4 ms·

Facebook to end special treatment for politicians after Trump ban – report

38 points by shivbhatt 5y ago

foolzcrow 5y ago
Only authoritarians support censorship. Kneel down and kiss the hand that feeds you cowards.
hypnoscripto 5y ago
My hope is that Facebook’s censorship grows and grows in scope. Less free speech on facebook means less total speech on Facebook. That makes the world a better place, IMO.
- decremental 5y ago
  This probably won't have the effect you're hoping for. It'll probably just mean that progressive politicians will get away with saying the most racist shit you can imagine and conservative politicians being banned for saying abortion is murder. Facebook has been a little better than most other platforms when it comes to how they apply their moderation though so I'm willing to give them a chance.
  - sarabad2021 5y ago
    Remember, the tech workers coding the algorithms that enable these censorship biases are reading HN and I don't think they like reading comments that counter their ideology. Hence downvotes with no comments or justification.
  - Jordrok 5y ago
    Only if you live in that alternate reality where somehow conservatives are being singled out and censored purely for being conservative, which has always been an absurd bit of victomhood fanfiction.
  - ashtonkem 5y ago
    I genuinely don’t know why conservatives keep acting like FB is so hostile to them, when conservative voices seem to be extremely successful on FB. Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire regularly takes several spots in the top ten most shared posts of the week.
- twobitshifter 5y ago
  If the free speech is replaced by only corporate approved speech - I don’t think it will be a better place. I’ve heard that Facebook was banning/suspending people for discussions of the covid lab leak until last week. If the lack of speech gets people to leave Facebook altogether, it’s a positive for those people, but for the ones left in the echo chamber it’s definitely a negative.
  - krapp 5y ago
    Facebook was never a free speech platform - if the definition of "free speech" is "no moderation" or even "moderation only of strictly illegal content." No popular social media platform is (because most people want some degree of moderation), except possibly 4chan, and even they have their limits.
    - twobitshifter 5y ago
      I (gp) agree and would go further, there’s limits to free speech everywhere online and off. What the ggp was saying was that further limitations to speech are welcome. The level of speech control that changes from moderation to controlling the public narrative is what I caution against - and with the lab leak policy Facebook was already there.
      - krapp 5y ago
        I don't believe that Facebook or any social media platform actually controls the public narrative in any meaningful sense, that argument is often overplayed to serve a politically motivated scare-narrative about a vast leftist conspiracy controlling the media. Facebook certainly couldn't do much about the public narrative in regards to lab-leak theories about COVID even when they banned it from their platform.
- nradov 5y ago
  As a Facebook user I don't care about free speech there. It would be fine with me if they banned all political content and only allowed users to post pictures of their pets and kids or whatever. We have plenty of other platforms for political speech.
  - jfengel 5y ago
    I would happily sign up for that. I've spent a fair bit of effort trying to cull political content from my facebook feed, and that includes subscribing to a fair number of cute kitties and art to dilute it. Social media is how I kill time. I don't want it to make me upset, and even the political content from those I agree with tends to be pretty upsetting. (Much of it is poorly reasoned even when the conclusions are right and the intentions are kind. As opposed to the stuff which is actively cruel and stupid, which gets one blocked from my feed on the first offense.)
  - avgDev 5y ago
    I am kind of thinking about trying to write an alternative to fb, that would not allow any links. Only comments and family photos. I would really likefb without all the annoying stuff and people constantly sharing memes, IDC. I just want to see how family/friends are doing and what they are up to with their families/friends.
ashtonkem 5y ago
That’s probably for the best; platforms are better when they have as uniform as rules as is practically possible. Creating a special cutout for special people opens the door up for abuse. Next FB needs to invest heavily in enforcement, so that breaches of the rules result in consistent rather than uneven treatment.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
gruez 5y ago
But what about special treatment for the incumbent party[1]? [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26830042 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26830042
propter_hoc 5y ago
Here's the Verge article that this Reuters article quotes, but does not link: https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/3/22474738/facebook-ending-political-figure-exemption-moderation-policy https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/3/22474738/facebook-ending-p...
andyxor 5y ago
I'm sure the next president will be republican and hopefully Trump runs again as he will win. People are tired of pseudoliberals' bullying, censorship and propaganda, not to mention the rising crime wave, inflation and horrible policies. Facebook blocking free speech won't help the dems this time.
fuzzylightbulb 5y ago
The overwhelming amount of political speech that happens on FB is not driven by politicians, but is primarily media personalities https://twitter.com/FacebooksTop10 https://twitter.com/FacebooksTop10 It cracks me up that the same people who top these lists day after day are also the ones that constantly claim to be silenced and/or oppressed. A grifters gotta grift, I guess.
- ashtonkem 5y ago
  “I’m being silenced” seems to be the 21st century equivalent of “They don’t want you to hear the truth”.
skepepepe12 5y ago
Seems that people want to be sponsored and shadow banned. There is alternatives. But still people are using fb.. Can't understand..

38 points by shivbhatt 5y ago

Only authoritarians support censorship. Kneel down and kiss the hand that feeds you cowards.

My hope is that Facebook’s censorship grows and grows in scope. Less free speech on facebook means less total speech on Facebook. That makes the world a better place, IMO.

decremental 5y ago
This probably won't have the effect you're hoping for. It'll probably just mean that progressive politicians will get away with saying the most racist shit you can imagine and conservative politicians being banned for saying abortion is murder. Facebook has been a little better than most other platforms when it comes to how they apply their moderation though so I'm willing to give them a chance.
- sarabad2021 5y ago
  Remember, the tech workers coding the algorithms that enable these censorship biases are reading HN and I don't think they like reading comments that counter their ideology. Hence downvotes with no comments or justification.
- Jordrok 5y ago
  Only if you live in that alternate reality where somehow conservatives are being singled out and censored purely for being conservative, which has always been an absurd bit of victomhood fanfiction.
- ashtonkem 5y ago
  I genuinely don’t know why conservatives keep acting like FB is so hostile to them, when conservative voices seem to be extremely successful on FB. Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire regularly takes several spots in the top ten most shared posts of the week.
twobitshifter 5y ago
If the free speech is replaced by only corporate approved speech - I don’t think it will be a better place. I’ve heard that Facebook was banning/suspending people for discussions of the covid lab leak until last week. If the lack of speech gets people to leave Facebook altogether, it’s a positive for those people, but for the ones left in the echo chamber it’s definitely a negative.
- krapp 5y ago
  Facebook was never a free speech platform - if the definition of "free speech" is "no moderation" or even "moderation only of strictly illegal content." No popular social media platform is (because most people want some degree of moderation), except possibly 4chan, and even they have their limits.
  - twobitshifter 5y ago
    I (gp) agree and would go further, there’s limits to free speech everywhere online and off. What the ggp was saying was that further limitations to speech are welcome. The level of speech control that changes from moderation to controlling the public narrative is what I caution against - and with the lab leak policy Facebook was already there.
    - krapp 5y ago
      I don't believe that Facebook or any social media platform actually controls the public narrative in any meaningful sense, that argument is often overplayed to serve a politically motivated scare-narrative about a vast leftist conspiracy controlling the media. Facebook certainly couldn't do much about the public narrative in regards to lab-leak theories about COVID even when they banned it from their platform.
nradov 5y ago
As a Facebook user I don't care about free speech there. It would be fine with me if they banned all political content and only allowed users to post pictures of their pets and kids or whatever. We have plenty of other platforms for political speech.
- jfengel 5y ago
  I would happily sign up for that. I've spent a fair bit of effort trying to cull political content from my facebook feed, and that includes subscribing to a fair number of cute kitties and art to dilute it. Social media is how I kill time. I don't want it to make me upset, and even the political content from those I agree with tends to be pretty upsetting. (Much of it is poorly reasoned even when the conclusions are right and the intentions are kind. As opposed to the stuff which is actively cruel and stupid, which gets one blocked from my feed on the first offense.)
- avgDev 5y ago
  I am kind of thinking about trying to write an alternative to fb, that would not allow any links. Only comments and family photos. I would really likefb without all the annoying stuff and people constantly sharing memes, IDC. I just want to see how family/friends are doing and what they are up to with their families/friends.

ashtonkem 5y ago

That’s probably for the best; platforms are better when they have as uniform as rules as is practically possible. Creating a special cutout for special people opens the door up for abuse. Next FB needs to invest heavily in enforcement, so that breaches of the rules result in consistent rather than uneven treatment.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

gruez 5y ago

But what about special treatment for the incumbent party[1]? [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26830042 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26830042

propter_hoc 5y ago

Here's the Verge article that this Reuters article quotes, but does not link: https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/3/22474738/facebook-ending-political-figure-exemption-moderation-policy https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/3/22474738/facebook-ending-p...

andyxor 5y ago

I'm sure the next president will be republican and hopefully Trump runs again as he will win. People are tired of pseudoliberals' bullying, censorship and propaganda, not to mention the rising crime wave, inflation and horrible policies. Facebook blocking free speech won't help the dems this time.

fuzzylightbulb 5y ago

The overwhelming amount of political speech that happens on FB is not driven by politicians, but is primarily media personalities https://twitter.com/FacebooksTop10 https://twitter.com/FacebooksTop10 It cracks me up that the same people who top these lists day after day are also the ones that constantly claim to be silenced and/or oppressed. A grifters gotta grift, I guess.

ashtonkem 5y ago
“I’m being silenced” seems to be the 21st century equivalent of “They don’t want you to hear the truth”.

skepepepe12 5y ago

Seems that people want to be sponsored and shadow banned. There is alternatives. But still people are using fb.. Can't understand..