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Facebook is imposing American censorship on the rest of the world

telegraph.co.uk

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Re: Facebook is imposing American censorship on the rest of the world

#71

Post by soufron »

shiftpgdn wrote: post #2

If you don't like Facebook's actions then don't use it. Having open speech on Facebook's platform is not an inalienable right. I don't agree with Facebook's privacy policies and thus have deleted my account and use other platforms. This isn't difficult. This article is tantamount to saying "Woe is me, NYT won't publish my op-ed." and expecting anyone to take you seriously.

You could say the same for TV or Newspaper. Still, they have obligations.

People are not completely free to use or not use Facebook. The idea that people are autonomous in their choices is erroneous. Thus, the reason why it's fair to apply additional obligations to companies like Facebook.

Re: Facebook is imposing American censorship on the rest of the world

#72

Post by briandear »

mgleason_3 wrote: post #54

Americans are so bought into the idea that "explicit" images are bad that they can't see another viewpoint. Its become "natural". And, as the author pointed out, Americans are so blind to it that you don't even see the problem with censoring nipples but not beheadings. We literally cant see that noone should be injured by seeing a womans breast, but seeing a beheaded body - thats OK? Its interesting to see this story…

Show nipples in Asia or the U.K. It isn't just "Americans."

Re: Facebook is imposing American censorship on the rest of the world

#73

Post by throwanem »

renaudg wrote: post #59
throwanem wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FSF has a lot of problems, too, like an unresolved contradiction in its rhetoric between claimed populism ("everyone can be free!") and evident elitism ("but if you don't choose to act in exactly the way we promote, to hell with you!") I thought hard about joining, but I'm not comfortable with endorsing such a contradictory and self-defeating stance. I don't see why you should be embarrassed to use Facebook et cetera…

GNU legacy aside, I see RMS as a sort of extreme moral compass whose views and principles are an important contribution to a number of conversations, but anyone would be insane to actually try and live by them.

I find I feel rather the opposite - that while Dr. Stallman's technical accomplishments are meritorious in the extreme (especially to a longtime Emacs user like me!), his principles are so uncompromising and lacking in subtlety that they do more to polarize a discussion than the converse. Such, at least, has been my experience.

Re: Facebook is imposing American censorship on the rest of the world

#74

Post by laurent123456 »

equalarrow wrote: post #18

I don't get why this is such an issue. I understand the sheer numbers of people that use fb and get their 'news' from it, but it amazes me that people are shocked that fb censors the content. Facebook never claimed to be a news organization nor part of the 5th estate (which, pretty much doesn't exist). So that being the case, I would never expect fb to be a partner for democracy. Just because some recent revolutions…

Exactly, when we use Facebook, we basically make a deal with them - we surrender a part of our freedom (of speech mostly) in exchange for the convenience and entertainment that FB provides.

If people are no longer happy with this deal, they are free to look for alternatives, but instead prefer to complain about censorship. It's like going on vacation to England and complaining about the rain.

Re: Facebook is imposing American censorship on the rest of the world

#75

Post by k-mcgrady »

mtgx wrote: post #58

Twitter is just as bad, if not worse. Take yesterday for instance. The Hillary health issue EXPLODED on Reddit and other places within 2h. And I saw single tweets with multiple thousand retweets on Twitter as well. But not single trending topic on Twitter about the incident the whole day. There's NO WAY none of those hashtags weren't eligible for trending. Twitter has been caught doing it before, but I think yesterda…

As someone standing on the outside looking in you're definitely letting conspiracy theories get the best of you. BBC had an article up while she was still in her daughters house and had a video of her fainting not long after. As did most 'main stream media' sources. I can't speak for Twitter's trending system but mainstream media had the facts up very quickly.

Re: Facebook is imposing American censorship on the rest of the world

#76

Post by chippy »

tehwalrus wrote: post #27

It hurts my brain when people describe censorship as "liberalism". Especially fellow Brits.

Agreed. It's not Liberalism at all - if anything, from the article, thinking about this on a global scale - it's a cross between a Silicon Valley tech mindset, American puritanism, and the current flavour of rich, white, university educated politically correct behaviour. In short it means an odd mixture of whats allowed and not which the article talks about, but it's nothing to do with liberalism.

edits: I think it's cultural privilege. Americans have the privilege as being the most powerful western culture and literally cannot see others that with less power should have some of that influence.

Re: Facebook is imposing American censorship on the rest of the world

#77

Post by lawless123 »

mgleason_3 wrote: post #54

Americans are so bought into the idea that "explicit" images are bad that they can't see another viewpoint. Its become "natural". And, as the author pointed out, Americans are so blind to it that you don't even see the problem with censoring nipples but not beheadings. We literally cant see that noone should be injured by seeing a womans breast, but seeing a beheaded body - thats OK? Its interesting to see this story…

Thought this the other day, was watching that Hannibal TV series. Didn't see one nipple but a few people torn to pieces. Intestines hanging out and person cut into slices and displayed in glass are ok.

Re: Facebook is imposing American censorship on the rest of the world

#78

Post by weberc2 »

mgleason_3 wrote: post #54

Americans are so bought into the idea that "explicit" images are bad that they can't see another viewpoint. Its become "natural". And, as the author pointed out, Americans are so blind to it that you don't even see the problem with censoring nipples but not beheadings. We literally cant see that noone should be injured by seeing a womans breast, but seeing a beheaded body - thats OK? Its interesting to see this story…

I'm an American, and as far as I can tell, beheadings are at least as controversial as nudity. I wouldn't put much stock in the LA Times either; lots of very biased reporting.

EDIT: There seems to be some confusion as to whether we're talking about actual beheadings (e.g., ISIS videos) or theatrical violence. My previous statement pertains to the former context; I don't dispute that fictitious violence in America is less controversial than in other parts of the world.

Re: Facebook is imposing American censorship on the rest of the world

#79

Post by lorenzhs »

briandear wrote: post #72
mgleason_3 wrote: post #54

Americans are so bought into the idea that "explicit" images are bad that they can't see another viewpoint. Its become "natural". And, as the author pointed out, Americans are so blind to it that you don't even see the problem with censoring nipples but not beheadings. We literally cant see that noone should be injured by seeing a womans breast, but seeing a beheaded body - thats OK? Its interesting to see this story…

Show nipples in Asia or the U.K. It isn't just "Americans."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Page_3

Re: Facebook is imposing American censorship on the rest of the world

#80

Post by chippy »

briandear wrote: post #70
mgleason_3 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But, thats exactly the point. Americans are so bought into the idea that "explicit" images are bad that they can't see another viewpoint. Its become "natural". And, as the author pointed out, Americans are so blind to it that you don't even see the problem with censoring nipples but not beheadings. You literally cant see that noone should be injured by seeing a womans breast, but seeing a beheaded body could. Its int…

Americans? How about the British, Mexico, Singapore, China, Japan, Korea, every country in the Middle East except Israel? Then you have a German freak out over even talking about Nazis. Almost every country has some hang up or another. Suggesting that 'Americans' have a fear of nipples is short sighted. Every culture has something that causes a collective freakout.

The difference (that mgleason_3 was saying) is that Americans cannot see that other's have different viewpoints. Other countries are able to see that others have different viewpoints and can justify their own decisions in comparison with others.

It's why, for example, they are often puzzled when abroad and note that "some people don't like us Americans" and cannot find out why.

I have noticed this particular way of looking at the world with many Americans when working in global collaborative tech projects - it's a kind of imperialism - a built in sense that their way of looking at the world is the only way. It seems to be a common thing, and not everywhere. It also has the characteristic that those with that mindset are unaware about it.

There are many exceptions of course, and the most successful people are able to work with people from other cultures. But I believe this is what the article and mgleason_3 is trying to say.

If you'd like another metaphor to explain the theory: Privilege. Americans have a privilege as the "top" culture which makes them blind to others below them.

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