Facebook, Twitter block the NY Post from posting • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook, Twitter block the NY Post from posting

#111

Post by shripadk » Wed, Oct 14, 2020, 9:46 PM UTC

frob wrote: post #66

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's different because it was written by a major American newspaper. Twitter should not be exercising editorial control over the news.

The New York Post is not a serious newspaper; it is a sensationalist tabloid. Sometimes the NYPost will report on real news, but I believe absolutely nothing they report until it is verified by the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, or other major broadcast outlet with actual journalistic standards.

> New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, or other major broadcast outlet with actual journalistic standards.

"Actual journalistic standards" yeah right! They literally carried out a fake news story about Nick Sandmann without any sort of verification. CNN settled 250 million $ lawsuit followed by Washington Post. Other publications are in the line next. They have zero credibility... especially after causing irreparable damage to a child's reputation by labelling him a racist when he was anything but. The real racists at the rally were those who accused this kid of racism. For full video of the actual altercation you can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwNyOD8FIQk and decide for yourself.

Demonstration 1 of so called "Journalistic Standard": https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/24/business/media/washington...

and

Demonstration 2 of so called "Journalistic Standard": https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-new-york-times-rollin...

Re: Facebook, Twitter block the NY Post from posting

#112

Post by riffic » Wed, Oct 14, 2020, 9:47 PM UTC

_qulr wrote: post #104

riffic wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference between the telephone company and Twitter is that the phone company was (historically) a monopoly - the only game in town . Use their wires or get lost. It required common carrier neutrality by regulation. Twitter (and every single commercial social media space) is not the above, and can do what it wants on its service. It's not a public utility.

It's not just Twitter, it's also Facebook. (I believe Facebook was actually the first to take action.) What if Google does it too? In the past few years, we've seen these big tech companies operate in a manner that seems collusive. They follow each other's cues. One company is the first to censor, and then the other companies follow very quickly with the exact same censorship. (The quick collective action tends to di…

I don't really care about Twitter or Facebook to be honest. It's not the only game in town.

I'd be more concerned if I bought server hosting from AWS, stood up a WordPress blog about my thoughts on capitalism, socialism, sports, and dogs, and Amazon decides to suspend my account due to my writings.

Re: Facebook, Twitter block the NY Post from posting

#113

Post by trident1000 » Wed, Oct 14, 2020, 9:48 PM UTC

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #103

If I was a Twitter or Facebook investor, I have one question: What did you expect was going to happen? Honestly. Did nobody have the foresight at Facebook or Twitter to think that this wouldn't blow up? Did nobody think, just once, that this might invite regulatory action or be in news headlines? And if honestly nobody thought this might happen, I'd want the entire management and "safety" team replaced for having no…

They are utilities at this point I hope they get treated this way. The monopolistic public square of debate cant have kings in charge.

Also can you imagine what would happen if big tech oligopolies teamed up with one political party for a "I scratch your back you scratch mine" situation. You could have a 1 party political system for eternity and essentially remove the democratic system.

The threat of big tech oppression is significant. And if you watched the movie "the social dilemma" the oppression and political strong arming by big tech is already happening in countries outside the US.

Re: Facebook, Twitter block the NY Post from posting

#114

Post by luckylion » Wed, Oct 14, 2020, 9:48 PM UTC

croissants wrote: post #71

bgorman wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a lot of circumstantial evidence here. Why would Hunter biden be paid thousands of dollars a month to work at a random Ukrainian energy company other than to provide access to Joe Biden. Hunter Biden has no expertise running a energy utility.

Isn't the likeliest explanation that 1) random Ukrainian energy company paid Hunter Biden for access to Joe Biden, and 2) the payments were not useful in actually getting access to Joe Biden? "Thousands of dollars a month" doesn't seem like "get close to a former VP/future presidential candidate" money. (Of course, this explanation isn't exactly a good look either, but at this point it's a choice between imperfection…

Do companies pay princelings large sums of money without getting anything in return? I believe it's usually understood that they get something in return, even if that something is just not getting into trouble (as is the way in China, if you want no road blocks in your enterprise, you better hire some high official's kid).

Re: Facebook, Twitter block the NY Post from posting

#115

Post by madrox » Wed, Oct 14, 2020, 9:49 PM UTC

This seems like an interesting corollary to the Streisand Effect, where shutting down means of spreading information makes the information spread further.

Re: Facebook, Twitter block the NY Post from posting

#116

Post by the_only_law » Wed, Oct 14, 2020, 9:50 PM UTC

riffic wrote: post #78

The ActivityPub standard and network exists. Nothing (absolutely nothing ) is stopping the tabloid from running its own instance on nypost.com edit: and I wanted to reply to a comment here referring to section 230 but their comment got flagged and I am unable to reply to them. Not really sure why it was flagged but whatever, HN does what it does. My reply to that commenter would be that there is nothing stopping Cong…

> Not really sure why it was flagged but whatever, HN does what it does.

If you truly beleive the comment didn't deserve to be flagged (this does unfortunately happen sometimes, especially on threads like this) you can vouch for it if you have showdead on

Re: Facebook, Twitter block the NY Post from posting

#117

Post by cmdshiftf4 » Wed, Oct 14, 2020, 9:50 PM UTC

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #8

Whatever your perspective, directly verifiable censorship like this is just begging for legal trouble and monopoly investigations. Tactically speaking, I would say this is a massive mistake from Twitter.

>this is just begging for legal trouble

Fingers crossed.

Re: Facebook, Twitter block the NY Post from posting

#118

Post by donatj » Wed, Oct 14, 2020, 9:51 PM UTC

But they didn't block stories about Trump's stolen tax returns? Is there any sort of non-political justification?

Re: Facebook, Twitter block the NY Post from posting

#119

Post by riffic » Wed, Oct 14, 2020, 9:52 PM UTC

the_only_law wrote: post #116

riffic wrote: post #78

The ActivityPub standard and network exists. Nothing (absolutely nothing ) is stopping the tabloid from running its own instance on nypost.com edit: and I wanted to reply to a comment here referring to section 230 but their comment got flagged and I am unable to reply to them. Not really sure why it was flagged but whatever, HN does what it does. My reply to that commenter would be that there is nothing stopping Cong…

> Not really sure why it was flagged but whatever, HN does what it does. If you truly beleive the comment didn't deserve to be flagged (this does unfortunately happen sometimes, especially on threads like this) you can vouch for it if you have showdead on

vouch early and vouch often.

Re: Facebook, Twitter block the NY Post from posting

#120

Post by tboyd47 » Wed, Oct 14, 2020, 9:52 PM UTC

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #103

If I was a Twitter or Facebook investor, I have one question: What did you expect was going to happen? Honestly. Did nobody have the foresight at Facebook or Twitter to think that this wouldn't blow up? Did nobody think, just once, that this might invite regulatory action or be in news headlines? And if honestly nobody thought this might happen, I'd want the entire management and "safety" team replaced for having no…

They probably have been doing this for a while, and this was just the first time they got called out for it.

Regulatory action has been in the works for some time. Whether or not it goes through depends only on politics. The mainstream media already doesn't like them for eating their lunch. Twitter has nothing to lose by doing this. It will damage Facebook's brand identity as being a "free speech" platform, but that's about as factual as Google's "don't be evil" brand or Apple's "privacy first" brand.