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Brazil Bolsonaro: Facebook told to block accounts of president’s supporters

bbc.com

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Re: Brazil Bolsonaro: Facebook told to block accounts of president’s supporters

#21

Post by coliveira »

htk wrote: post #2

Censorship is so repugnant, yet so complicated. What should be prohibited to be said, if anything? Who draws the line?

People seem to forget (for some strange reason) that there are actually laws against things that you can say. For example, defamation laws are in place to punish the distribution of much of what is today qualified as "fake news". If you spread false news on purpose, or if you threat someone of violence, if you make racist comments (in countries like Brazil), these are situations where you can suffer consequences for things you say or write. In other words, free speech is not an absolute right as some want us to believe. A communications platform cannot be considered legal if it enables crimes to be committed with no consequences.

Re: Brazil Bolsonaro: Facebook told to block accounts of president’s supporters

#22

Post by jasonlingx »

coliveira wrote: post #16
dudus wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. It's possible these accounts are fake, paid by the own politicians to spread misinformation and fake news. But it's possible it's not. Brazilian courts have also become increasingly political which means a large portion of the population won't agree with their decision. It's ugly, and I have no idea what Facebook can do.

Facebook has to follow the law. Now, we can debate if the law is fair or not, but distributing in Brazil the content of these accounts goes against the law.

The Brazilian Supreme Court is asking Facebook to block accounts globally, not only in Brazil.

Re: Brazil Bolsonaro: Facebook told to block accounts of president’s supporters

#23

Post by xwdv »

ve55 wrote: post #9

Very glad I'm not Facebook. No matter what choices you make, millions (or billions) will hate you. Is decentralization the only solution, if it even is one?

Are you sure about that? Being Facebook also comes with billions of dollars.

Re: Brazil Bolsonaro: Facebook told to block accounts of president’s supporters

#25

Post by saagarjha »

coliveira wrote: post #21
htk wrote: post #2

Censorship is so repugnant, yet so complicated. What should be prohibited to be said, if anything? Who draws the line?

People seem to forget (for some strange reason) that there are actually laws against things that you can say. For example, defamation laws are in place to punish the distribution of much of what is today qualified as "fake news". If you spread false news on purpose, or if you threat someone of violence, if you make racist comments (in countries like Brazil), these are situations where you can suffer consequences for…

One complicating factor is that the United States guarantees rights that many countries do not, which can cause confusion. And another that often gets thrown is the "is social media a public square or private property" question.

FWIW, simply enabling a crime to occur is not necessarily illegal.

Re: Brazil Bolsonaro: Facebook told to block accounts of president’s supporters

#26

Post by roamerz »

quaintdev wrote: post #15
save_ferris wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t have answers to these questions, but it does seem to me that the internet has a fundamental incompatibility between being a space that enables or encourages (relative) anonymity on social media platforms, and being a space that strives to accept all kinds of speech, regardless of the content. As long as users are able to remain anonymous, content will continue to be pushed that drives some users towards adopt…

Even non anonymous users spew out whatever narrative they believe in and a large population does it without verifying facts.

One person’s spew is another’s gospel. Many a brave soul have died for the right to spew. 🇺🇸

Re: Brazil Bolsonaro: Facebook told to block accounts of president’s supporters

#27

Post by coliveira »

jasonlingx wrote: post #22
coliveira wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook has to follow the law. Now, we can debate if the law is fair or not, but distributing in Brazil the content of these accounts goes against the law.

The Brazilian Supreme Court is asking Facebook to block accounts globally, not only in Brazil.

The issue is that members of Bolsonaro's fake news group were moving abroad to continue spreading their "content" from outside Brazil.

Re: Brazil Bolsonaro: Facebook told to block accounts of president’s supporters

#30

Post by coliveira »

saagarjha wrote: post #25
coliveira wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People seem to forget (for some strange reason) that there are actually laws against things that you can say. For example, defamation laws are in place to punish the distribution of much of what is today qualified as "fake news". If you spread false news on purpose, or if you threat someone of violence, if you make racist comments (in countries like Brazil), these are situations where you can suffer consequences for…

One complicating factor is that the United States guarantees rights that many countries do not, which can cause confusion. And another that often gets thrown is the "is social media a public square or private property" question. FWIW, simply enabling a crime to occur is not necessarily illegal.

It is not ilegal if the enabler has no way to stop the crime. This is different if you can show that someone is committing a crime and the enabler doesn't want to stop it.
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