7 ms·

Babylon Bee’s CEO Pushes Back Against Big Tech (Facebook) Bullying

49 points by rmason 6y ago

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
ALittleLight 6y ago
This feels like exactly the problem the internet was supposed to solve. A centralized corporation is dictating content decisions for anyone who wants to stay alive and profitable online. I have no idea what the solution is, but I don't like that Facebook gets an outsized say in what people can profitably write online.
- jfengel 6y ago
  The Internet was never designed to guarantee anything about profitability. It was designed to make things accessible, and it does, including in this case. The problem isn't in access. The problem is their insistence on profit. The Internet was designed in a nonprofit environment, and certainly wasn't intended to ensure that one player could force somebody else to use their servers to guarantee their profit.
sfkdjf9j3j 6y ago
Might do better if you reposted with a more reputable source. Babylon Bee's model is itself pretty interesting.
- fastball 6y ago
  Has the dailywire been known to be untrustworthy in the past?
  - msla 6y ago
    Yes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daily_Wire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daily_Wire > According to FactCheck.org, The Daily Wire incorrectly credited Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson with finding over $500 billion in accounting errors made by the Obama administration. FactCheck.org reported that the errors were discovered and published by HUD's independent inspector general before Carson became secretary.[18] > The Daily Wire has published articles expressing skepticism that climate change is occurring and that humans contribute to climate change. Climate scientists have described the articles as being inaccurate and misleading.[19][20][21]
  - mikeyouse 6y ago
    Yes. It's a garbage site (regular headlines include things like "LGBT Pride is the worst sin of all" and "Gender Equality is a Leftist Lie") that itself was caught breaking Facebook's rules against sockpuppets and fake accounts but since their founder Ben Shapiro somehow became popular on Youtube for 'owning the libs', they have the ear of politicians who regularly threaten Facebook and so they can escape punishments that other orgs see. https://popular.info/p/facebook-allows-prominent-right-wing https://popular.info/p/facebook-allows-prominent-right-wing
    - cabaalis 6y ago
      Have you ever listened to Ben Shapiro's podcast? He generally backs up his arguments pretty well, and admits poor arguments when he sees them.
  - mullingitover 6y ago
    They’re on the somewhat unreliable/extreme slant spectrum. Posting them here is roughly on par with posting a Breitbart article. They might not be saying something that’s blatantly untrue but it’s highly likely that they would omit important context that makes their story misleading.
    - mancerayder 6y ago
      And NYT or Washington Post don't omit content when it comes to the two sides of an issue? especially in the last six months?
    - fastball 6y ago
      Because none of our other news organizations have been repeatedly caught doing exactly that. I honestly can't remember the last "news" article I read from any source that didn't seem to conveniently forget some context or additional detail. Even the AP doesn't read as an unbiased accounting of the facts these days.
      - mullingitover 6y ago
        Don't shoot the messenger, take your qualms up with the Media Bias Chart[1]. That's what I was basing my answer on. [1] https://www.adfontesmedia.com/ https://www.adfontesmedia.com/
        fastball 6y ago
        In a situation where we are talking about reliability and the propagation of "unreliable" information, the messenger is not absolved of responsibility. Generally, "don't shoot the messenger" only applies if you a messenger bearing objective truth, at least as far as you (the messenger) are aware. In this case, however, you are a messenger repeating someone else's representation of what might be the truth, without actually knowing the truth for yourself. Thanks for the link though. Anecdotally, I wouldn't say this chart matches my experience, so I will need to dig into their methodology to get a better understanding of how this has been determined. Though in all honesty I don't read things like Breitbart or The Daily Wire, so maybe its just a case of survivorship bias, where the things I've seen linked have always been the least egregious due to the sites I actually do visit consistently (HN).
  - fastball 6y ago
    As an example of other news sites not giving them a fair shake, if you read the linked USAT article[0], they seem to want to be spinning the Babylon Bee in a negative light. > Headlines on the site range from commentary on current events to the absurd. "Big Tech Fights Election Interference By Interfering In Election," "Senator Hirono Demands ACB Be Weighed Against A Duck To See If She Is A Witch" and "Teen Applies Entire Case Of Axe Body Spray Before Heading To Youth Group" were all featured on the site's homepage Friday morning. > However, other headlines mock transgender people and Black Lives Matter protesters. "However"? How do headlines satirizing transgender and BLM issues not fall under the previous umbrella of "headlines on the site range from commentary on current events to the absurd"? USA Today also seems interested in "fact-checking" The Babylon Bee's headlines[1], something I've never seen done for The Onion / other satirical news, even when people "eat the onion"[2]. [0] https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/10/16/donald-trump-tweets-babylon-bees-satirical-news-story-joe-biden/3676071001/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/10/16/dona... [1] https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/09/30/fact-check-trump-self-nominating-supreme-court-satirical-idea/3559923001/ https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/09/30/fact... [2] https://old.reddit.com/r/AteTheOnion https://old.reddit.com/r/AteTheOnion
- irrational 6y ago
  What is Babylon Bee?
  - ampdepolymerase 6y ago
    Conservative version of The Onion.
    - foogazi 6y ago
      Is there a liberal version of The Onion?
      - slowmovintarget 6y ago
        The New York Times.
Causality1 6y ago
A Republican-funded independent audit of Facebook found no such political bias: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/08/facebook-report-attempts-to-address-claims-of-anti-conservative-bias/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/08/facebook-report-...
xxpor 6y ago
Why are they entitled to Facebook's money? They signed on the dotted line. They don't like the contract they signed? Too bad. They can go to arbitration.
sparrish 6y ago
Oh, man. I love the Bee. Most of my daily chuckles come from their satire. But I go directly there, not via Facebook. They should work harder to not rely so heavily on that single source of traffic.
- foogazi 6y ago
  Every time I see a post from them I’m amazed at how unfunny that site is Can you share a funny post here?
  - skoopie 6y ago
    It's not funny because they poke fun of people/places/things that you identify with.
    - projct 6y ago
      Silicon Valley is funny though. Punching down, OTOH, isn't funny.
      - loco5niner 6y ago
        You're wrong... they aren't punching down. From UrbanDictionary: Punching down: For someone of higher rank, power, status, and position to engage someone of much lesser and/or inferior rank, status, power, and position in debate and/or argument. Not limited to just status, power, position, and rank but can and often do include intellect, capability, competence, and acumen. Oh, actually, hmm... that last part (not including intellect). Maybe you're right after all. Except for the isn't funny part.
  - fastball 6y ago
    I found this pretty funny. https://babylonbee.com/news/seeking-to-quell-controversy-joe-biden-places-hunter-up-for-adoption?utm_content=buffer4e0fb&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer https://babylonbee.com/news/seeking-to-quell-controversy-joe...
  - 6y ago
PopGreene 6y ago
I'm gobsmacked. I must really be out of touch. It never occurred to me that BB is "right leaning." I just assumed that headlines like "Senator Hirono Demands ACB Be Weighed Against A Duck To See If She Is A Witch" or "Ninth Circuit Court Overturns Death Of Ruth Bader Ginsburg." were about needling conservatives for being superstitious. I must have missed any right leaning stories.
mcphage 6y ago
> Dillon says the Trump administration cares “very much about free speech and for conservatives to have a voice in the public discourse. Is this another instance of their satire that I’m somehow missing? Donald Trump is very much not in support of free speech.

49 points by rmason 6y ago

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

This feels like exactly the problem the internet was supposed to solve. A centralized corporation is dictating content decisions for anyone who wants to stay alive and profitable online. I have no idea what the solution is, but I don't like that Facebook gets an outsized say in what people can profitably write online.

jfengel 6y ago
The Internet was never designed to guarantee anything about profitability. It was designed to make things accessible, and it does, including in this case. The problem isn't in access. The problem is their insistence on profit. The Internet was designed in a nonprofit environment, and certainly wasn't intended to ensure that one player could force somebody else to use their servers to guarantee their profit.

sfkdjf9j3j 6y ago

Might do better if you reposted with a more reputable source. Babylon Bee's model is itself pretty interesting.

fastball 6y ago
Has the dailywire been known to be untrustworthy in the past?
- msla 6y ago
  Yes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daily_Wire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daily_Wire > According to FactCheck.org, The Daily Wire incorrectly credited Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson with finding over $500 billion in accounting errors made by the Obama administration. FactCheck.org reported that the errors were discovered and published by HUD's independent inspector general before Carson became secretary.[18] > The Daily Wire has published articles expressing skepticism that climate change is occurring and that humans contribute to climate change. Climate scientists have described the articles as being inaccurate and misleading.[19][20][21]
- mikeyouse 6y ago
  Yes. It's a garbage site (regular headlines include things like "LGBT Pride is the worst sin of all" and "Gender Equality is a Leftist Lie") that itself was caught breaking Facebook's rules against sockpuppets and fake accounts but since their founder Ben Shapiro somehow became popular on Youtube for 'owning the libs', they have the ear of politicians who regularly threaten Facebook and so they can escape punishments that other orgs see. https://popular.info/p/facebook-allows-prominent-right-wing https://popular.info/p/facebook-allows-prominent-right-wing
  - cabaalis 6y ago
    Have you ever listened to Ben Shapiro's podcast? He generally backs up his arguments pretty well, and admits poor arguments when he sees them.
- mullingitover 6y ago
  They’re on the somewhat unreliable/extreme slant spectrum. Posting them here is roughly on par with posting a Breitbart article. They might not be saying something that’s blatantly untrue but it’s highly likely that they would omit important context that makes their story misleading.
  - mancerayder 6y ago
    And NYT or Washington Post don't omit content when it comes to the two sides of an issue? especially in the last six months?
  - fastball 6y ago
    Because none of our other news organizations have been repeatedly caught doing exactly that. I honestly can't remember the last "news" article I read from any source that didn't seem to conveniently forget some context or additional detail. Even the AP doesn't read as an unbiased accounting of the facts these days.
    - mullingitover 6y ago
      Don't shoot the messenger, take your qualms up with the Media Bias Chart[1]. That's what I was basing my answer on. [1] https://www.adfontesmedia.com/ https://www.adfontesmedia.com/
      - fastball 6y ago
        In a situation where we are talking about reliability and the propagation of "unreliable" information, the messenger is not absolved of responsibility. Generally, "don't shoot the messenger" only applies if you a messenger bearing objective truth, at least as far as you (the messenger) are aware. In this case, however, you are a messenger repeating someone else's representation of what might be the truth, without actually knowing the truth for yourself. Thanks for the link though. Anecdotally, I wouldn't say this chart matches my experience, so I will need to dig into their methodology to get a better understanding of how this has been determined. Though in all honesty I don't read things like Breitbart or The Daily Wire, so maybe its just a case of survivorship bias, where the things I've seen linked have always been the least egregious due to the sites I actually do visit consistently (HN).
- fastball 6y ago
  As an example of other news sites not giving them a fair shake, if you read the linked USAT article[0], they seem to want to be spinning the Babylon Bee in a negative light. > Headlines on the site range from commentary on current events to the absurd. "Big Tech Fights Election Interference By Interfering In Election," "Senator Hirono Demands ACB Be Weighed Against A Duck To See If She Is A Witch" and "Teen Applies Entire Case Of Axe Body Spray Before Heading To Youth Group" were all featured on the site's homepage Friday morning. > However, other headlines mock transgender people and Black Lives Matter protesters. "However"? How do headlines satirizing transgender and BLM issues not fall under the previous umbrella of "headlines on the site range from commentary on current events to the absurd"? USA Today also seems interested in "fact-checking" The Babylon Bee's headlines[1], something I've never seen done for The Onion / other satirical news, even when people "eat the onion"[2]. [0] https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/10/16/donald-trump-tweets-babylon-bees-satirical-news-story-joe-biden/3676071001/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/10/16/dona... [1] https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/09/30/fact-check-trump-self-nominating-supreme-court-satirical-idea/3559923001/ https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/09/30/fact... [2] https://old.reddit.com/r/AteTheOnion https://old.reddit.com/r/AteTheOnion
irrational 6y ago
What is Babylon Bee?
- ampdepolymerase 6y ago
  Conservative version of The Onion.
  - foogazi 6y ago
    Is there a liberal version of The Onion?
    - slowmovintarget 6y ago
      The New York Times.

Causality1 6y ago

A Republican-funded independent audit of Facebook found no such political bias: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/08/facebook-report-attempts-to-address-claims-of-anti-conservative-bias/ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/08/facebook-report-...

xxpor 6y ago

Why are they entitled to Facebook's money? They signed on the dotted line. They don't like the contract they signed? Too bad. They can go to arbitration.

sparrish 6y ago

Oh, man. I love the Bee. Most of my daily chuckles come from their satire. But I go directly there, not via Facebook. They should work harder to not rely so heavily on that single source of traffic.

foogazi 6y ago
Every time I see a post from them I’m amazed at how unfunny that site is Can you share a funny post here?
- skoopie 6y ago
  It's not funny because they poke fun of people/places/things that you identify with.
  - projct 6y ago
    Silicon Valley is funny though. Punching down, OTOH, isn't funny.
    - loco5niner 6y ago
      You're wrong... they aren't punching down. From UrbanDictionary: Punching down: For someone of higher rank, power, status, and position to engage someone of much lesser and/or inferior rank, status, power, and position in debate and/or argument. Not limited to just status, power, position, and rank but can and often do include intellect, capability, competence, and acumen. Oh, actually, hmm... that last part (not including intellect). Maybe you're right after all. Except for the isn't funny part.
- fastball 6y ago
  I found this pretty funny. https://babylonbee.com/news/seeking-to-quell-controversy-joe-biden-places-hunter-up-for-adoption?utm_content=buffer4e0fb&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer https://babylonbee.com/news/seeking-to-quell-controversy-joe...
- 6y ago

PopGreene 6y ago

I'm gobsmacked. I must really be out of touch. It never occurred to me that BB is "right leaning." I just assumed that headlines like "Senator Hirono Demands ACB Be Weighed Against A Duck To See If She Is A Witch" or "Ninth Circuit Court Overturns Death Of Ruth Bader Ginsburg." were about needling conservatives for being superstitious. I must have missed any right leaning stories.

mcphage 6y ago

> Dillon says the Trump administration cares “very much about free speech and for conservatives to have a voice in the public discourse. Is this another instance of their satire that I’m somehow missing? Donald Trump is very much not in support of free speech.