Social media and Censorship

[bitchstewie]

Quite interesting I thought, never used Facebook so can't really say how true it may be:

http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/05/the-internets-w...

[Jasandjules]

If you believe what some people say, Wikipedia and all sorts including google searches are "adjusted" and censored..

Just for an example, try to find anti AGW information......

[MG CHRIS]

Its very much true several right wing news outlets are being censored on faccebook and twitter. Heck even a mate of mine for banned from facebook for trolling a facebook group called and im not kidding jihadist against the uk. So posting a few pics of bacon is demed a ban but a group called jihadist against the uk is allowed just shows what is going on in the world.

[Countdown]

Jasandjules said:

If you believe what some people say, Wikipedia and all sorts including google searches are "adjusted" and censored..

Just for an example, try to find anti AGW information......

If you google "Anti Global Warming" it brings up lots of tinfoil hattery threads.....

[rohrl]

I'm not on Facebook but I have heard lots of people complaining about receiving unwanted material from groups such as Britain First and the EDL, which doesn't sound very left-wing to me.

Secondly, I'm not exactly sure why anyone should think that Facebook should have an obligation to be even-handed in their politics. Other private sector news outlets and media organisations have their own political slants and biases so if, for the sake of argument, Facebook does have a left-leaning ethos what is wrong with that?

[Digitalize]

rohrl said:

I'm not on Facebook but I have heard lots of people complaining about receiving unwanted material from groups such as Britain First and the EDL, which doesn't sound very left-wing to me.

That will be down to friends liking and sharing their posts.

[rohrl]

Digitalize said:

rohrl said:

I'm not on Facebook but I have heard lots of people complaining about receiving unwanted material from groups such as Britain First and the EDL, which doesn't sound very left-wing to me.

That will be down to friends liking and sharing their posts.

That may be true, as I say I'm not on Facebook so I don't know exactly how it works. It does show however that these quite extreme right wing messages are not being censored.

[Digitalize]

I haven't noticed any sort of bias, most of the left wing stuff I see is from a few friends, and more often than not it's satire, which obviously does well.

[Jonesy23]

rohrl said:

I'm not on Facebook but I have heard lots of people complaining about receiving unwanted material from groups such as Britain First and the EDL, which doesn't sound very left-wing to me.

Secondly, I'm not exactly sure why anyone should think that Facebook should have an obligation to be even-handed in their politics. Other private sector news outlets and media organisations have their own political slants and biases so if, for the sake of argument, Facebook does have a left-leaning ethos what is wrong with that?

If you're supplying what you present as a straight news feed with a summary of the latest major stories it should be balanced and cover all the major stories.

If you're going to skop stuff that doesn't agree with your politics then you should be open about your bias.

If I look at the Guardian or Daily Mail or Mirror their politics are known before you see how they cover things. If I go to Facebook they don't go out of their way to sell themselves as California liberal or that their site will reflect the world with this bias.

Facebook are also one of the only sites I know of to have previously admitted to running experiments on their users to influence views and emotions by what they present in terms of news and posts so the filtering should be viewed with that thinking in mind.

[chris watton]

I must admit that I have never even thought about any bias on FB - but that's probably because me and people on my friends list are not at all overtly political (in any direction)

I do have one nutter US friend who keeps posting Jesus stuff, though, which is a tad cringe-worthy..

[Jasandjules]

Countdown said:

If you google "Anti Global Warming" it brings up lots of tinfoil hattery threads.....

Exactly, whereas there is a great deal of accurate research that undermines and utterly discredits the bull***t. And mysteriously a lack of all the lies, deceipt, destruction and manipulation of data etc..

As to facebook, there is an awful lot of arrogant left wing anti trump stuff - I saw one the other day saying that the US ought to concerned about a deficient education system that leads to people wanting to vote Trump...

[Countdown]

Jasandjules said:

Exactly, whereas there is a great deal of accurate research that undermines and utterly discredits the bull***t. And mysteriously a lack of all the lies, deceipt, destruction and manipulation of data etc..

How have you decided which bits are accurate and which bits are bull***t?

[Jasandjules]

Countdown said:

How have you decided which bits are accurate and which bits are bull***t?

Ah, well anything that claims that we are all going to die etc due to CO2 is bull**t. That much is self evident from basic physics...

[rscott]

Jasandjules said:

Countdown said:

If you google "Anti Global Warming" it brings up lots of tinfoil hattery threads.....

Exactly, whereas there is a great deal of accurate research that undermines and utterly discredits the bull***t. And mysteriously a lack of all the lies, deceipt, destruction and manipulation of data etc..

As to facebook, there is an awful lot of arrogant left wing anti trump stuff - I saw one the other day saying that the US ought to concerned about a deficient education system that leads to people wanting to vote Trump...

Thought that particular quote was quite clever and no worse than a lot of the pro-Trump content on FB.

A bigger concern to me is their lack of reaction to posts which are violent and racist/Islamaphobic. Typical comments on Britain First articles regularly call for violence toward Muslims and refugees, yet FB almost never removes them when reported. I've even seen examples where groups like Exposie Britain First post screen captures of BF posts and those captures and reported and removed by FB as condoning violence but the original post remains.

[Halb]

chris watton said:

I must admit that I have never even thought about any bias on FB - but that's probably because me and people on my friends list are not at all overtly political (in any direction)

I do have one nutter US friend who keeps posting Jesus stuff, though, which is a tad cringe-worthy..

Sorry to hear about your friend.

[chris watton]

Halb said:

Sorry to hear about your friend.

I don't mind so much, TBH, each to their own and all that. There's always the 'Hide Post' option, anyway..

[danllama]

Interesting article but not beyond questioning itself.

Trending on faceballs tonight, on my right bar, is the story 'Last Whites of the East End'. Quite a risky one, with the state of immigration in this country and especially London. So, is somebody being sacked, or is there someone with an agenda allowing this to trend? It certainly caught my eye, being an East Londoner who was moved out to Essex by my white parents.

Anyway, as with all things online, don't rely on one place, or even five places, for your news.

[chris watton]

danllama said:

Interesting article but not beyond questioning itself.

Trending on faceballs tonight, on my right bar, is the story 'Last Whites of the East End'. Quite a risky one, with the state of immigration in this country and especially London. So, is somebody being sacked, or is there someone with an agenda allowing this to trend? It certainly caught my eye, being an East Londoner who was moved out to Essex by my white parents.

Anyway, as with all things online, don't rely on one place, or even five places, for your news.

I think that's actually the title of a BBC programme, to be aired.

[danllama]

chris watton said:

I think that's actually the title of a BBC programme, to be aired.

Yes I forgot to add that, but still interesting that it's been 'allowed' to appear there. Promoted, if you will.

[The Don of Croy]

Article is paywalled?

However, it may dovetail with the grauniad's 'The Web We Want' campaign, which is using the abuse angle (which in their methodology is overwhelmingly aimed at minorities and/or females) to rally support for web policing, getting Mrs Balls in tow too;

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/apr/20/yv...

Expect an end to the 'free web' within a decade...