9 ms·

How the 'Stop the Steal' movement outwitted Facebook ahead of Jan. 6

43 points by gigama 5y ago

jimbob45 5y ago
"Evaded" monitors. If Facebook were to censor anything related to election security prematurely, the conspiracy theorists would never let them live it down. This was purposeful and the right move on the part of FB.
- Daishiman 5y ago
  Why? It's evident that conspiracy theorists just want to believe in the paranoid fantasies at any cost. They don't reject disproven theories; they don't admit to being wrong. They're not interested in the real, existing conspiracies that have been well-documented but are boring or require technical expertise to understand. When these people lose the ability to think with nuance and show no regards towards reality, whether FB is the evil entity they think it is, or it's not, becomes completely irrelevant. And given that deplatforming has been shown to work because people look for outrage rather than reason and that outrage is fueled by the content put in front of readers, from a pragmatist's point of view the censoring doesn't seem to bad.
  - steve76 5y ago
    A week to count the votes. No signature requirements. Mass mailing empty ballots. A year of riots A year of lock downs due to a foreign bio-weapon Two impeachments from corrupt federal police If Dick Cheney did all of that, how would it make you feel?
literallyaduck 5y ago
"So ahead of the election, the company tried to stop suggesting users join groups it thought they might be interested in" wouldn't it be ironic if the way the party in power took down Facebook was for meddling in the election prior to the events of the 6th. Edit: To the question of illegal vs unethical: Undeclared contributions via services, and attempting to conceal the same donations would likely be considered illegal. https://www.fec.gov/help-candidates-and-committees/making-disbursements-pac/making-kind-contributions-candidates/ https://www.fec.gov/help-candidates-and-committees/making-di...
- amanaplanacanal 5y ago
  Well, you would first have to show that what they did was illegal. I have no idea under what legal theory you could do that.
bingohbangoh 5y ago
"Jan. 6 insurrection" Ever wonder if this whole thing is politically motivated to make sure anybody remotely conservative can't talk on Facebook? "Insurrection" is monstrously strong language to call something whose worst legal offense is illegal parading. [0] [0]: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/jail-sentence-capitol-riot-misdemeanor-defendant/2021/09/28/118fe992-1d46-11ec-a99a-5fea2b2da34b_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/jail-sente...
- mminer237 5y ago
  You cite the conviction of a couple "low-level" people who only trespassing, but there were certainly people who were violent. Multiple people died. They threatened to kill the vice president and members of congress. If they weren't stopped, surely government officials would have died. It might be a strong word, but I don't think it is entirely unwarranted.
  - bingohbangoh 5y ago
    The only pending legal charges and accusations are, at worst, the illegal parading. That's seriously it.
    - NikolaeVarius 5y ago
      "parading" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChLoiStjaZc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChLoiStjaZc
    - kenjackson 5y ago
      This table shows arrests and charges worse than that: https://www.insider.com/all-the-us-capitol-pro-trump-riot-arrests-charges-names-2021-1 https://www.insider.com/all-the-us-capitol-pro-trump-riot-ar... Just on the first of 86 pages there are several worse than what you site.
    - mminer237 5y ago
      That's just not true. Many have been charged with theft, disorderly conduct, assault, and obstruction of an official proceeding: https://www.insider.com/all-the-us-capitol-pro-trump-riot-arrests-charges-names-2021-1 https://www.insider.com/all-the-us-capitol-pro-trump-riot-ar... Most are understandably still pending.
cmattoon 5y ago
Verified-and-approved "whistleblower" says what?

43 points by gigama 5y ago

"Evaded" monitors. If Facebook were to censor anything related to election security prematurely, the conspiracy theorists would never let them live it down. This was purposeful and the right move on the part of FB.

Daishiman 5y ago
Why? It's evident that conspiracy theorists just want to believe in the paranoid fantasies at any cost. They don't reject disproven theories; they don't admit to being wrong. They're not interested in the real, existing conspiracies that have been well-documented but are boring or require technical expertise to understand. When these people lose the ability to think with nuance and show no regards towards reality, whether FB is the evil entity they think it is, or it's not, becomes completely irrelevant. And given that deplatforming has been shown to work because people look for outrage rather than reason and that outrage is fueled by the content put in front of readers, from a pragmatist's point of view the censoring doesn't seem to bad.
- steve76 5y ago
  A week to count the votes. No signature requirements. Mass mailing empty ballots. A year of riots A year of lock downs due to a foreign bio-weapon Two impeachments from corrupt federal police If Dick Cheney did all of that, how would it make you feel?

literallyaduck 5y ago

"So ahead of the election, the company tried to stop suggesting users join groups it thought they might be interested in" wouldn't it be ironic if the way the party in power took down Facebook was for meddling in the election prior to the events of the 6th. Edit: To the question of illegal vs unethical: Undeclared contributions via services, and attempting to conceal the same donations would likely be considered illegal. https://www.fec.gov/help-candidates-and-committees/making-disbursements-pac/making-kind-contributions-candidates/ https://www.fec.gov/help-candidates-and-committees/making-di...

amanaplanacanal 5y ago
Well, you would first have to show that what they did was illegal. I have no idea under what legal theory you could do that.

bingohbangoh 5y ago

"Jan. 6 insurrection" Ever wonder if this whole thing is politically motivated to make sure anybody remotely conservative can't talk on Facebook? "Insurrection" is monstrously strong language to call something whose worst legal offense is illegal parading. [0] [0]: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/jail-sentence-capitol-riot-misdemeanor-defendant/2021/09/28/118fe992-1d46-11ec-a99a-5fea2b2da34b_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/jail-sente...

mminer237 5y ago
You cite the conviction of a couple "low-level" people who only trespassing, but there were certainly people who were violent. Multiple people died. They threatened to kill the vice president and members of congress. If they weren't stopped, surely government officials would have died. It might be a strong word, but I don't think it is entirely unwarranted.
- bingohbangoh 5y ago
  The only pending legal charges and accusations are, at worst, the illegal parading. That's seriously it.
  - NikolaeVarius 5y ago
    "parading" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChLoiStjaZc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChLoiStjaZc
  - kenjackson 5y ago
    This table shows arrests and charges worse than that: https://www.insider.com/all-the-us-capitol-pro-trump-riot-arrests-charges-names-2021-1 https://www.insider.com/all-the-us-capitol-pro-trump-riot-ar... Just on the first of 86 pages there are several worse than what you site.
  - mminer237 5y ago
    That's just not true. Many have been charged with theft, disorderly conduct, assault, and obstruction of an official proceeding: https://www.insider.com/all-the-us-capitol-pro-trump-riot-arrests-charges-names-2021-1 https://www.insider.com/all-the-us-capitol-pro-trump-riot-ar... Most are understandably still pending.

cmattoon 5y ago

Verified-and-approved "whistleblower" says what?