Live data from Hacker News

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

wsj.com

351–360 of 451 posts

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

#351

Tell me how this is wrong: The US is de facto converting to the Chinese model for the internet: All communication must be monitored, damaging content must be erased, and in serious cases, those responsible must be punished. If Parler gets a foreign data center, I expect a "Great Firewall of China" with American characteristics will soon follow.

Hong-Kong rioters and Capitol rioters both protested against a democratically elected government (or soon to be) but the former were called dissidents and got the support of USA tech corps[1] while the latter are called terrorists and are heavily censored. These tech corps are full of bullshit and shall not be trusted when it come to democracy or free internet.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/business/hong-kong-securi...

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

#352
post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After 60+ court cases challenging the election fail, and half the population still believe it's stolen, we're completely beyond the realm of misinformation (though there's plenty of that still going on). One side simply wants to seize power and is leveraging the tools at its disposal to do so.

I'm very interested in whether the republican party splits away from it's base - or the moderates leave altogether. One can claim that it's a small portion of the republican party which supported the insurrection - but for the last 10 years that portion has pushed the rest of the party to vote their way.

The split may come from Pence, interestingly enough. It didn't take much for Trump to malign his VP two weeks from the end of his term. Pence was chosen to satisfy the evangelicals, who are another similar group to the MAGAs in that they're not the mainstream republicans, but enjoy enormous influence.

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

#353
post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You must be a big supporter of BLM then, no better censorship then a cop shooting you in the back while you're unarmed on your own property.

I support the right for both sides to speak out. What I don't support is endorsing one side, and then demonizing the other. Objectively, more police and citizens were killed in BLM riots. Tens of active shooter situations, vehicles used as weapons, billions in property damage. Storming the capitol is also bad, but demonizing it more so is asking for extremist trouble.

BLM protests were attended by tens of millions over the course of a year. I won't defend violence or looting or even property damage (the poor insurance companies!), but you must admit there's a difference between attacking a Target to steal clothing and trying to put a stop to an election by storming the capital.

Ultimately I want the country to heal, but in order to do so we cannot continue to entertain insane crap like "stop the steal." That is not a way forward, and those who are trapped into that alternate reality either need to stand down or be confronted.

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

#354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I completely agree. I would like to see some of the other replies here comment on how democracy can function if the citizens are incompetent/stupid. If they can't be trusted to be knowledgeable, then how can they make informed decisions, including voting? And of course, who decides which people hold legitimate positions and which people are ignorant?

It is well known that an educated, free people are necessary for the functioning of democracy. It's part of the justification for the 1st Amendment. We have new technologies which are being leveraged to intentionally misinform people, in a society that has degraded public education and raised the cost of higher education to levels prohibitive for the majority of the population, and as a result, the society (as a whol…

People are more educated than ever. They are more literate and more have attended at least some college. They also have more access to information than ever before. Either lack of education isn't the problem or it's an impossible standard.

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

#355
post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For historical context, it may be worth noting that the framers of the US constitution did not envision having direct popular election of the President [1], nor of senators [2]. To be clear, I'm not indicating that the framers had the right idea about this. Rather, just mentioning that the risks of under-informed general populace exercising direct democratic election has been under consideration since the nation's fo…

I don't really understand how that is relevant to the OP's question about censorship. Did the framers also think that censoring the views of the POTUS would be required? EDIT: Although going along with your point, I also remember the framers wanting the electors to be determined at the local level (district) rather than state. That would change things significantly, IMO.

Indirect selection of the executive reduces the populist power of the President. They have to win votes of party members, not the public at large.

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

#356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trump and the GOP would never actually have repealed 230, it was just a stalking-horse. The social media companies started shutting Trump down literally hours after it became apparent that the Senate committees that can regulate them will soon be chaired by Democrats.

Coincidentally, it was also the same day insurrectionists invaded the nation's capitol, after using social media to coordinate the violent attack. "Stop the Steal" is one of their rallying cries.

[deleted]

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

#357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is one of the most educated countries in the world! Only Korea and Canada are materially ahead of us in college attainment: https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/with... We’re way ahead of Germany or Italy. The America that sent a man to the moon had around 5% of people with a college degree.

Sure, but as someone not from the US it looks like that education ain't worth much in the US as you deliberately undermine peoples ability to learn critical thinking by teaching creationism in schools.

This is a really funny accusation since:

1) We don’t teach any religion in schools.

2) Many highly advanced EU countries are required to teach religion in schools e.g. many German states: https://eftre.weebly.com/deutschland-germany.html

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

#358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Facebook is not a country Facebook 2019 revenue was 71 billion or so, which would put it at number 70 worldwide if it were a country. Maybe we should start to treat it like one.

I don't follow your reasoning. Should we treat every billion dollar company as a country or just websites?

If you are such a juggernaut maybe you cannot hide anymore behind the "we are a private company so we can do whatever we want" defense. At 70 billion revenue your impact in society is huge, you are effectively affecting millions of humans.

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

#359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook is not a country, it's a website, trying to characterize Facebook's business decisions as U.S policy is a dishonest rhetorical tactic.

> Facebook is not a country Facebook 2019 revenue was 71 billion or so, which would put it at number 70 worldwide if it were a country. Maybe we should start to treat it like one.

It also has 2.7 billions active users.

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

#360
post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you have to earn it by accumulating a certain karma though contributions that are upvoted by the community. I can downvote but I can't downvote replies to me, and for some poorly understood reason, sometimes I just can't downvote even though I have not yet participated in the thread.

I am aware, but my contributions don’t merit enough karma, so I wander forever.

I'm sorry to hear that buddy.
Post reply on HN