"The SWP Facebook page regularly posts in support of Palestine". That explains... ;)
Facebook shuts down the Socialist Workers Party in Britain
51–60 of 550 posts
Re: Facebook shuts down the Socialist Workers Party in Britain
#52Honestly, I'd be happy to see all political groups - left or right - expunged from Facebook. Politics and social media clearly do not mix, as this year has demonstrated all too brutally well.
Would you like to start a group that attempts to expunge all political groups from Facebook? A collection of people all holding a particular societal stance who want to further that stance, in an effort for their collective resources and voice to be used in that furtherance?
Re: Facebook shuts down the Socialist Workers Party in Britain
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, makers should always be responsible & accountable for how a system behaves, but this seems like a textbook Hanlon's razor example
People generally misunderstand Hanlon's Razor. It's immaterial if someone is evil or just stupid, the only thing that matters is that they should not be making decisions about other people. (Charles Williams' All Hallows' Eve is an extended meditation about just that.)
Well if it's stupid, and not evil, they weren't making a decision, right?
Re: Facebook shuts down the Socialist Workers Party in Britain
#54I assume this is a mistake, although I think they're mad I don't think the SWP are malicious a la some political sects
Facebook is a private platform: they're free to block any content they want, malicious or not.
One problem with moderating content in this way is that it makes it clearer and clearer that they no longer need the protections provided by section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
It's not injurious to them to moderate content, clearly, since they are doing it.
By pulling this crap and especially by doing it algorithmically they are pushing the internet in a difficult direction.
Re: Facebook shuts down the Socialist Workers Party in Britain
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
They are also mainly motivated by money, which allows us to make at least educated guesses as to what happened in matters like these
That's irrelevant, because a private company can't be compelled to support someone else's speech against their will. If you don't like it, then take political action. Edit: For those unaware, this is the devil's advocate take. HN has been remarkably pro-corporate censorship lately, and only a matter of weeks later its coming back to bite pro-censorship advocates.
You're assuming, rather uncharitably, that people in favor of "private entities cannot be compelled to host the speech of others" only support that point of view because it serves other political stances they hold, rather than as a general principle.
A site is free to ban all left-wing groups, all right-wing groups, all centrist groups, all groups with an 'e' in their names, all hate groups, or all of the above. Others are free to react to those bans accordingly, and choose whether to associate/support/host the site or not.
Re: Facebook shuts down the Socialist Workers Party in Britain
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
What a stance. Maybe if you advocated for 'no politics on facebook', it would sound better. Social media has given voice to marginalized groups, and people seemingly fear that voice. It's something to take a look at, rather than sweep it under the rug with bans.
If by “marginalized” we mean “radicals”, then yes. If we mean “minorities”, then you’re probably just propagating the myths that minorities hold far-left-wing views. On the contrary, while minority views skew left-wing, only a minority of minorities hold far-left beliefs and there’s a lot more political diversity among minorities than there is between minority and majority groups. For example, “defund the police” is…
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Re: Facebook shuts down the Socialist Workers Party in Britain
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think that would be fine as an initial reason. Having had that back in Dec, you'd think they would put SWP on a safe list? Who knows, I guess. And that's the problem, not so much the taking down as the taking down with zero reason or discussion...
This is how the right has been feeling for a while. This is nothing new behaviour-wise for Facebook, the only difference is this gets more favourable media attention.
Right, the victim in this case self-reporting it is "favorable media attention", unlike the mostly false whinging from the right, which only gets repeated national legislative attempts in the US and endless media repeat on national outlets.
Re: Facebook shuts down the Socialist Workers Party in Britain
#58Honestly, I'd be happy to see all political groups - left or right - expunged from Facebook. Politics and social media clearly do not mix, as this year has demonstrated all too brutally well.
Anywhere people are, there is also politics. An argument could be made for getting rid of social media entirely, but as long as people are using social media, politics follow.
> Anywhere people are, there is also politics.
Indeed. I've had a simple model in mind for a while:
conflict resolution
/\
/ \
violent \
/\
/ \
commercial \
political
Re: Facebook shuts down the Socialist Workers Party in Britain
#59Honestly, I'd be happy to see all political groups - left or right - expunged from Facebook. Politics and social media clearly do not mix, as this year has demonstrated all too brutally well.
Private mommy groups often have "no politics" rules that the admins genuinely believe they are enforcing, and yet those same groups are anti-vax cess pools. In some you can even find absolutely brutal rants about elected officials such as school board members, which, again, group admins believe are "not political".
So. Not sure what "banning all political groups" would even mean.
Re: Facebook shuts down the Socialist Workers Party in Britain
#60[deleted]