Above Photo: Voters wait in line during general elections in Managua, Nicaragua, Nov. 7, 2021. Andres Nunes (AP) A Tacit Agreement Between The Government And Facebook Appears To Have Been Made: You Can Keep The Profits, But We Control The Message. As Such, A Cynic Might Wonder What Functional Difference There Is Between Facebook And The National Security State. Managua, Nicaragua – Less than a week before Nicaragua’s presidential election, social media giant Facebook deleted the accounts of hundreds of the country’s top news outlets, journalists and activists, all of whom supported the ruling left-wing Sandinista government, a top Washington target for […]
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Facebook, Instagram, And Twitter Suspended Hundreds Of Influential Pro-Sandinista Journalists And Activists Days Before Nicaragua’s November 7 Elections. Falsely Claimed They Were Government Trolls. The Grayzone Interviewed Them To Reveal The Truth. Managua, Nicaragua – Just days before Nicaragua’s November 7 elections, top social media platforms censored top Nicaraguan news outlets and hundreds of journalists and activists who support their country’s leftist Sandinista government. The politically motivated campaign of Silicon Valley censorship amounted to a massive purge of Sandinista supporters one week before the vote. It followed US government attacks on the integrity of Nicaragua’s elections, and Washington’s insistence that it will refuse […]
The Background Of Frances Haugen’s Whistleblower Aid Legal Team Indicates She Was Cultivated To Complete Facebook’s Transformation Into A Vehicle For The US National Security State. A former employee of Facebook named Frances Haugen earned national renown after appearing before Congress on October 5, 2021 to accuse the company where she once worked of everything from poisoning the minds of young American women to aiding and abetting global evildoers. While Haugen has presented herself as a “whistleblower” who risked it all to expose the secrets of the powerful, she was cultivated and legally represented by an organization led by former intelligence insiders with […]
Above photo: Cuban Americans rally against the Cuban government outside of the White House, July 17, 2021. Jose Luis Magana | AP. The involvement of foreign nationals in the domestic affairs of Cuba is on a level that can scarcely be conceived of in the United States. Havana -After gaining access to their private Facebook group, MintPress can reveal that the people who sparked the July 11 protests in Cuba are planning similar actions for October and November. The group, La Villa del Humor, is widely credited with providing the initial spark that ignited nationwide protests on the Caribbean island in the summer, the most significant demonstrations since […]
Above Photo: A picket line at the Block 38 construction project in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood. PNWRCC Photo. Construction work on several major tech company expansion projects, including those by Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Facebook, slowed to a crawl today as the region largest carpenters’ union halted work over a wage dispute. At 6 a.m. Thursday, 2,000 Northwest Carpenter Union members walked off the job and began picketing at four major job sites, including Microsoft expansions in Redmond and Sammamish; Google and Amazon projects in Bellevue Plaza, and Facebook’s Building X in Redmond. Evelyn Shapiro, the union’s executive secretary-treasurer, said […]
Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter ban certain posts from its platform. Anadolu Agency/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Anadolu Agency/Getty Images Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter ban certain posts from its platform. Anadolu Agency/Getty Images As Election Day nears, Facebook and Twitter are finding themselves in a Catch- 22, between conservatives who accuse them of stifling free speech when they block or put warning labels on questionable posts, and others who say the companies need to do more to stamp out online misinformation and conspiracy theories. “Nineteen days before voting closes in the 2020 election, I believe we are more vulnerable to online […]
A New Zealand political party, Advance NZ, has cried foul after its Facebook page was removed, allegedly for containing falsehoods about the coronavirus pandemic. The ban comes just two days before a general election. In a statement, Facebook said that the page had been scrubbed due to “repeated violations” of its policy prohibiting misinformation about Covid-19 that could lead to physical harm. The move comes just two days before New Zealand holds a general election. A spokesperson for Facebook insisted that the decision was in keeping with clearly laid out guidelines and was not politically motivated. Party co-leader Billy Te Kahika […]
US President Donald Trump has taken notice of the social media crackdown on the New York Post over a story about his challenger Joe Biden’s son Hunter and his business dealings in Ukraine, urging a crackdown on platforms instead. “So terrible that Facebook and Twitter took down the story of ‘Smoking Gun’ emails related to Sleepy Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, in the [New York Post],” Trump tweeted on Wednesday evening. So terrible that Facebook and Twitter took down the story of “Smoking Gun” emails related to Sleepy Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, in the @NYPost. It is only […]
Twitter has issued a clarification on its “Hacked Materials Policy” following fallout from the social media platform’s decision to block two New York Post articles about Hunter Biden. However, some netizens are arguing the platform has not been consistent with its application of the rule. “We want to provide much needed clarity around the actions we’ve taken with respect to two NY Post articles that were first Tweeted this morning,” Twitter Safety tweeted Thursday night. “The images contained in the articles include personal and private information – like email addresses and phone numbers – which violate our rules.” This announcement came […]
Twitter and Facebook said their decisions to limit sharing of a New York Post article were meant to slow the spread of potentially false information. Denis Charlet/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Denis Charlet/AFP via Getty Images Twitter and Facebook said their decisions to limit sharing of a New York Post article were meant to slow the spread of potentially false information. Denis Charlet/AFP via Getty Images Facebook and Twitter took action on Wednesday to limit the distribution of a New York Post story making unconfirmed claims about Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, leading President Trump’s campaign and allies […]
After the New York Post dropped a bombshell story about Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden’s son Hunter’s Ukrainian business dealings on Wednesday, social media giants Facebook and Twitter rushed to limit its spread, prompting accusations of censorship and in-kind aid to Joe Biden. On Wednesday, the New York Post threw gasoline onto the smoldering coals of the Ukraine affair that led to US President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial in January, publishing a story titled “Hunter Biden emails show leveraging connections with his father to boost Burisma pay.” However, as the story gained traction on social media, Facebook and Twitter moved to […]
Better militia types wear only Tommy Bahama Guardian: US militias forge alliances with conspiracy theorists ahead of election “Not only have many of these Michigan pages and groups been on Facebook for years, the Facebook algorithm actively recommended other militia-related groups and pages to join, allowing each page and group to expand their reach.” https://t.co/ZcsOZhZ54q — The Spook who sat by the Ring Doorbell (@hypervisible) October 8, 2020 Anti-government and anti-science advocates joined by founder of militia group at Red Pill Expo in Georgia ⚠️Attention⚠️ Militias and armed groups are mobilizing on Facebook. This is happening now. In plain sight. They […]
According to a recent survey of adults in the US aged 18-39, almost a quarter said they believed the Holocaust was a myth, that it had been exaggerated or they weren’t sure. Institutions focused on Holocaust research and remembrance, such as Yad Vashem, have noted that Holocaust education is a key component in combatting anti-Semitism. Tech giant Facebook updated its hate speech policy on Monday to ban any content that rejects or distorts the reality of the Holocaust. The decision comes following a campaign spearheaded by Holocaust survivors around the world to target Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg this summer, urging him to […]
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says his thinking has “evolved” on how to balance free speech and the harms of Holocaust denial. Drew Angerer/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Drew Angerer/Getty Images Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says his thinking has “evolved” on how to balance free speech and the harms of Holocaust denial. Drew Angerer/Getty Images Facebook is banning all content that “denies or distorts the Holocaust,” in a policy reversal that comes after increased pressure from critics. Just two years ago, founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in an interview that even though he finds such posts “deeply offensive,” he […]
https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/105327/46/1053274693_0:100:1920:1180_1200x675_80_0_0_eeae7a4cf53388089c9e36e83a529e84.jpg Sputnik International https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png Andrei Dergalin. Sputnik International https://sputniknews.com/viral/202010101080730374-too-sexy-for-my-what-overtly-sexual-onion-ad-gets-temporarily-banned-on-facebook/ One needs to have a “pretty active imagination” to look at image of onions and “get something sexual out of it”, a manager for the seed company in question reportedly remarked. A Canada-based enterprise called Gaze Seed Company has announced that they have been finally allowed to advertise their Walla Walla Onion seeds on Facebook, after the social media platform previously notified them that the product’s image was not in line with FB’s ad guidelines. According to a social media post made by the company earlier this month, the reason given by […]
Facebook has removed hundreds of fake profiles it has linked to the conservative group Turning Point USA for carrying out organized attacks on the site, including attempts to influence public conversations by flooding news articles with pro-Trump comments and misinformation. The move was prompted by reporting last month in the Washington Post that found Turning Point Action, an affiliated pro-Trump group, was paying teenagers to post coordinated messages on the site, a violation of Facebook’s rules. In comments on news articles, paid users cast doubt on mail-in ballots, praised Trump and spread misinformation about coronavirus. Facebook traced these profiles to an Arizona-based communications […]
Facebook labels posts that its fact checkers have found false, as in the screenshot on the left. On the right, a similar post had no label applied. Screeenshot via Avaaz hide caption toggle caption Screeenshot via Avaaz Facebook labels posts that its fact checkers have found false, as in the screenshot on the left. On the right, a similar post had no label applied. Screeenshot via Avaaz Something as simple as changing the font of a message or cropping an image can be all it takes to bypass Facebook’s defenses against hoaxes and lies. A new analysis by the international advocacy […]
QAnon followers are scrambling for a new digital home after Facebook issued a blanket ban on the movement’s pages on Tuesday, in what looks likely to be the most significant social media crackdown in the history of the pro-Trump conspiracy movement. Faced with a wide-ranging purge, QAnon followers dreaming of the day Donald Trump orders the mass arrests of his opponents are faced with a choice: flee to another, more Trumpian, social network, or try to go underground on Facebook by disassociating their QAnon groups from the increasingly toxic QAnon brand. Facebook was uniquely valuable to QAnon believers, according to Travis […]
With more people voting by mail this year, Facebook and other social media companies are preparing for a potential delay in election results. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images With more people voting by mail this year, Facebook and other social media companies are preparing for a potential delay in election results. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images Facebook said on Wednesday it would crack down on efforts to intimidate voters, amid growing concerns over potential confrontations at polling places and calls from the Trump campaign for an “army” of poll […]
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (from left), Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos have been in the spotlight over the market power that their giant companies have. Bertrand Guay/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Bertrand Guay/AFP via Getty Images Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (from left), Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos have been in the spotlight over the market power that their giant companies have. Bertrand Guay/AFP via Getty Images Updated at 8:23 p.m. ET In a sweeping report spanning 449 pages, House Democrats lay out […]
Facebook and other technology giants have become the subject of controversy, being accused by government bodies of stymieing competition with their acquisition of other companies as well as impacting politics and freedom of expression. Legal representatives of Facebook Inc. have warned that attempting to break-up social media giants like Instagram and WhatsApp would defy established law, cost billions, and harm consumers. Amid rising antitrust legal threats, the lawyers produced a 14-page document, reportedly seen by The Wall Street Journal, which includes a glimpse of the social media giant’s defense. According to the WSJ, the document was formulated based on work it commissioned from legal officers […]
The heads of major Big Tech firms have agreed to testify to a Senate panel later this month, where they’ll address legal liability for online platforms, privacy and “media domination” just days before the US election. The CEOs of Google, Twitter and Facebook are set to testify to the Senate’s Commerce Committee on October 28. The tech bigwigs will speak to lawmakers virtually during the hearing, which is scheduled only 6 days before Americans head to the polls to elect the next president. While the Commerce Committee voted unanimously on Thursday to authorize subpoenas to force the executives to attend the […]
https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/0a/03/1080649552_0:0:3000:1688_1200x675_80_0_0_7203e4e091eff277d11d480b33ee2a07.jpg Sputnik International https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png Sputnik https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png https://sputniknews.com/us/202010031080649609-facebook-twitter-google-ceos-to-testify-before-congress-in-late-october/ The CEOs of the most prominent social media networks are going to testify on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which is designed to strip online intermediaries of responsibility for what is said/published by other people on their websites. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey have agreed to testify before the Senate Commerce Committee on 28 October concerning Section 230 of the US Communications Decency Act. The announcement comes after the committee voted to subpoena social media CEOs if needed. Twitter has posted that Dorsey is prepared to testify, noting that […]
Social media companies are bracing for delayed election results, which experts warn could open the door for misinformation, false claims and threats of violence to spread online. Denis Charlet/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Denis Charlet/AFP via Getty Images Social media companies are bracing for delayed election results, which experts warn could open the door for misinformation, false claims and threats of violence to spread online. Denis Charlet/AFP via Getty Images Yoel Roth spends a lot of time thinking about what could go wrong on Twitter. It’s his job, as the social media company’s head of site integrity. “Having […]
https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo-itemprop.png Sputnik International https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png Sputnik https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png https://sputniknews.com/us/202010011080632380-google-facebook-and-twitter-ceos-to-be-subpoenaed/ The US Senate Commerce Committee has unanimously voted to subpoena the CEOs of Twitter, Facebook, and Google for a hearing on a key law protecting tech companies. MORE DETAILS TO FOLLOW Source link
HONG KONG—As Trump and China hawks lock horns with Beijing on TikTok, trade, and Huawei, the Chinese Communist Party and its leader Xi Jinping are threatening to target U.S. companies with similar nationalistic bans—and signalling to Chinese firms at home that they expect total loyalty. Private Chinese companies that have managed to establish a foothold on U.S. shores increasingly rely on the CCP’s backing, particularly when the Oval Office decides to place them within its crosshairs. Some do this by choice, others because they have no other option when they head overseas. In any case, in Xi’s view, they are one […]
Civil rights groups and other critics say the social network has not done enough to curb misinformation, hate speech and voter suppression ahead of the U.S. presidential election. Thibault Camus/AP hide caption toggle caption Thibault Camus/AP Civil rights groups and other critics say the social network has not done enough to curb misinformation, hate speech and voter suppression ahead of the U.S. presidential election. Thibault Camus/AP The civil rights groups behind this summer’s Facebook advertiser boycott are joining other critics to pressure the social network to do more to counter hate speech, falsehoods about the election and efforts to delegitimize mail-in […]
Facebook booted three troll networks linked to Russian intelligence and the St. Petersburg-based troll farm involved in meddling in the 2016 election. Nathan Gleicher, Facebook’s head of security, told reporters in a press conference that the three networks mainly focused on audiences and issues outside of the U.S. presidential election but that the company had suspended them now out of an abundance of caution because they “could pivot to support a hack-and-leak operation” in the future. While Facebook hasn’t seen any evidence that Russia’s intelligence services planned to use the suspended networks to amplify hacked content in a hack-and-leak operation, the […]
https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/09/19/1080565766_0:316:3077:2047_1200x675_80_0_0_641b7544a5cca8c5b50d81a915d1b4f6.jpg Sputnik International https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png Sputnik https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png https://sputniknews.com/world/202009251080565847-facebook-says-took-down-3-russia-originated-social-media-networks/ WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – Facebook has removed three networks allegedly originating from Russia and primarily focusing on affairs in Syria and Ukraine, the company’s Head of Security Policy Nathaniel Gleicher said in a statement. “We removed three separate networks for violating our policy against foreign or government interference which is coordinated inauthentic behavior (CIB) on behalf of a foreign or government entity. These networks originated in Russia,” Gleicher said on Thursday. Facebook removed a total of 242 users, 41 Pages, 19 Groups and 45 Instagram accounts, the statement said. Aside from Ukraine and Syria, the […]
A screenshot of an Instagram post Facebook linked to Russia’s Internet Research Agency. United World International was a phony website created by the Russian operation and promoted on social media. Facebook hide caption toggle caption Facebook A screenshot of an Instagram post Facebook linked to Russia’s Internet Research Agency. United World International was a phony website created by the Russian operation and promoted on social media. Facebook Facebook and Twitter said on Thursday they had removed several hundred fake accounts linked to Russian military intelligence and other Kremlin-backed actors involved in previous efforts to interfere in U.S. politics, including the 2016 […]
Facebook says the fake accounts it removed focused mainly on Southeast Asia. But they also included some content about the U.S. election, which did not gain a large following. Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images Facebook says the fake accounts it removed focused mainly on Southeast Asia. But they also included some content about the U.S. election, which did not gain a large following. Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images Facebook says it has taken down a network of China-based fake accounts whose posts included content about the U.S. presidential election. Most of the […]
Costco has halted sales of Palmetto Cheese, a popular brand of pimento cheese spread that had been offered in over 120 of its stores, after the company’s owner triggered outrage with a Facebook post criticizing Black Lives Matter. A sign posted at a store in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, indicates that Palmetto Cheese has been discontinued and will not be ordered again by Costco. The retailer hasn’t made a statement on its decision, but the move came after consumers called for a boycott of the brand because of social media comments by Palmetto Cheese’s owner, Brian Henry. “This BLM and Antifa […]
https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/09/17/1080543893_0:0:3121:1757_1200x675_80_0_0_d11ba5484f4bc88b2a049bd939bee61a.jpg Sputnik International https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png Evan Craighead . Sputnik International https://sputniknews.com/us/202009231080543925-facebook-prepared-to-restrict-content-circulation-if-us-election-descends-into-online-chaos/ Facebook will take an array of measures to “restrict the circulation of content” if the November 3 US presidential election devolves into chaos and unrest, according to a Tuesday report by the Financial Times. Former UK member of parliament Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice president for global affairs and communications risk management, told the Financial Times that risk management is one of the company’s utmost concerns related to the upcoming presidential election. Without getting into explicit details, Clegg noted that Facebook, which also owns the social media platform Instagram, has formulated a […]
Buildings are engulfed in flames as a wildfire ravages Talent, Ore., on Sept. 8, 2020. Unfounded rumors that left-wing activists were behind the fires went viral on social media, thanks to amplification by conspiracy theorists and the platforms’ own design. Kevin Jantzer/AP hide caption toggle caption Kevin Jantzer/AP Buildings are engulfed in flames as a wildfire ravages Talent, Ore., on Sept. 8, 2020. Unfounded rumors that left-wing activists were behind the fires went viral on social media, thanks to amplification by conspiracy theorists and the platforms’ own design. Kevin Jantzer/AP Critics of Facebook and Twitter — and even some people inside […]
A former YouTube mod has sued the Google-owned platform, claiming work exposure to child abuse, beheadings, and other vile content led to depression and PTSD. Her lawyers previously forced a large settlement out of Facebook. The unnamed ex-YouTube moderator is demanding compensation and treatment for the trauma she said she suffered, claiming in a lawsuit filed on Monday that her work left her with depression and PTSD symptoms. According to the filing, she now experiences panic attacks, nightmares, and crippling anxiety, causing her to shun crowds and children and fear one day having kids herself. Alleged “chronic understaffing” at YouTube forced […]
We’re so inundated with evidence of Donald Trump’s fascistic villainy—these days, largely related to the pandemic he’s neglected and mismanaged to the tune of 200,000 dead Americans and counting—that it’s sometimes easy to forget that he’s also a traitorous puppet who won the 2016 election with Russian assistance. Enter Agents of Chaos, a two-part HBO documentary from the insanely prolific Alex Gibney (debuting Sept. 23) which reminds Americans that their commander-in-chief achieved his illustrious post thanks to interference from a strongman despot who saw, in Trump, an ideal tool he could use to undermine Western democracy. Serving as the film’s narrator, […]
In June, Facebook announced the launch of a voting information campaign in the United States to boost voter registration, in a bid to stimulate electoral participation in the upcoming 3 November presidential election. The social media giant also vowed to monitor and remove misinformation and hate speech from its platform. As the United States prepares to celebrate National Voter Registration Day on Tuesday, Facebook Inc. announced on Monday that it has helped 2.5 million American people register for the 2020 US presidential election via its Facebook, Instagram and Messenger platforms. The company said in a news release that the figure was […]
In yet another lawsuit, Facebook is now being accused of allegedly spying on Instagram users through the cameras on their mobile phones. The lawsuit was filed Thursday in a US federal court in San Francisco, California, by New Jersey-based Instagram user Brittany Conditi and accuses Facebook, Instagram’s parent company, of employing users’ mobile cameras while they are using the photo-sharing app to collect “lucrative and valuable data on its users that it would not otherwise have access to.” The lawsuit came after an Apple iOS 14 privacy feature showed that Instagram was apparently activating iPhone cameras and microphones even when they […]
Kim Kardashian West speaks at the “Kim Kardashian West: The Justice Project” panel in Pasadena, Calif., in January. Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP hide caption toggle caption Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP Kim Kardashian West speaks at the “Kim Kardashian West: The Justice Project” panel in Pasadena, Calif., in January. Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP A small — though prominent — group of public figures is taking a 24-hour break from the platforms that magnify their celebrity to protest what they see as Facebook’s failure to control disinformation and hate speech. The campaign, #StopHateForProfit, is aimed at Facebook and Instagram and has attracted such disparate individuals as Kim Kardashian West, […]
Facebook Vice President Nick Clegg, pictured in 2019, tells NPR there’s “real appetite for people to find out more for themselves” when it comes to climate change and factual information. Tobias Schwarz/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Tobias Schwarz/AFP via Getty Images Facebook Vice President Nick Clegg, pictured in 2019, tells NPR there’s “real appetite for people to find out more for themselves” when it comes to climate change and factual information. Tobias Schwarz/AFP via Getty Images Facebook is launching a climate change information page in an effort to promote facts about climate change from trusted sources. Users in […]
The Spanish government has come up with a new way of taxing tech giants by seeking to classify the likes of Facebook, Telegram, and Google’s parent company, Alphabet, as telecom providers. Telecommunications Secretary Roberto Sanchez introduced a new bill on Friday, requiring all companies providing telecommunications services to register as telecommunications operators – even if they do not provide any phone numbers. The legislation is set to go through public hearing and get parliamentary approval, and is not expected to be finalized until the end of the year. If Madrid proceeds with the initiative, Big Tech companies would have to pay the […]
https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/107810/05/1078100585_0:26:3326:1896_1200x675_80_0_0_a72f4bdf15ad471d6f859fcd34b11c1a.jpg Sputnik International https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png Radhika Parashar. Sputnik International https://sputniknews.com/india/202009101080418922-richer-meets-richest-mukesh-ambani-may-offer-jeff-bezos-20-billion-stake-in-reliance-retail/ At a time when the global economy is struck by pandemic woes, India’s biggest industrialist Mukesh Ambani has been seeing huge investments in his Reliance Industries, one of India’s most valuable companies. In recent months, Ambani’s oil-to-telecom company has garnered investments worth over $15 billion from foreign firms. Mukesh Ambani, who is currently the world’s seventh richest person, is considering selling 40 a percent stake in Reliance Retail worth $20 billion to online marketplace giant Amazon, headed by the world’s richest person Jeff Bezos, LiveMint reported on Thursday citing sources familiar with the matter. […]
Facebook suddenly disabled the account of video journalist Ford Fischer as he was covering armed protest groups Saturday in Louisville, raising fears that Big Tech censors are classifying newsgathering as incitement to violence. “I am a journalist, verified on Facebook,” Fischer wrote Saturday evening on his Twitter account. “Today I spent the entire day covering various armed groups throughout Louisville. As I just finished a livestream, I tried to log in and it appears Facebook deleted my account.” Fischer, co-founder of News2Share, was unable to get an explanation in efforts to follow up with the social media behemoth until his account […]
For a time, it seemed like a great gig. Jacinda Chan’s job working for the website Peace Data was everything she’d been looking for. It was paid work writing about her favorite subject—human rights and Latin America—and her editors paid on time. Chan, who was born with spinal muscular atrophy and is a quadriplegic, hadn’t been able to get many good jobs in journalism. “I have difficulty finding employment in the USA because people look at me and wonder how I can work if I’m on a respirator,” she wrote to an editor at the site in July. “That is why […]
Alain Cocq, 57, is trying to use his case to draw attention to the plight of terminally ill people and change French legislation on euthanasia and a law that prohibits doctors from hastening the death of dying patients. Facebook will not allow a terminally ill man in France to live stream his death on its website. The company said it respects Alain Coq’s decision and his desire to draw attention to “this complex and difficult issue”, but based on the guidance of experts, Facebook has decided not to let him broadcast live, “as we do not allow the depiction of suicide […]
Facebook has removed a number of pages related to the right-wing ‘Patriot Prayer’ movement. A mainstay at pro-gun rallies and street protests, the group made news recently after a member was gunned down in Portland, Oregon. A Facebook spokesman told Reuters about the removal of the pages on Friday, saying that the company pulled the pages as part of “ongoing efforts to remove Violent Social Militias from our platform.” Patriot Prayer members have frequently brawled in the streets with left-wing ‘Antifa’ rioters since the group’s formation in Portland in 2016. Though fistfights and scuffles have become the norm between these groups, […]
Google, Facebook, and other social media companies, like Twitter, have come under pressure from Democrats, who have claimed that the tech giants’ platforms were used to influence the result of the last election and could be used to tip the scales in the upcoming vote. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has warned of the risk of civil unrest in the United States during and after the presidential election. Speaking to Axios, Zuckerberg said it is necessary to do everything to reduce the chances of violence in the wake of the 3 November vote. “There is, unfortunately, I think, a heightened risk of […]
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in April 2018 on Capitol Hill. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in April 2018 on Capitol Hill. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Updated at 10:55 a.m. ET Facebook said it won’t accept any new political ads in the week leading up to the presidential election, one of several policies that CEO Mark Zuckerberg said will help ensure a fair election in November. One such measure involves deleting posts that claim people will get COVID-19 […]
President Trump visited Wilmington, N.C., on Wednesday and urged supporters to try to vote in person after sending in a mail-in ballot — actions that would be both illegal and disruptive. Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images President Trump visited Wilmington, N.C., on Wednesday and urged supporters to try to vote in person after sending in a mail-in ballot — actions that would be both illegal and disruptive. Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images Updated at 3:08 p.m. ET President Trump, who has frequently criticized mail-in voting, on Wednesday took his attacks on the process a step […]
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – Political advertising will disappear from Facebook during the week prior to November 3 elections, one of several steps to ensure the integrity of the upcoming vote, the social media platform’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in a press release on Thursday. “We won’t accept new political ads in the week before the election,” Zuckerberg said. The release detailed a number of additional steps that Zuckerberg said were intended “to help secure the integrity of the US elections by encouraging voting, connecting people to authoritative information, and reducing the risks of post-election confusion.” Other measures include removal of posts claiming […]
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg admonished some of his own employees this week over remarks on the company’s internal messaging platform about racism and violence against Black men. In a post on the social-media giant’s internal communications channel Workplace last week, a Facebook staffer shared a post titled “In Support of Law Enforcement and Black Lives.” The post called into question the notion of racially disparate outcomes in the criminal-justice system, argued that racism is not a serious motivation in police shootings, railed against “critical race theory,” and claimed narratives about police violence often “conveniently leave out” other factors, including whether the […]
The Wall Street Journal had reported in August that a senior executive of Facebook in India had intervened in the platform’s internal content review process to stop a ban on a legislator from the national ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who had made religiously intolerant posts. Facebook, however, has denied the allegation. Reiterating that the international media had uncovered a brazen attack on India’s democracy and social harmony by Facebook and WhatsApp, Rahul Gandhi of India’s main opposition party Congress has sought a probe into these attempts. Gandhi, a parliamentarian and former head of the Congress party, who has been taking […]
Australian Facebook users may soon find themselves unable to share news, the social media giant has warned, citing a new law which has pitted Big Tech firms against major media outlets demanding a cut of their revenue. The draft regulation, proposed by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), would mandate that platforms such as Facebook and Google give news organizations a piece of their digital marketing earnings. While supporters of the law argue the platforms unduly benefit from hosting news content, Facebook insists the ACCC “misunderstands the dynamics of the internet,” and that the regulation would force the company to […]
Gaige Grosskreutz was armed with a pistol when 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse blew his bicep apart with a semi-automatic rifle in Kenosha, Wisconsin. In a Facebook post gone viral, Grosskreutz regrets not killing the teenager. Rittenhouse has been arrested and charged with murder after he shot three people during the rioting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Tuesday night. Two died, and a third, Grosskreutz, has had surgery to repair a massive bullet wound to his bicep. Grosskreutz was one of two men caught on video attacking Rittenhouse, who was apparently fleeing the scene of the first shooting. As gunshots rang out from an […]
Previous Chancellor Philip Hammond slapped a two per cent tax on top digital companies, which are largely American, with concerns having since mounted that the companies could pass on the costs to customers. The move is also understood to have angered Washington, which believes the tax stands in the way of effective trade talks. The Digital Services Tax (DST), dubbed the “Facebook tax” on big tech companies, which was introduced last April, could be ditched after Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak came to believe that the £500 million a year it is expected to raise is a drop in the […]
On Facebook Banning Anarchist And Antifascist Pages By Crimethinc Ex-Worker’s Collective and It’s Going Down. August 20, 2020 On Facebook Banning Anarchist And Antifascist Pages2020-08-202020-08-20https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.pngPopularResistance.Orghttps://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2020/08/fbsn1.jpg200px200px And The Digital Censorship To Come. Today Facebook deleted a variety of far-Right militia and Qanon accounts along with anarchist and antifascist pages, including It’s Going Down and CrimethInc. The following is a joint statement in response. Facebook has taken down multiple Facebook pages they believe to be connected with crimethinc.com and itsgoingdown.org, among other anarchist and anti-fascist publishing projects, officially on the pretext that they “support violence.” This has nothing to do with stopping violence and everything to do with cracking down on social movements and […]
Dissociated Press Facebook announced this morning that its ban on hate speech will be extended to include claims that a Jew owns and operates Facebook. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerb*rg says he may extend the ban to include references to Jews who own and operate other big media companies and banks, and ultimately to any and all assertions that any Jewish person is a Jew. “Calling a Jewish person a ‘Jew’ is an age-old anti-Semitic trope,” Zuckerb*rg explained at a press conference outside the $825 billion dollar personal synagogue he recently built next door to Facebook’s headquarters in San Francisco. “Throughout history, […]
Facebook announced plans Wednesday to crack down on QAnon supporters on its site, making the platform the latest social-media giant to attempt to stop the online spread of the pro-Trump conspiracy theory. The company plans to delete 790 Facebook groups and 100 pages devoted to spreading QAnon, while also taking steps to make it harder for QAnon supporters to spread their message on the platform. Facebook has also blocked more than 300 hashtags used by QAnon supporters on Facebook and Instagram, as well as adding new restrictions on nearly 2,000 Facebook groups and more than 10,000 Instagram accounts. The announcement comes […]
A former winner of Deal or No Deal has lost nearly $40,000 after a bitcoin investment company turned out to be a Facebook scam. Source link
New Delhi (Sputnik): The Indian parliamentary panel on information technology headed by main opposition party Congress lawmaker Shashi Tharoor earlier indicated, the panel would ask social network platform Facebook to clarify its position on allegedly bending hate speech rules in favour of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and opposition parties clashed on Parliamentary Panel on Information Technology Chairman Shashi Tharoor’s statement that the panel would wish to hear from the tech company about reports of bending its “hate speech rules” in India. BJP lawmaker and member of the Parliamentary Panel on Information Technology Nishikant Dubey […]
Popular Viral Video Firm Sues Facebook Over Russian Propaganda Label By Alan Macleod, Mintpress News. August 16, 2020 Popular Viral Video Firm Sues Facebook Over Russian Propaganda Label2020-08-162020-08-15https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.pngPopularResistance.Orghttps://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2020/08/mint.jpg200px200px Above photo: Antonio Cabrera. The company behind In The Now, Soapbox and Waste-Ed is taking on media giant Facebook, who it claims is falsely labeling it as Russian state-controlled propaganda. An online media company is suing social media giant Facebook for falsely smearing it as a Russian state-controlled propaganda outlet. Maffick, the owner of In The Now, Soapbox and Waste-Ed, has filed a lawsuit against Facebook in a Northern California district court for […]
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The reelection campaign of US President Donald Trump accused Facebook of bias against the US President after the social networking service removed a video from Trump’s page over allegedly false statements about the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), media reported. “The President was stating a fact that children are less susceptible to the coronavirus. Another day, another display of Silicon Valley’s flagrant bias against this President, where the rules are only enforced in one direction. Social media companies are not the arbiters of truth”, Trump campaign deputy national press secretary Courtney Parella said in a statement, as quoted by […]
Facebook said the president’s claims violated its coronavirus misinformation policy, in a rare departure from the social network’s largely hands-off approach to politicians. Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images Facebook said the president’s claims violated its coronavirus misinformation policy, in a rare departure from the social network’s largely hands-off approach to politicians. Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images Both Twitter and Facebook have removed a post shared by President Trump for breaking their rules against spreading coronavirus misinformation. Twitter temporarily blocked the Trump election campaign account from tweeting until it removed a post with […]
Facebook has tried its hardest to avoid taking action against posts from President Trump that broke its own rules. But on Wednesday, that long-running effort finally ran aground against a rambling diatribe from the president about children and the coronavirus. It’s a shift that could have an enormous impact on Trump’s re-election effort. While political spending is a small fraction of Facebook’s overall revenue, political ads make up a more significant chunk of campaign spending. Team Trump has made Facebook—with its uneven enforcement of its rules against disinformation—a cornerstone of its campaign, spending more than $35 million in ads on the […]
Facebook’s new Reels feature allows users to create and share short videos, similar to TikTok. Facebook hide caption toggle caption Facebook Facebook’s new Reels feature allows users to create and share short videos, similar to TikTok. Facebook Facebook has launched its answer to TikTok, the wildly popular video-sharing app that the Trump administration considers a national security threat. Reels is a new feature on Instagram, the photo-sharing app owned by Facebook. Like in TikTok, users can make short videos set to music, add filters and other effects, and easily share them. The launch comes as TikTok, which is owned by the […]
The plan to force TikTok US business to be divested could be a ruse for the US government and tech giants including Facebook to take down the short video platform and allow Facebook to fill the void, industry insiders told the Global Times Tuesday. US President Donald Trump said Monday that TikTok would be banned in the US unless it is gobbled up by Microsoft or another “very American” company by September 15, and suggested the US Treasury should get a big cut of the proceeds. “The buyout plan could be just a ruse under which the US government and capital […]
https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/08/03/1080041875_0:0:3072:1729_1200x675_80_0_0_fdb92abf2c1329b7cb760ab6117be646.jpg Sputnik International https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png Sputnik https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/i/logo.png https://sputniknews.com/world/202008031080041820-bytedance-says-complex-and-unimaginable-difficulties-in-going-global-denounces-facebook/ ByteDance, the parent company of video platform TikTok, currently facing a ban in the United States, did not mention the difficulties the app faces in the country, and made no comment on the ongoing talks with Microsoft over its possible sale. TikTok’s owner ByteDance said in a statement on Jinri Toutiao, cited by Reuters, that it has dealt with “complex and unimaginable difficulties”, while working to become a global company, accusing Facebook of “plagiarism and smears” against the firm. The statement also reportedly said that ByteDance will “continue to adhere to its globalisation vision”. Earlier, Reuters […]
For the past six decades, Serge Klarsfeld has dedicated his life to hunting down Nazis and bringing them to justice. There was Klaus Barbie, the infamous “Butcher of Lyon,” whom Klarsfeld and his wife, Beate, tracked down in Peru; René Bousquet, who ordered thousands of Jews to their deaths in the Vel’ d’Hiv’ Roundup; and Paul Touvier, who was apprehended at a priory in Nice and became the first Vichy official to be convicted of crimes against humanity for Holocaust collaboration. Now, he’s setting his sights on Mark Zuckerberg. Klarsfeld, 84, is one of a number of Holocaust activists and survivors […]
TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer says Facebook is launching a copycat product to undermine the popular app. Mayer also announced TikTok would make its algorithmic code and content moderation decisions public. Manjunath Kiran/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Manjunath Kiran/AFP via Getty Images TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer says Facebook is launching a copycat product to undermine the popular app. Mayer also announced TikTok would make its algorithmic code and content moderation decisions public. Manjunath Kiran/AFP via Getty Images The CEO of TikTok, the popular app for sharing short-form videos, is attacking Facebook for planning the launch of a “copycat” product, […]
Facebook censors almost 90 percent of ‘hate speech’ before it’s allowed to circulate, CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Congress at Wednesday’s Big Tech hearing, responding to pressure from Democrats to submit to the advertiser boycott. “We’re able to proactively identify 89 percent of the hate speech that we take down before, I think, it’s even seen by other people,” Zuckerberg told the Antitrust Subcommittee of the US House of Representatives on Wednesday. The statement was in response to Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) pressuring Facebook to “join the civil rights movement” by submitting to the demands of the Stop Hate For Profit campaign, […]
WHO THE HELL ARE THESE PEOPLE?Google, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube censored and removed video from yesterday’s “White Coat Summit” in Washington DC. THIS IS COLLUSION! Frontline doctors from across the US held a “White Coat Summit” on Monday in Washington DC to dispel the misinformation and myths surrounding the coronavirus.Day two of their summit is going to kickoff today in front of the US Supreme Court. The doctors are very concerned with the disinformation campaign being played out in the far left American media today. From their website: “If Americans continue to let so-called experts and media personalities make their decisions, […]
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s Tim Cook, Google’s Sundar Pichai and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg will face congressional questioning about whether tech has too much power. Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Evan Vucci, Jeff Chiu, Jens Meyer/AP hide caption toggle caption Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Evan Vucci, Jeff Chiu, Jens Meyer/AP Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s Tim Cook, Google’s Sundar Pichai and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg will face congressional questioning about whether tech has too much power. Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Evan Vucci, Jeff Chiu, Jens Meyer/AP Some of the world’s most powerful CEOs are coming to Capitol Hill — virtually, of course — to answer one overarching question: […]
A Houston doctor who praises hydroxychloroquine and says that face masks aren’t necessary to stop transmission of the highly contagious coronavirus has become a star on the right-wing internet, garnering tens of millions of views on Facebook on Monday alone. Donald Trump Jr. declared the video of Stella Immanuel a “must watch,” while Donald Trump himself retweeted the video. Before Trump and his supporters embrace Immanuel’s medical expertise, though, they should consider other medical claims Immanuel has made—including those about alien DNA and the physical effects of having sex with witches and demons in your dreams. Immanuel, a pediatrician and a […]
Facebook – the ubiquitous privacy-invading social network – is taking European Commision regulators to court. The Silicon Valley giant is complaining that an EU investigation is invading its privacy. The European Commission is currently investigating whether Facebook’s online Marketplace has an unfair advantage over its rivals, and how the company collects and monetizes user data. Facebook has turned over nearly two million pages of documents to the investigators in recent months, but the company now says the regulators have gone too far. “The exceptionally broad nature of the Commission’s requests means we would be required to turn over predominantly irrelevant documents,” […]
President Donald Trump exhibited his new serious tone toward the coronavirus crisis on Monday night, sharing a viral video of fringe doctors touting the controversial anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as “a cure for COVID.” The video, which also featured the doctors dismissing mask-wearing, was eventually taken down by Facebook for “sharing false information” about the virus, after racking up millions of views in a matter of hours. Several right-wing outlets and personalities, however, continued to promote the clip of the doctors’ press conference on Twitter, eventually reaching the president’s timeline. Besides retweeting the clip several times, Trump—who recently said his retweets tend […]
On the eve of a Big Tech antitrust hearing, citing video evidence dug up by Project Veritas, a Republican congressman has referred Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to the Justice Department for lying to Congress about political bias. Zuckerberg allegedly made “materially false statements to Congress while under oath” during the April 10-11 joint hearings in 2018, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) wrote in a letter addressed to Attorney General William Barr on Monday. While on those occasions the Facebook CEO “repeatedly and categorically denied any bias against conservative speech, persons, policies, or politics” and “dismissed the suggestion that Facebook exercises any form […]
The Brazilian courts previously passed a bill known as the “Brazilian Law on Freedom, Responsibility and Transparency on the Internet” that was aimed at combatting so-called fake news propagated by supporters of President Jair Bolsonaro. However, even his critics have warned such moves could stifle free speech. Facebook and Twitter have removed the accounts of several prominent supporters of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro after a Supreme Court judge ordered them blocked as part of a broader investigation into an alleged disinformation campaign. Justice Alexndre de Moraes ordered the removal of 16 Twitter profiles and 12 Facebook accounts on Friday, a decision […]
Corporate giants Google, Twitter and Facebook could soon face the wrath of cryptocurrency business owners in a class-action lawsuit relating to the banning of cryptocurrency-related advertising in 2018. Disclosure The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups. Source link
Miss Swimsuit UK Jasmine Archer-Jones, 23, has been stripped of her title for posting that “All Lives Matter” and questioning the innocence of leftist martyr George Floyd. The swimsuit model is also under attack over her boyfriend’s Facebook posts, including a meme that said “white guilt is real, white privilege is a leftist lie.” Archer moved to Texas shortly after winning her title last year and is in a relationship with US-based talent agency boss Todd Markey. The Daily Mail reports “based in Houston, Texas, Mr Markey, who spent some of his childhood in South Africa, is believed to be a […]
US President Donald Trump has tapped a new campaign manager, but deprived of his Twitter handle following a major hack on the platform, decided – or was forced by a shutdown of verified accounts – to declare the move on Facebook. “I am pleased to announce that Bill Stepien has been promoted to the role of Trump Campaign Manager,” Trump said in a lengthier-than-usual social media post on Wednesday night, adding that his previous campaign head, Brad Parscale, would remain in charge of “digital and data strategies” and retain a position as a senior advisor. Both [Stepien and Parscale] were heavily […]
Bobby Pickles, the owner of Fat Enzo,, a custom cap and t-shirt sweatshop based in West Palm Beach, is the latest person to be erased from social media for advocating for a commutation or pardon of Trump advisor Roger Stone. Pickles, the man behind the infamous ROGER STONE DID NOTHING WRONG brand, also creates promotional items for South Florida congressional candidate Laura Loomer. Pickles has hosted both Stone and Loomer on his podcast in the past year in addition to being their go-to vendor for caps and t-shirts. Given no explanation why he was banned from both Facebook and Twitter, it […]
According to internal sources, a temporary ban on political ads is designed to eliminate misleading political content that could affect the choices made by American voters. Facebook is considering a ban on political ads on the social media platform in the run-up to the US presidential election this November, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing sources familiar with the matter. The sources, who asked to remain anonymous, said that the decision has not yet been made. Though the ban is designed to prevent the spread of misleading information ahead of the national vote, there are concerns that eliminating political agitation could potentially […]
Recode co-founder Kara Swisher has this thing she likes to call the “prick to productivity ratio”—how big of a jerk a particular executive is, verus how much he gets done. And these days, both in Silicon Valley and in Washington, that ratio has gone all wrong. “Taking advantage, just not caring about the consequences—that’s being played out in Silicon Valley over and over again. So don’t be surprised at what Trump is doing. Silicon Valley sets the tone,” Swisher tells Molly Jong-Fast and Rick Wilson in the latest episode of The New Abnormal. “Their lack of self-reflection is so vast that […]
Facebook had the chance to curb voter suppression targeting Black Americans ahead of the 2020 presidential election. Instead, it stumbled on that and other civil liberties issues, according to a new independent civil rights audit released on Wednesday. The audit, commissioned by Facebook and conducted over two years by civil rights experts and lawyers, comes as Facebook faces public ire for racism and disinformation on the site, with major advertisers cutting ties with the company. Although the social media giant took some steps to curb hate speech and prevent election meddling after the 2016 election, it also committed significant oversights, the […]
Coinbase has hired Paul Grewal, former U.S. magistrate judge and Facebook legal alum, to lead the cryptocurrency exchange giant’s legal team. Source link
Facebook has banned dozens of pages allegedly linked to ex-Trump adviser and Republican operative Roger Stone, as well as Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, in its relentless battle against political ‘misinformation networks’. The 100-account network said to be linked to Stone, a Florida resident, was discovered in the course of an investigation into the right-wing group Proud Boys, banned from Facebook years ago, the social media behemoth revealed on Wednesday in a blog post. Some 54 accounts, 54 pages, and four Instagram accounts were removed in the purge. According to Facebook, the deleted accounts were followed by upwards of 320,000 people and […]
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – Facebook said on Wednesday it removed 54 Facebook accounts, 50 Pages, and 4 Instagram accounts that were involved in coordinated inauthentic behavior in the United States which were connected to former Trump campaign aide Roger Stone and his associates. “TThe people behind this activity used fake accounts — some of which had already been detected and disabled by our automated systems — to pose as residents of Florida, post and comment on their own content to make it appear more popular than it is, evade enforcement, and manage Pages”, Facebook said in a statement. “Our investigation linked this […]
Facebook failed to remove three posts by the US President Donald Trump that “allowed the propagation of hate/violent speech and facilitated voter suppression,” causing concern among the civil rights community, a new report says. A fresh audit of Facebook’s policies and practices, commissioned by the world’s largest social media platform itself in 2018, has on 8 July yielded results. The Civil Rights Audit, led by Laura W. Murphy, a civil rights and civil liberties leader, among others, have analysed Facebook’s impact on civil rights and argued that the company needs to do more to suppress hate. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg commented on […]
Facebook is facing the biggest corporate boycott in the company’s history. Following a call from advocacy groups working under the umbrella Stop Hate for Profit, more than 300 advertisers have pledged not to spend money on the platform for the month of July. Although the boycott is unlikely to sink the company, it has received Mark Zuckerberg’s attention (about 98% of Facebook’s $70bn in annual revenue comes from advertising). Zuckerberg has been forced to address the campaign in company meetings and is meeting on Tuesday with organizers to discuss hate speech on the platform and demands behind the boycott. Among the organizations participating is Color […]
US video conferencing platform Zoom has joined Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Telegram in suspending data requests from Hong Kong authorities following the enactment of the new national security law. Like its tech industry contemporaries, a Zoom spokesperson said the company “supports the free and open exchange of thoughts and ideas,” but it would not cooperate with authorities’ requests for information. Many in the tech industry have cited “human rights” concerns as the main driving factor behind such decisions. The spokesperson added that Zoom is “actively monitoring the developments in Hong Kong SAR (Special Administrative Region), including any potential guidance from the […]
Facebook Groups Pivot To Attacks On Black Lives Matter By Amanda Seitz, Associated Press. July 5, 2020 Facebook Groups Pivot To Attacks On Black Lives Matter2020-07-052020-07-05https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/popres-shorter.pngPopularResistance.Orghttps://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2020/07/black-lives-matter-protesters-in-st.-paul-mn-ap-e1593969451585.jpg200px200px Above photo: Black Lives Matter protesters march away from the State Capitol, in St. Paul, Minn. A loose network of Facebook groups that took root across the country in April to organize protests over coronavirus stay-at-home orders has become a hub of misinformation and conspiracies theories that have pivoted to a variety of new targets. Their latest: Black Lives Matter and the nationwide protests against racial injustice. AP Photo/John Minchillo, File. A loose network of Facebook groups […]
‘In a speech last October, Mr Zuckerberg had controversially signalled that Facebook’s interests aligned with Donald Trump’s.’ Photograph: Erin Scott/Reuters Guardian: In every political debate since Facebook began to dominate democracy, the company has placed itself on the wrong side of history. The social media firm cannot be reformed from within because its business model profits from hosting bomb-throwing circuses of hate, humbug and hogwash. The platform harvests users’ personal data to algorithmically recommend content but can’t seem to help steering people towards vilifying one another while keeping their attention. It is not good for society, but it is good for Facebook. That apparently is fine […]
Rashad Robinson, president of Color of Change, one of the groups organizing an advertising boycott of Facebook for the month of July. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images Rashad Robinson, president of Color of Change, one of the groups organizing an advertising boycott of Facebook for the month of July. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images When the Stop Hate for Profit campaign launched just two weeks ago, its organizers had not yet persuaded a single advertiser to boycott Facebook in July. Now, more than 400 companies, from Coca-Cola and Adidas to Ford and Lego, have vowed to halt advertising […]
Hundreds of Facebook profiles said to be part of a “violent anti-government network” linked to the loose-knit “boogaloo” movement have been permanently deleted, the latest in a wave of mass bans targeting the political right. Some 220 accounts, 106 groups and 28 pages were scrubbed from Facebook on Tuesday, the company said in a statement, alleging they were tied to a “dangerous organization” that had carried out real acts of violence. Ninety-five accounts on Facebook-owned Instagram also got the boot. “This violent network is banned from having a presence on our platform and we will remove content praising, supporting or representing […]
A longtime subforum dedicated to fans and supporters of US President Donald Trump has been removed from Reddit, adding to the growing list of social media violations recently attributed to the US president and his supporters. Reddit CEO Steve Huffman announced in a Monday content policy update that in addition to increased forum moderation and more explicit rules regarding “hate based on identity or vulnerability,” some 2,000 active and inactive subreddits have been banned from the website, including “r/The_Donald.” “All communities on Reddit must abide by our content policy in good faith. We banned r/The_Donald because it has not done so, […]
Facebook, Accenture, IoTeX, Nvidia and six other companies are joining the Linux Foundation’s Confidential Computing Consortium (CCC), increasing the size of the privacy-focused group by 60 percent. The addition of members IoTeX, which leverages blockchain to secure the internet of things, and R3, an enterprise blockchain company, nearly doubles the number of blockchain companies involved. Created in late October 2019, the CCC aims to bring developers together to accelerate the use of Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) technologies and standards. A TEE sequesters code and data away from applications on the main operating system, so they’re protected from adversaries who may gain […]
Over 160 mostly US companies have already joined the ‘Stop Hate for Profit’ campaign in the wake of George Floyd’s death, with corporations including Coca Cola, Levi’s, Starbucks, and Verizon agreeing to partially or fully freeze their Facebook ad buys next month, ostensibly to try to force the social media giant to tackle hateful content online. Common Sense Media, one of several US-based civil rights NGOs pressuring Facebook to change its rules to address hate speech, is seeking to expand its viral ‘Stop Hate for Profit’ campaign to Europe and Asia. Speaking to Reuters, James Steyer, CEO of the San Francisco-based […]
Outrageous! After preventing nearly all conservative posts from being shared on its platform since the 2016 Presidential election, Facebook is now preventing all content from conservative thinkers being shared on its platform period. Reuters reported on Friday: Facebook Inc said on Friday it will start labeling newsworthy content that violates the social media company’s policies, and label all posts and ads about voting with links to authoritative information, including those from politicians. A Facebook spokeswoman confirmed its new policy would have meant attaching a link on voting information to U.S. President Donald Trump’s post last month about mail-in ballots. Rival Twitter […]
Plummeting Facebook shares have wiped out billions of founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s personal wealth. The impetus? Corporations such as Coca-Cola and Verizon have pulled their ads, demanding that Facebook censor hate speech. Zuckerberg lost $7.2 billion, after Facebook’s shares fell by 8.3 percent on Friday, Bloomberg reported. The dive in value happened after Unilever, one of the largest advertisers in the world, joined the list of major companies that suspended their ad campaigns on Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram. At around the same time, Coca-Cola said it was also pulling all its social-media advertising for 30 days. More than 120 […]
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is under pressure to take bigger steps to curb hate speech and crack down on harmful content on the social network. Drew Angerer/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Drew Angerer/Getty Images Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is under pressure to take bigger steps to curb hate speech and crack down on harmful content on the social network. Drew Angerer/Getty Images Updated at 8:05p.m. ET Facebook will put warning labels on posts that break its rules but are considered newsworthy, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Friday. The new policy marks a reversal for Zuckerberg and comes as more brands pledge […]