Alex Jones. Jones had four videos removed from YouTube and had his Facebook page banned for 30 days, though he seemed to find a way around that more or less instantly.
These moves were celebrated across social media, because who doesnât hate Alex Jones?
The complainants in the Jones case included parents of Sandy Hook victims, who have legitimate beef with Jones and his conspiratorial coverage. The Infowars reports asserting the grieving parents were green-screen fakes were not just demonstrably false and rightfully the subject of a defamation suit, but also seemingly crossed a separate line when they published maps and addresses of family members, who experienced threats.
When Jones and his like-minded pals cried censorship and bias, they came across as more than a little disingenuous. After all, right-wingers have consistently argued on behalf of the speech rights of big corporations.
[snip]
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-------------------------------------------Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Taibbi: Beware the Slippery Slope of Facebook Censorship
Taibbi: Beware the Slippery Slope of Facebook Censorship
The social network is too big and broken to properly function, and these âfixesâ will only create more problems
By MATT TAIBBI
Aug 2 2018
<https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/facebook-censor-alex-jones-705766/>
You may have seen a story this week detailing how Facebook shut down a series of accounts. As noted by Politico, Facebook claimed these accounts âsought to inflame social and political tensions in the United States, and said their activity was similar â and in some cases connected â to that of Russian accounts during the 2016 election.â
Similar? What does âsimilarâ mean?
The death-pit for civil liberties is usually found in a combination of fringe/unpopular people or ideas and a national security emergency.
This is where we are with this unsettling new confab of Facebook, Congress and the Trump administration.
âTodayâs disclosure is further evidence that the Kremlin continues to exploit platforms like Facebook to sow division and spread disinformation⊠I also expect Facebook, along with other platform companies, will continue to identify Russian troll activity and to work with CongressâŠâ
This was in a story in which Facebook stated that it did not know the source of all the pages. They might be Russian, or they might just be Warnerâs idea of âsowing division.â Are we comfortable with that range of possibilities?
Many of the banned pages look like parodies of some paranoid bureaucratâs idea of dangerous speech.
A page called âBlack Elevationâ shows a picture of Huey Newton and offers readers a job. âAztlan Warriorsâ contains a meme celebrating the likes of Geronimo and Zapata, giving thanks for their service in the âthe 500 year war against colonialism.â
âWe must unlearn what we have learned because a conditioned mind cannot comprehend the infinite.â
Facebook also wiped out a âNo Unite The Right 2â page, appearing to advertise a counter-rally on the upcoming anniversary of the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Facebook was âhelpedâ in its efforts to wipe out these dangerous memes by the Atlantic Council, on whose board youâll find confidence-inspiring names like Henry Kissinger, former CIA chief Michael Hayden, former acting CIA head Michael Morelland former Bush-era Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff. (The latter is the guy who used to bring you the insane color-coded terror threat level system.)
These people now have their hands on what is essentially a direct lever over nationwide news distribution. Itâs hard to understate the potential mischief that lurks behind this union of Internet platforms and would-be government censors.
As noted in Rolling Stone earlier this year, 70 percent of Americans get their news from just two sources, Facebook and Google. As that number rises, the power of just a few people to decide what information does and does not reach the public will amplify significantly.
In a way, this is the other shoe dropping after last weekâs much-publicized brouhaha over Infowars lunatic Alex Jones. Jones had four videos removed from YouTube and had his Facebook page banned for 30 days, though he seemed to find a way around that more or less instantly.
These moves were celebrated across social media, because who doesnât hate Alex Jones?
The complainants in the Jones case included parents of Sandy Hook victims, who have legitimate beef with Jones and his conspiratorial coverage. The Infowars reports asserting the grieving parents were green-screen fakes were not just demonstrably false and rightfully the subject of a defamation suit, but also seemingly crossed a separate line when they published maps and addresses of family members, who experienced threats.
When Jones and his like-minded pals cried censorship and bias, they came across as more than a little disingenuous. After all, right-wingers have consistently argued on behalf of the speech rights of big corporations.
[snip]
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