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Facebook Says It Is Removing All Content Mentioning 'Stop the Steal'

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Re: Facebook Says It Is Removing All Content Mentioning 'Stop the Steal'

#61
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does it need the "extreme" adjective? From the Googles: > the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims. Is there any question that's what happened here? It's too bad that we have to worry about "turning off" some sensitive people whose feelings will be hurt if we call a spade a spade, but it sure doesn't feel like appeasing them has done much good,…

By this definition, many antifa and BLM rioters are also terrorists. It's interesting how hesitant the media was to describe them that way.

What media? That's exactly how fox news, oan, newsmax and donald trump talk about BLM.

Re: Facebook Says It Is Removing All Content Mentioning 'Stop the Steal'

#62

im saying this because it seems like such an obvious point but i havent seen it here- why are people who want the government to be replaced by the "free market" allowed to be upset that private companies are silencing them? what is the rationale for squaring this circle

People are allowed to have any opinions they want, even ones that seem contradictory to you.

It's not a free market when a handful of companies can collude to shut out a competitor as they've done to Parler.

Re: Facebook Says It Is Removing All Content Mentioning 'Stop the Steal'

#63

im saying this because it seems like such an obvious point but i havent seen it here- why are people who want the government to be replaced by the "free market" allowed to be upset that private companies are silencing them? what is the rationale for squaring this circle

The opposite of a contradiction is another contradiction.

Why are people that believe in regulation of the world's largest corporations suddenly laissez-faire libertarians?

If you have opposed the Citizen's United ruling for a decade, don't suddenly act like you care about a corporation's civil liberties, including freedom of association and freedom of expression.

The answer is obvious: both sides want power more than they want to stick to their expressed ideals.

Re: Facebook Says It Is Removing All Content Mentioning 'Stop the Steal'

#64
"Stop censoring the steal".

Note well: I do not believe that there was in fact a steal. But if Facebook wants to do this, they're going to find out that there are several ways to modify or paraphrase this, and they're going to have to block significantly more than one phrase.

Re: Facebook Says It Is Removing All Content Mentioning 'Stop the Steal'

#65

Hm, I just posted "stop the steal" on my Facebook page (along with a disclaimer), and it's still there six minutes later. Maybe it takes 24 hours to get picked up? Or do they just cloak the posting?

Something like this. https://github.com/tessalt/echo-chamber-js

Re: Facebook Says It Is Removing All Content Mentioning 'Stop the Steal'

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I might have missed it, but I didn't see any reports of pipe bombs at the BLM protests.

So reports of pipe bombs that never went off is more terrorizing than 2 billion dollars worth of damage? ( https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8740609/Rioting-140... )

yes, of course explosives are more terrorizing than property damage. wtf

Re: Facebook Says It Is Removing All Content Mentioning 'Stop the Steal'

#67

Along with this, it seems to me media should not be referring to the terrorists entering the Capitol as 'storming' as that is the terminology used by the fringe groups of which they are proud of. I've read articles mentioning what these fringe groups call 'the storm' and I think distancing media reports from that is important.

Should the media, or anyone, be referring to them as "terrorists"? Generally a terrorist uses extreme violence to "terrorize", hence the name. A crowd of morons busting into the Capitol building, calmly wandering the hallways, and taking selfies, scarcely meets the definition, even if some of the politicians felt terror. If only the 9/11 terrorists, and all terrorists, were this tame.

"calm and taking selfies". Cute. What a warped framing of reality...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVZvp-Dv0gg

Re: Facebook Says It Is Removing All Content Mentioning 'Stop the Steal'

#68
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suggest we make individuals or organizations that spread lies without evidence liable on a civil or criminal basis. The root reason for the violent riot at the Capitol last week was that many people have been lied to, and the lies are things that would incite people to fight. If you believed that America's democracy is no longer in place and has been replaced by a deep state dictatorship, you would probably fight a…

What mechanism would you propose to implement your suggestion? Some kind of Ministry of Truth, or Council of Honesty? Or maybe just run everything everyone says through a fact-checker app and if they fail, lock them up? We have laws for actual harmful lies, such as falsely shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theater. But beyond that, it's a grey area, slippery slope, etc.

We already have a mechanism for harm from lies - libel and slander laws. Just expand these laws to make lying to the public about something that if they believe it could cause them harm a tort.

Re: Facebook Says It Is Removing All Content Mentioning 'Stop the Steal'

#69

im saying this because it seems like such an obvious point but i havent seen it here- why are people who want the government to be replaced by the "free market" allowed to be upset that private companies are silencing them? what is the rationale for squaring this circle

This is a bit of a blanket ad hominem - these are not necessarily the same groups of people even if they occasionally share the same message.

Even with ultra-conservative circles, there has always been some unpopularity with the party line on economic issues. Free trade, education, etc.

Re: Facebook Says It Is Removing All Content Mentioning 'Stop the Steal'

#70
This almost makes me suspect that the Facebook executives behind this decision are secretly die hard pro-Trumpers.

Sure, it's definitely a bit spooky that people are going around saying the election was stolen when, as far as I can tell, there's no hard evidence of widespread cheating. (I'm open to changing my mind given sufficient evidence, I'm just saying that I haven't seen it yet.)

But this is the equivalent of Facebook saying "hmm, looks like there's a fire going on over there, better go and dump a barrel of oil on it to put it out". Of course people are going to notice that their posts are being deleted. And even if they didn't notice, Facebook is loudly and publicly announcing that they are removing those posts. This will naturally result in those people saying, "aha, this confirms that there is a liberal elite conspiracy against folks like me". It will only make them more certain that the election was stolen.

Honestly, I can't say I blame them for suspecting a conspiracy, given we've had similar moves by other tech companies. As a generally left wing person, what am I supposed to say? "Yeah, we know that all these social networks are acting all biased and stuff against people with your opinions, but it's not actually a conspiracy, just a bunch of people without the ability to predict what others will make of their actions all being idiots at the same time due to simple memetic contagion." I think that's actually what's going on, but I can definitely see how from the other side it looks like a conspiracy.

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