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Facebook users in Romania see content related to street protests reviewed

business-review.eu

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Re: Facebook users in Romania see content related to street protests reviewed

#21

Post by thedevil »

rdtsc wrote: post #5

I was joking before and said that it is inevitable that Facebook, Google and Twitter will eventually sell SaaS (Silencing as a Service). But maybe it wasn't a joke after all... It is simply too tempting to not do it. They have information which the Stasis and KGBs of the past would kill for. One thing Romanian government should be careful with is not listening to protesters. That is at least one country where they ha…

> Occupy and anti-Trump protestors should study and learn how that works. You see to have effective peaceful protests, there has to be a credible threat of extreme and overwhelming violence that will follow unless the government listens. Government should be afraid of the people.

Please don't encourage violence.

The anti-Trumpers aren't fighting corruption, they're fighting democracy and their fellow citizens.

Note that I'm anti-Trump myself - I voted against him and find him to be an embarrassment. But that's no justification for putting on masks and beating up random people. Nor is it an excuse for encouraging others to do the same.

Re: Facebook users in Romania see content related to street protests reviewed

#22

Post by cat199 »

tudorconstantin wrote: post #14

As a Romanian what seems to happen is that a large group of supporters of the ruling party were coordinated in reporting the protests-related posts. I think facebook could easily implement an algorithm to detect reporting rings and actually suspending their member's accounts. Just like reddit is doing with the upvoting rings.

and what precisely is the difference between a 'reporting ring' and an 'activist group', algorithmically?

Re: Facebook users in Romania see content related to street protests reviewed

#23

Post by frandroid »

rdtsc wrote: post #5

I was joking before and said that it is inevitable that Facebook, Google and Twitter will eventually sell SaaS (Silencing as a Service). But maybe it wasn't a joke after all... It is simply too tempting to not do it. They have information which the Stasis and KGBs of the past would kill for. One thing Romanian government should be careful with is not listening to protesters. That is at least one country where they ha…

Facebook and Twitter routinely censor on behalf of repressive governments. But the joke is on Facebook and Twitter, as it is them which pay this price as the cost of doing business in these countries.

Re: Facebook users in Romania see content related to street protests reviewed

#24

Post by photonios »

Couldn't it be that the Romanian government (or someone who has an interest in this matter) is mass reporting these posts and users?

If I wanted to make someone shut up on Facebook; I'd write a bot that uses hundreds of fake Facebook accounts to report certain users. This would cause Facebook's automated systems to temporarily disable posting rights till they've had a chance to review the user in question. Eventually, Facebook's review teams would review the user and lift the block. But, usually there's a delay between reporting a user and Facebook 's review teams looking into it. Which is enough to shut up a user for a couple of hours.

Re: Facebook users in Romania see content related to street protests reviewed

#26

Post by flexie »

I chose to believe that this is a side-effect of facebook trying to combat fake news with some lame algorithms and an understaffed department of reviewers, not facebook actively trying to please the Romanian authorities.

But even so, this shows how utterly unprepared facebook is for its role as a de facto news business. A bunch of engineers thinking they are smarter than they actually are unwillingly facilitate the election of Trump, Brexit, genocide in Myanmar, and apparently the suppression of opposition in Romania. And who knows what.

At the end of the day, relying on a social network run by a bunch of college kids, with absolutely no editorial board, no knowledge of any of the news they show, no local presence anywhere, no income except what they generate on advertisement, and worst of all, an incentive and an ability to show every individual exactly the news he wants to read in order to keep his eyeballs for another ad, is a really bad for civilization.

But that's what we have.

Re: Facebook users in Romania see content related to street protests reviewed

#27

Post by aaron-lebo »

rdtsc wrote: post #5

I was joking before and said that it is inevitable that Facebook, Google and Twitter will eventually sell SaaS (Silencing as a Service). But maybe it wasn't a joke after all... It is simply too tempting to not do it. They have information which the Stasis and KGBs of the past would kill for. One thing Romanian government should be careful with is not listening to protesters. That is at least one country where they ha…

Occupy and anti-Trump protestors should study and learn how that works. You see to have effective peaceful protests, there has to be a credible threat of extreme and overwhelming violence that will follow unless the government listens. Government should be afraid of the people.

Those groups cannot begin to challenge the government with violence. What you are suggesting is much more likely to end up in an orgy of bloodshed with innocent people being the victims. It's time we evolve.

Re: Facebook users in Romania see content related to street protests reviewed

#28

Post by cat199 »

ccozan wrote: post #4

Proof that any technology has a double use. Once is good to filter spam/fake news, but in this case the fast spreading of the news is crucial for rallying people to a cause.

and isn't it surprising that anything that is anti-EU is 'spam/fake news' and that anything that is pro-EU is 'crucial for rallying people to a cause'..

Re: Facebook users in Romania see content related to street protests reviewed

#29

Post by mschuster91 »

thedevil wrote: post #21
rdtsc wrote: post #5

I was joking before and said that it is inevitable that Facebook, Google and Twitter will eventually sell SaaS (Silencing as a Service). But maybe it wasn't a joke after all... It is simply too tempting to not do it. They have information which the Stasis and KGBs of the past would kill for. One thing Romanian government should be careful with is not listening to protesters. That is at least one country where they ha…

> Occupy and anti-Trump protestors should study and learn how that works. You see to have effective peaceful protests, there has to be a credible threat of extreme and overwhelming violence that will follow unless the government listens. Government should be afraid of the people. Please don't encourage violence. The anti-Trumpers aren't fighting corruption, they're fighting democracy and their fellow citizens. Note t…

> But that's no justification for putting on masks and beating up random people. Nor is it an excuse for encouraging others to do the same.

The problem is, until those in powers are not afraid that their bodies will literally be dragged through the streets, they have no incentive to not do anything they need to stay in power. And the more authoritarian the rule of those in power is, the greater the desire of those not in power to pay back what they received - which means that the means those in power use to stay in power grow ever more brutal. Not nice, but that's the way it is.

Please also remember the inherent violence in the capitalist system - the richness of the rich is guaranteed by the threat of the police to arrest and the "justice" system to lock you up in case you dare to take something away from the rich.

I personally won't throw bricks at banks but I also will not distance myself from those who feel that this is an appropriate course of action.

Re: Facebook users in Romania see content related to street protests reviewed

#30

Post by drb91 »

thedevil wrote: post #21
rdtsc wrote: post #5

I was joking before and said that it is inevitable that Facebook, Google and Twitter will eventually sell SaaS (Silencing as a Service). But maybe it wasn't a joke after all... It is simply too tempting to not do it. They have information which the Stasis and KGBs of the past would kill for. One thing Romanian government should be careful with is not listening to protesters. That is at least one country where they ha…

> Occupy and anti-Trump protestors should study and learn how that works. You see to have effective peaceful protests, there has to be a credible threat of extreme and overwhelming violence that will follow unless the government listens. Government should be afraid of the people. Please don't encourage violence. The anti-Trumpers aren't fighting corruption, they're fighting democracy and their fellow citizens. Note t…

The idea that democracy already failed and americans are already serving oligarchs is more common than you might think.

It’s certainly difficult to see how anti-trump people are anti-democracy: the mechanism with which trump won is distinctly NOT democratic.

To some extent, democracy (and a republic to a far greater extent) only works because of fear of violence. This was discussed heavily in the early days of the republic (well, both the us and rome).

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