4 ms·

I'm going to make the assumption you don't use Facebook very often. Until recently, I did. Mainly because of the ease of local organization for political causes

I'm going to make the assumption you don't use Facebook very often. Until recently, I did. Mainly because of the ease of local organization for political causes I prefer. I've seen many leftist groups get banned. Many leftist users thrown into "Facebook Jail" routinely. Often over the most trivial of reasons. No to mention how the algorithms de-prioritize lefty and liberal sources in favor of conservative ones. It's darkly funny to me at this point how the "CENSORSHIP!!" crowd has completely ignored the routine purges of leftist voices on Facebook. Sure, the centrist liberal and the slightly left of center voices have survived. But get even a little further to the left and it's a crap shoot in terms of their long term survival on the platform. Meanwhile, conservative circles are thriving on Facebook. Conservative sources are among the most popular on the site. I honestly don't know how much more you want from Facebook when they go out of their way to make conservative groups feel at home. Even to the point of adjusting their engine to point users to conservative pages, as has been widely reported.

crakhamster01 6y ago
Can you cite sources beyond anecdote for any of these claims? Facebook documents group takedowns on their Newsroom, and those bans are largely foreign interference networks or far-right groups (proud boys, boogaloo, etc). The more reasonable (and widely accepted) reason as to why conservative content thrives on Facebook, is because conservative users are active in greater numbers on Facebook.
- dunnevens 6y ago
  Here's a couple of articles on the subject. I've seen a few other links posted by others in this thread that might be of interest. https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/1/21544501/facebook-rules-protect-conservatives-instagram-bias-discipline https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/1/21544501/facebook-rules-p... https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-throttled-traffic-to-progressive-news-sites-wsj-2020-10 https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-thr... In terms of groups and pages, The Intercept reported on this. And I've seen this directed at groups that were not explicitly antifa but were more socialist in nature. Some of the groups were targeted with a large number of user reports. I live in a red state. Some of the local groups & pages I followed were hit with many complaints from local conservatives. Which led to some of those groups disappearing. https://theintercept.com/2020/08/20/facebook-bans-antifascist-pages/ https://theintercept.com/2020/08/20/facebook-bans-antifascis... In terms of conservative popularity on Facebook, it looks to be partially organic. A mix of an older userbase and many conservative groups heavily targeting the platform. But the skew in the algorithms and the laxity regarding the rules also has a role to play.
tabob 6y ago
I've never seen racists / republicans / right wingers banned from Facebook. However I Have been banned for: - Calling Trump "White Trash" - Suggesting my tax dollars should not be used to fund Israel's genocide in Palestine - Suggesting that leftist protestors arm themselves for protection against the Proud Boys - Suggesting that my tax dollars should not be used to subsidize churches I've probably reported 500 blatantly racist and threatening posts since Traitor Trump took over. Unbelievably racist things including swastikas, threats to kill people, Europa-Identity posts, etc. One was a ycombinator-associated lawyer calling all muslims "Animals who fornicate with their sisters and with donkeys". None of those people have been banned, none of those posts have been removed. The left-wing bias on Facebook seems to be a helluva lot like the "war on Christmas". Doesn't seem to exist, but I really really wish it did.

crakhamster01 6y ago

Can you cite sources beyond anecdote for any of these claims? Facebook documents group takedowns on their Newsroom, and those bans are largely foreign interference networks or far-right groups (proud boys, boogaloo, etc). The more reasonable (and widely accepted) reason as to why conservative content thrives on Facebook, is because conservative users are active in greater numbers on Facebook.

dunnevens 6y ago
Here's a couple of articles on the subject. I've seen a few other links posted by others in this thread that might be of interest. https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/1/21544501/facebook-rules-protect-conservatives-instagram-bias-discipline https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/1/21544501/facebook-rules-p... https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-throttled-traffic-to-progressive-news-sites-wsj-2020-10 https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-thr... In terms of groups and pages, The Intercept reported on this. And I've seen this directed at groups that were not explicitly antifa but were more socialist in nature. Some of the groups were targeted with a large number of user reports. I live in a red state. Some of the local groups & pages I followed were hit with many complaints from local conservatives. Which led to some of those groups disappearing. https://theintercept.com/2020/08/20/facebook-bans-antifascist-pages/ https://theintercept.com/2020/08/20/facebook-bans-antifascis... In terms of conservative popularity on Facebook, it looks to be partially organic. A mix of an older userbase and many conservative groups heavily targeting the platform. But the skew in the algorithms and the laxity regarding the rules also has a role to play.

tabob 6y ago

I've never seen racists / republicans / right wingers banned from Facebook. However I Have been banned for: - Calling Trump "White Trash" - Suggesting my tax dollars should not be used to fund Israel's genocide in Palestine - Suggesting that leftist protestors arm themselves for protection against the Proud Boys - Suggesting that my tax dollars should not be used to subsidize churches I've probably reported 500 blatantly racist and threatening posts since Traitor Trump took over. Unbelievably racist things including swastikas, threats to kill people, Europa-Identity posts, etc. One was a ycombinator-associated lawyer calling all muslims "Animals who fornicate with their sisters and with donkeys". None of those people have been banned, none of those posts have been removed. The left-wing bias on Facebook seems to be a helluva lot like the "war on Christmas". Doesn't seem to exist, but I really really wish it did.