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

Re: Facebook, Twitter block the NY Post from posting

#681

Post by sieabahlpark » Thu, Oct 15, 2020, 4:14 AM UTC

afrojack123 wrote: post #676

Karunamon wrote: post #291

This was a shockingly dumb move. Whether or not you think these actions were politically motivated or made in good faith, it just poured liquid oxygen on the "reform section 230" fire you're seeing from both sides of the aisle - one using the censorship reason, the other using the disinformation reason. There's no way you don't block a newspaper, and the press secretary, and prevent anyone from even private messaging…

I agree. It was extremely dumb and obvious. TOO OBVIOUS. What are the politicians and social media tech companies trying to get out of section 230?

Have it removed so no other company can get to their scale? We have to always have a way to defer liability to the user who posted the content.

If a website is always responsible for whatever the users post you won't have much of a free internet anymore. However I think the issue with FB and Twitter is that they haven't had any repercussions for breaking the law in the first place.

Re: Facebook, Twitter block the NY Post from posting

#682

Post by jtbayly » Thu, Oct 15, 2020, 4:14 AM UTC

srtjstjsj wrote: post #487

jtbayly wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course the factuality is a big deal. But Twitter didn’t discover the story was false and then remove it. Rather they decided that because the information came from a hack that it couldn’t be posted on their site. If anything they confirmed it was true by doing this. Magine if they had applied this to WikiLeaks.

There are two possibilities: Either it's really a hack or it's a felonious attempt to manipulate an election. Or it's both -- a hack of personal private photos and also fake emails feloniously manipulating an election. Either way, a ban is appropriate. Saying "if it's true, it's ban able for X" without out bothering to say that obviously it's bannable if it's false, isn't saying it's true. How could Twitter even know…

So Wikileaks should have been suppressed?

Re: Facebook, Twitter block the NY Post from posting

#683

Post by pharrington » Thu, Oct 15, 2020, 4:14 AM UTC

bufferoverflow wrote: post #425

Tycho wrote: post #361

Crux of the issue is that everyone knows there’s a double standard. Why do they co-ordinate to block this story and not the countless other “unverified” scoops? Because it threatens a protected politician.

Spot-on. When NPR got caught posting fake news recently, absolutely nothing happened to them. When CNN does it, nothing happens to them. The game is rigged.

The article you're talking about is https://www.npr.org/2020/06/21/880963592/vehicle-attacks-ris..., which is thoroughly sourced, including links to articles containing video of car drivers attacking protesters from this year. Try again.

Re: Facebook, Twitter block the NY Post from posting

#684

Post by sempron64 » Thu, Oct 15, 2020, 4:14 AM UTC

spamizbad wrote: post #275

The interview with the repair shop owner is also reduces this story’s already dwindling credibility: https://www.thedailybeast.com/man-who-reportedly-gave-hunter...

That article had a lot of ads so I’m not sure if I actually got to the end when scrolling, but there really aren’t many direct quotes, just assertions by the reporter. To my eyes it looks like he is suffering from anxiety and confusion after this thing blew up. It’s unfair to blame him for anxiety. I have “crazy” worries sometimes too and being involved in a national scandal is probably enough to trigger that.

Re: Facebook, Twitter block the NY Post from posting

#685

Post by yenwodyah » Thu, Oct 15, 2020, 4:14 AM UTC

blisseyGo wrote: post #656

petee wrote: post #515

Earlier quoted context omitted.

References please. Unless its the NY Post, then don't bother.

I know this will get attacked for the source but this summarizes it well. There's numerous other examples too: https://www.zerohedge.com/political/npr-busted-framing-self-... The whole "russian bounty" was completely false too. The Steele dossier was also completely fabricated and yet pushed.

So they used a misleading photo in the header of an article and, when called out for it, immediately replaced it and acknowledged their mistake? Come on now. I wish other news sources showed this level of journalistic integrity.

Re: Facebook, Twitter block the NY Post from posting

#686

Post by esotericimpl » Thu, Oct 15, 2020, 4:16 AM UTC

Plough_Jogger wrote: post #3

The article in question can be found here: https://nypost.com/2020/10/14/email-reveals-how-hunter-biden...

It’s funny cause the nypost is about to get sued out of existence.

Why was the pdf created in 2019? If the emails were supposedly found now and turned into a pdf for distribution.

It’s almost as if Rudy Giuliani is terrible at committing crimes like he’s been doing for the past 4 years.

Re: Facebook, Twitter block the NY Post from posting

#687

Post by rayiner » Thu, Oct 15, 2020, 4:17 AM UTC

fooey wrote: post #403

Karunamon wrote: post #291

This was a shockingly dumb move. Whether or not you think these actions were politically motivated or made in good faith, it just poured liquid oxygen on the "reform section 230" fire you're seeing from both sides of the aisle - one using the censorship reason, the other using the disinformation reason. There's no way you don't block a newspaper, and the press secretary, and prevent anyone from even private messaging…

There won't be legislative blow back, the GOP is days away from being wholesale evicted from controlling anything at all in DC. As a legislative move, this is changing their bet to the horse that's about to win. The social media companies are clearly more afraid longterm of what happens if they let this kind of stunt spread than they are afraid of the lame duck.

Democrats’ victory will be built on purple House seats, COVID blowback, and suburban women and seniors getting cold on Trump. That’s not going to last forever. The “demographic destiny” thing is looking increasingly dubious as Trump continues to outperform expectations among Latinos, even after, well, four years of Trump and COVID and everything. Meanwhile, there is no bench of strong moderates behind Biden. Republicans will be back in office sooner than folks think.

Re: Facebook, Twitter block the NY Post from posting

#688

Post by 3minus1 » Thu, Oct 15, 2020, 4:18 AM UTC

quest88 wrote: post #164

benmmurphy wrote: post #17

I think it is crazy that twitter has gone down this path. Being the arbiter of truth makes their job much harder and doesn’t seem to have a big upside. If they have an agenda they want to push the upside might be there but otherwise it’s just a perpetual shitshow.

It's not as crazy if you think of all the people who yell "Something should be done about big tech enabling the spread of false information!!!!!".

It's not only that. In the Social Dilemma they basically say Facebook/Youtube/etc promote disinformation because it increases engagement/money

Re: Facebook, Twitter block the NY Post from posting

#689

Post by runarberg » Thu, Oct 15, 2020, 4:18 AM UTC

Karunamon wrote: post #451

jeremyjh wrote: post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree they blundered here. They don't want to be hijacked by another "leaks" story days before the election but now the suppression of this has become the entire story, and its convinced a lot of people the story is true and dangerous to Biden. Even if the email is true I don't see how its dangerous and if the only media carrying the story are the NY Post and Fox it doesn't hurt Biden.

That's an angle I hadn't even considered, but I'm surprised Twitter didn't. SV social media companies, of all the organizations in the world , should understand the implications of a Streisanding. If they had just left it alone, maybe attached the standard "this might be false" disclaimer, it would likely have passed as yet another partisan thing , but now they've gone and infused it with a bunch of power it didn't h…

In the grand scheme of things, the Pandora's box Twitter and Facebook might have opened today seems minute next to the Pandora’s box the Bush administration opened after the 9-11 attacks, the homeland security and all.

I think after the election we will have completely forgotten about this conduct while we still have to live with the spying on innocent people, non-sense travel restriction, and human-rights violating immigration system for years to come.

Making a scene of this decision just seems like stirring a storm inside a teacup, all the while we are experiencing a hurricane from the patriot act.

Re: Facebook, Twitter block the NY Post from posting

#690

Post by zaroth » Thu, Oct 15, 2020, 4:20 AM UTC

icameron wrote: post #660

dsaavy wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing that can be verified (as at least a unique release) after looking into the NY Post article more are the pictures they released. When I reverse image search them on Google and tineye, there are no other matches. This doesn't mean that they are necessarily real (they'd have to be verified as not being fakes), but they are certainly newly released. A couple searches: https://tineye.com/search/85ed99ec3e5397597…

The political machine is more sophisticated than using a public image. If anything it looks like an iCloud hack. Last week was a top HN article about finding an XSS vulnerability in iCloud. Not unreasonable to assume Biden’s crackhead sons iCloud was owned by operatives. Especially since the subject is a main topic of Trumps impeachment.

The NY Post story allegedly includes a picture of an FBI subpoena for the laptop in question.