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Facebook to ban misinformation on voting in upcoming U.S. elections

reuters.com

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Re: Facebook to ban misinformation on voting in upcoming U.S. elections

#141

Post by s73v3r_ »

x220 wrote: post #35
s73v3r_ wrote: post #3

This is something that seriously needs to be clamped down on. It is outright fraud, plain and simple. And since it's being done with the intention of disenfranchising people, it is extremely evil.

Fraud requires financial gain. This is just lying. People are allowed to lie in this way, and you should not believe everything you read, particularly if it sounds very appealing, gets your emotions fired up, or seems to offer benefit without requiring any payment or responsibility.

"People are allowed to lie in this way"

No. I flat out reject the idea that people should be able to lie about the facts of when and where voting occurs for the purposes of disenfranchisement. That should be severely punished. That is not freedom of speech, that is again outright fraud.

Re: Facebook to ban misinformation on voting in upcoming U.S. elections

#142

Post by tombert »

kryogen1c wrote: post #115
x220 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You find it concerning because it's easy to abuse. The fact-checkers get to decide what is "true", and other Facebook users are unlikely to listen to you if you try and convince them that the fact-checkers are wrong.

Easy to abuse has nothing to do with it. Positioning anyone to be an information filter is wrong. Full stop. This is totalitarianism 101. It doesn't matter if they're right or wrong. Freedom isn't predicated on moral superiority - it is the polar opposite. Freedom is exactly for those who are "wrong". I cannot imagine a more dangerous position for Facebook to take.

I don't quite understand your argument; Facebook is a private corporation, and can regulate speech in any way they choose. It's not "totalitarianism 101"; if anything, it's a libertarian wet-dream of a corporation exercising their rights as they see fit.

Re: Facebook to ban misinformation on voting in upcoming U.S. elections

#143

Post by mattnewton »

masonic wrote: post #127
mattnewton wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope, I’m just disillusioned that everyone is as open as college you to new ideas and that we can simply go reach the people who don’t want to be reached. I suspect that the fact that you were taking chemistry in college means you were already in a very different state to receive new ideas compared with your average TV news viewer who is currently skeptical of climate change, and that difference is really important.…

people like Gore and Billy Nye are trying outreach Which becomes part of the problem. When your role model is a guy who flies private jets from conference to conference and had a $17,000+ per year utility bill for his home (and not so much as one solar panel when in office), it doesn't convey urgency very well.

No one can pass the purity test for skeptics because it isn’t about that. I’m convinced it’s about saving face for their tribe. I can’t think of a spokesperson skeptics would believe. Maybe Donald Trump saying he was wrong and something needs to be done on National TV would work?

Re: Facebook to ban misinformation on voting in upcoming U.S. elections

#144

Post by [deleted] »

tombert wrote: post #142
kryogen1c wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Easy to abuse has nothing to do with it. Positioning anyone to be an information filter is wrong. Full stop. This is totalitarianism 101. It doesn't matter if they're right or wrong. Freedom isn't predicated on moral superiority - it is the polar opposite. Freedom is exactly for those who are "wrong". I cannot imagine a more dangerous position for Facebook to take.

I don't quite understand your argument; Facebook is a private corporation, and can regulate speech in any way they choose. It's not "totalitarianism 101"; if anything, it's a libertarian wet-dream of a corporation exercising their rights as they see fit.

[deleted]

Re: Facebook to ban misinformation on voting in upcoming U.S. elections

#145

Post by throw2016 »

Facebook and Twitter are aggressively censoring alternative media and news sites that cover police brutality, political opinion and corruption. [1]

It's very strange to see these arbitrary and heavy handed actions not receiving the same outrage as possible censorship by Google in China, when they are in effect the same thing.

Clamping down on political opinion and activism ie dissent is censorship. The chinese do it directly without apology, we are using sophistry by using nebulous ministry of truth terms like 'fakenews', conspiracy and FUD to achieve the same ends.

[1] https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/10/tide-turning-regulat...

Re: Facebook to ban misinformation on voting in upcoming U.S. elections

#146

Post by beezischillin »

I'm not particularly happy that social media companies are deciding on tripling down on shady behaviour. They're always heavy-handed and go around banning, silencing and censoring even unrelated stuff. It's gotten to a point where people in my circle of friends are moving on to alternatives because they had enough of dealing with their private communications being scrutinised, dissected and used as a reason to censor them by very fallible bots. I understand the challenges and issues involved in this whole kerfuffle --- but in the end if your users are unhappy and leaving your service, you're failing on delivering on your promises.

I wish I was smart enough to think up an instant solution to this, but I'm not. All I know is that there has to be a better way out of this than just a black and white solution. Society should be able to develop a way to integrate social media into itself and use it non-destructively.

Re: Facebook to ban misinformation on voting in upcoming U.S. elections

#148

Post by krapp »

dnjdirjrmrf wrote: post #147

Who decides what is real or not? What is "misinformation" or not? Disturbing af

You're absolutely right... "dnjdirjrmrf"...

Objective reality doesn't exist, and there is no such thing as either misinformation or disinformation, and we should be frightened of anyone who tries to distinguish between them. Truth is lies and lies are truth.

Re: Facebook to ban misinformation on voting in upcoming U.S. elections

#149

Post by dnjdirjrmrf »

krapp wrote: post #148
dnjdirjrmrf wrote: post #147

Who decides what is real or not? What is "misinformation" or not? Disturbing af

You're absolutely right... "dnjdirjrmrf"... Objective reality doesn't exist, and there is no such thing as either misinformation or disinformation, and we should be frightened of anyone who tries to distinguish between them. Truth is lies and lies are truth.

Would you like your telephone company filtering your words to your friends and family based on what they define as "true"?

If I'm communicating with friends and colleagues and acquaintances, I do not need other people policing my speech

Re: Facebook to ban misinformation on voting in upcoming U.S. elections

#150

Post by thefounder »

chmln wrote: post #28
thefounder wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue with Facebook is that it's too easy for someone from Russia for example to place ads. I believe the established media doesn't run thousands of ads paid by thousands of unknown individuals.

I think it was just recently that China placed ads in the Des Moines Register, with reports of similar activity on the Times etc. https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/agriculture/20...

At least in that case Des Moines knew who paid for the ad. On FB there is no identity check(unless you consider credit/debit cards identity proof). Not to mention that you compare one ad with thousands on facebook. Facebook can't stop them even if it wants. The main reason is that the ads are too cheap to investigate properly. A bad actor can use multiple accounts. And when I say multiple I mean as many it wants. Times/Des Mines would not publish 100000 ads of 1$ each, each about Trump's policy(more or less) but facebook would do it.
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