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Facebook freezes Venezuela president Maduro's page over Covid-19

reuters.com

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Re: Facebook freezes Venezuela president Maduro's page over Covid-19

#101

Post by sofixa »

whymauri wrote: post #42
DiogenesKynikos wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A slight mischaracterization (doctors should do it, instead of people should do it themselves), and the original does not make Trump look any better. Edit: Looking again, OP did not misrepresent Trump's comment at all. Trump did clearly recommend that doctors try injecting disinfectants (including bleach) into patients.

That's what I find most incredible about this thread and the confidence of the person denying something Trump said on the record . It hasn't even been a year and we're already forgetting the dumpster fire that was the original response to COVID.

"alternative facts"

As someone said, we're living in the post-truth era.

Re: Facebook freezes Venezuela president Maduro's page over Covid-19

#102

Post by lupire »

A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #21
pumaontheprowl wrote: post #17

A lot of this is starting to remind me of the way Galileo and Darwin were treated for announcing their breakthroughs. I know nothing about this drug Maduro is touting, but I can't help worrying that one of these days somebody is going to find an actual cure and the world will never know about it because big social media companies exile them for wrongthink.

In a sense, we already had some taste of tech-powers-that-are blocking information that ended up being true ( Biden's Hunter drug issues ). edit: I am going to add some sources, since I am not certain why the downvoting is taking place on this particular comment. Not sure how the statement is controversial. [Biden himself admits issues with drugs] https://www.businessinsider.com/hunter-biden-opens-about-add... [Same…

"Hunter Biden's drug issues" were never blocked.

Re: Facebook freezes Venezuela president Maduro's page over Covid-19

#103

Post by hrktb »

jamesgreenleaf wrote: post #8
abhinav22 wrote: post #2

Not sure about this - I don’t think government leaders or anybody should be censored. Better to have public health messages as part of the platform than to censor It’s a fine line between hate and misinformation and dissent (Clearly the content in question is wrong; but in other cases, WHO and others been proven incorrect - eg on masks and asymptotic transmission) Don’t know what the answer is, we don’t want echo cha…

Another problem is that something like this can function as "evidence" for the claim. There are large groups of people who believe that censorship like this validates a worldview in which powerful interests are censoring true information in order to maintain control. It's similar to the Streisand Effect or "Banned in Boston" but for belief rather than attention. It seems like the better solution is to have an outpour…

One issue is that it’s asymmetrical. Made up statements have more resonance and shocking value than well thought rebuffs or ridicule.

If you accuse your opponent of eating babies at breakfast, other parties will have a hard time to find something as punchy, and some minority of people will swallow your statement. Throw around enough of these and you’ll have a large base covered, with your opponents left scrambling for boring or after the fact retorts that won’t have the same reach.

Re: Facebook freezes Venezuela president Maduro's page over Covid-19

#104

Post by lupire »

Mountain_Skies wrote: post #36
DiogenesKynikos wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trump spitballed about injecting disinfectants into people's lungs. He didn't say that individual people should do it, but he did say that doctors should test it out. > And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning. Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lu…

So as the commenter said, a mischaracterization.

Trump is so incoherent and self-contradictory that any characterization is necessarily a mischaracterization. He's "not even wrong" in human form.

Re: Facebook freezes Venezuela president Maduro's page over Covid-19

#105

Post by bordercases »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #50
mc32 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously Maduro is a problematic despotic leader, but who are Facebook to be arbiters of thrush and falsehood? We’ve gone down the path of good intentions that leads to hell. Does this not interfere with self determination? Is there one true north now? Have Facebook found all truth? This is getting ridiculous.

For their own platform? Facebook is, obviously. How is this even a question? It's not like a head of state doesn't have plenty of power to send messages through other means. Since when are private actors obligated to let them speak on private platforms?

Since they scale out to the infrastructural capabilities of governments yet our bound to the interests of their stakeholders, not users or citizens.

Re: Facebook freezes Venezuela president Maduro's page over Covid-19

#106

Post by mensetmanusman »

wincy wrote: post #93
alkonaut wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t really need to worry about drawing the line between facts and lies just because you remove the 10% most blatant disinformation. It doesn’t make Facebook the final arbiter of truth. There are things that are controversial or debated and Facebook and others stay away from that. Advocating injecting bleach or eating albinos to cure Covid is one thing while arguing the amount of asymptotic transmission is anoth…

Does Facebook ban controversial statements such as “children should be given hormone blocking therapy if they request it, regardless of the wishes of their parents, even if it sterilizes them” or “transgender women should be allowed to go to/volunteer at battered women’s shelters”. Espousing the opposing viewpoint is a fast track to getting banned from Twitter/Facebook or wherever else. Note I’m not making a judgemen…

That will not happen, it’s not about enforcing morality, it’s about strengthening an ideology by erasing competing messages.

Re: Facebook freezes Venezuela president Maduro's page over Covid-19

#108

Post by nouveaux »

wpasc wrote: post #98
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have a specific policy against bad medical advice (which is easy to determine), but not against being a ruthless dictator (which can be very subjective). Seems consistent to me.

Bad medical device is easy to determine? Are masks effective or ineffective against covid? Are fats good or bad for you? Are carbs bad for you? How many times a day should you eat? How much cholesterol in your food matters? What's the perfect amount of water to drink? Is veganism healthy? is paleo healthy?

No it's not easy but why would Facebook be bad at it? They can consult with the worlds best. Is there any reason to believe they have performed poorly in this regard?

Re: Facebook freezes Venezuela president Maduro's page over Covid-19

#109

Post by tpmx »

Lazare wrote: post #37

Conventional wisdom in the US is that Maduro is a ruthless, violent dictator, who has suppressed opposition, smuggled drugs, funded terrorism, violated human rights, etc. But that doesn't get you kicked off Facebook. Facebook and Twitter happily provide platforms to violent, human rights abusing regimes. ...but recommend one snake oil cure for Covid-19, and suddenly the hammer drops, I guess? Interesting priorities.

I've seen plenty of covid-19 snake oil cures being advertized on prominent Reddit subreddits without consequences, so there's that.
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