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Facebook says it has removed promotion of anti-quarantine events

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Re: Facebook says it has removed promotion of anti-quarantine events

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the government suppressing speech by proxy. Even if it survives legal review, this harms the spirit of the Bill of Rights, which is incorporated against the States. Voters should reply in November with their ballots as appropriate.

And forcing Facebook to publish points of view they disagree with doesn't harm the Bill of Rights?

Of course not. Facebook is a corporation; people are what have rights.

Re: Facebook says it has removed promotion of anti-quarantine events

#52

It's worth noting that there is a lot of discussion in serious circles (including here on HN) about the balance between too much and not enough with respect to quarantine, lockdown, etc., both in terms of where we are now and what we should do in the near future. I see little reason to doubt that all involved are trying to minimize general death and misery, even if they may disagree radically about how to do that. It…

I agree. Regardless of your opinions, overreactions by authorities can breed extremists. The typical profile of a “freedom fighter” is somebody who first sees their future group being treated “unfairly,” eg by watching a peaceful protest broken up violently. That’s sort of when the indoctrination begins.

Re: Facebook says it has removed promotion of anti-quarantine events

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And forcing Facebook to publish points of view they disagree with doesn't harm the Bill of Rights?

Of course not. Facebook is a corporation; people are what have rights.

So Facebook is an organization of what, robots?

Are you OK with similar rights being stripped from your hometown newspaper on the grounds that they are a "corporation", despite the explicit specification of the press as a protected entity in the First Amendment?

Re: Facebook says it has removed promotion of anti-quarantine events

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should know that this is not a grass root movement rather someone astroturfing. https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/04/whos-behind-the-reopen-d... https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/salvadorhernandez/coron... Also take a look at this Reddit comment https://www.reddit.com/r/maryland/comments/g3niq3/comment/fn... If you don't trust BuzzFeed you can go look at the domain registration information for open[enter state…

No, it's a guy in Florida who went through and parked a bunch of domains with the same pattern. Maybe because he believed in the cause, and maybe because he wanted to make a few quick bucks. "Astroturfing" would be when paid shills or robots spam FCC comment boards. It's not astroturfing when thousands of genuine supporters of a cause show up at a protest, whether or not there is coordination (surprise, all protests…

Did you even read the links I posted?

Re: Facebook says it has removed promotion of anti-quarantine events

#55

These are Americans exercising their constitutional rights to freedom of speech and assembly. Whether you agree with the protestors or not is irrelevant. Your rights are impacted, too, by this arbitrary platform bias. This cannot stand for long. We have to move away from centralized monopolies on the web.

You should know that this is not a grass root movement rather someone astroturfing. https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/04/whos-behind-the-reopen-d... https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/salvadorhernandez/coron... Also take a look at this Reddit comment https://www.reddit.com/r/maryland/comments/g3niq3/comment/fn... If you don't trust BuzzFeed you can go look at the domain registration information for open[enter state…

This is not astroturfing. I saw the protest in Austin this weekend. 22 million people have been laid off in the last 4 weeks. I've seen the footage of tens of thousands lining up at food banks across the country. This is just getting started.

Re: Facebook says it has removed promotion of anti-quarantine events

#56
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to account for positive second order effects, e.g. reduced deaths from pollution. That pushes "extremely doubtful" firmly into "we can't even guess if quarantine will be a net plus or minus" in the 2020 death rate. It also heavily depends on how long quarantine goes on for -- would the mortality rates be changed from a 1 year recession? Or would it take many years?

People don't just drop dead upon becoming unemployed. It's just a higher per year mortality rate. Also, economic destruction is not necessarily temporary. A very large number of industries, companies and communities will be permanently wiped out from this.

How do we know the higher per year mortality rate from poverty will exceed the lower death rate from reduced pollution, reduced car accidents, etc? It's not clear how these balance.

There are also industries growing, and industries that will be created. And some of the industries that may be permanently eliminated may be a net positive -- cruise lines are a complete blight.

I don't know what the net-net will look like, but it's important to push back on the assumption that economic downfall will be all negative in terms of lives lost.

Re: Facebook says it has removed promotion of anti-quarantine events

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This entire comment is a strawman. This is not the same as "arbitrary platform bias". This is not Facebook saying "we have a certain political view and we talked to the government and they agreed so no other views are acceptable". This is them stopping stupid people from killing a lot of other people. Also, your rights aren't affected. This is Facebook telling stupid people to shut up and stop spreading fud that coul…

> not the government breaking up peaceful and legal assemblies But the government is breaking up peaceful and legal assemblies. While I don't have the article handy, there have been arrests over the past few days for refusing to leave. As for "legal" - the First Amendment is very clear on this matter. The federal government (and through the incorporation doctrine, the governments of the several states) is specificall…

The Federal Government is granted these powers through federal statute, the Commerce Clause within the Constitution, and executive order of POTUS.

Also:

> In addition to serving as medical functions, isolation and quarantine also are “police power” functions, derived from the right of the state to take action affecting individuals for the benefit of society.

https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/specificlawsregulations.html

https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/aboutlawsregulationsquarantin...

Re: Facebook says it has removed promotion of anti-quarantine events

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should know that this is not a grass root movement rather someone astroturfing. https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/04/whos-behind-the-reopen-d... https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/salvadorhernandez/coron... Also take a look at this Reddit comment https://www.reddit.com/r/maryland/comments/g3niq3/comment/fn... If you don't trust BuzzFeed you can go look at the domain registration information for open[enter state…

No, it's a guy in Florida who went through and parked a bunch of domains with the same pattern. Maybe because he believed in the cause, and maybe because he wanted to make a few quick bucks. "Astroturfing" would be when paid shills or robots spam FCC comment boards. It's not astroturfing when thousands of genuine supporters of a cause show up at a protest, whether or not there is coordination (surprise, all protests…

Read the Krebs link. Follow the Florida guy's phone number...

Re: Facebook says it has removed promotion of anti-quarantine events

#59

These are Americans exercising their constitutional rights to freedom of speech and assembly. Whether you agree with the protestors or not is irrelevant. Your rights are impacted, too, by this arbitrary platform bias. This cannot stand for long. We have to move away from centralized monopolies on the web.

This is a bogus argument. The protestors are advocating for behavior that will literally kill people, including medical personnel. The protesters are no different than those who call for deadly riots or civil war. They deserve to be shut down for jeopardizing public health and safety.

Their behavior would almost seems equivalent to "yelling fire in a movie theater".

Re: Facebook says it has removed promotion of anti-quarantine events

#60
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where's the government in this? The government isn't forcing Facebook's hand.

The government can be forcing Facebook's hand by making Facebook fearful of being investigated, fined, broken up, etc if they are found to have allowed manipulation of the 2020 election in any way, and the coronavirus and related topics have become unfortunately intertwined in that.

Huh? If any forcing is going on -- which there isn't -- they would presumably be forced to toe the Trump party line, not to suppress or censor it. Wouldn't the present Federal government be happy if Facebook were to encourage protests and general disrespect for warnings from health authorities? If anything, Facebook's actions here are courageous.

It takes a lot to get me to defend Facebook, but the arguments popping up in this thread are proving to be more than sufficient.

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