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Facebook is now claiming official CDC.gov links are “False Information”

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Re: Facebook is now claiming official CDC.gov links are “False Information”

#151

Post by SquareWheel »

telxos wrote: post #143
SquareWheel wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is such a Hacker News answer. Some people rely on their relationships with other people. They build support systems, form groups, and take comfort in the company of others. Being cut off suddenly and with no means to reconnect would isolate many people. This would be extremely damaging from a mental health perspective alone. In addition, so many people have reconnected with old friends, family, teachers. One fri…

Actual research shows the opposite effect on mental health from what you are saying. When you don't have Facebook your friends and family just txt or email. I mean Facebook book hasn't even been around that long. To pretend it is something like water or electricity is just preposterous.

Many do not text or email, they use Facebook's messaging system. They would not even have the information required to connect elsewhere.

There is also a huge difference between people making the decision to stop using social networking, and being suddenly and unexpectedly cut off from a support network. The former can have positive effects on mental health, the latter will certainly not.

I say this as somebody who deleted their Facebook account over a decade ago.

Re: Facebook is now claiming official CDC.gov links are “False Information”

#152

Post by Falling3 »

Overton-Window wrote: post #132
bmarquez wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> millions of other people Another nuance is that due to Facebook post privacy settings, an individual post can be restricted to a limited friend list, and not viewable by the general public. However the "fact checking" appears to apply to both private and public posts.

And private DMs in certain cases as well. The argument doesn't hold water.

Messenger is being fact checked as well? I haven't seen or heard this.

Re: Facebook is now claiming official CDC.gov links are “False Information”

#153

Post by koolba »

jensensbutton wrote: post #119
dumbmachine wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By adding content to user's newsfeed , they ( facebook's algorithm ) have made a explicit decision to share the piece of content and implicit decision that they deem the post safe for sharing. In that case shouldn't a speaker operator be responsible for the voices they amplify?

You only see things in your newsfeed from people you've explicitly added to your network (i.e. explicitly opted in to receiving content from). Is facebook wrong for showing you the things you said you want it to show you?

It’s moderation through omission. No different than traditional TV news choosing to only produce stories painting their politically allies positively or foes negatively. Any form of selection can be a means for bias.

Re: Facebook is now claiming official CDC.gov links are “False Information”

#154

Post by betwixthewires »

ravenstine wrote: post #117

I actually verified this yesterday on my own FB acount. https://imgur.com/a/5tgkbFL Not sure if it's still happening, but you can test it if you make the post visible to only you and you wait ~5 minutes for that misinformation message to show up. Even if the fact checker had some kind of point, I don't know how labeling an authoritative source as "false information" helps anyone understand anything just because part…

It helps people understand a lot; it helps people see this fact checking charade for what it really is.

Re: Facebook is now claiming official CDC.gov links are “False Information”

#155

Post by krapp »

coffeecat wrote: post #134
slg wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you fact check the flat Earth theories? Sometimes there is objective truth and sometimes there isn't.

Everyone loves to mock the flat Earthers, but I believe the theory deserves more respect. For the typical person, who roams around on some small patch of the Earth's surface, but who isn't launching rockets or traveling between continents, the flat earth theory is more useful than the spheroid earth theory. When you walk a short distance, your path's deviation from planar geometry due to the earth's global curvature…

"When people thought the Earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the Earth was spherical, they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the Earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the Earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together." - Isaac Asimov

Re: Facebook is now claiming official CDC.gov links are “False Information”

#156

Post by sam0x17 »

pier25 wrote: post #15
crummybowley wrote: post #6

And this is why Facebook has no business being part of fact checking. While it may look different, this is no different than two folks on the phone getting interrupted by ATT and being told they are incorrect on their assumptions about topic X. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are the carrier, and should be treated as such.

> Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are the carrier, and should be treated as such. It's more nuanced than that because ATT doesn't repeat a phone call it has deemed interesting to millions of other people.

That said, SMS carriers filter and block TONS of messages and have been doing it for years. Our startup works in that space so we have to deal with this problem all the time and I can tell you last November if you tried to send a text message with the word "election" in it in an automated fashion, it was most likely getting blocked.

Re: Facebook is now claiming official CDC.gov links are “False Information”

#157

Post by xorcist »

crummybowley wrote: post #6

And this is why Facebook has no business being part of fact checking. While it may look different, this is no different than two folks on the phone getting interrupted by ATT and being told they are incorrect on their assumptions about topic X. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are the carrier, and should be treated as such.

> this is no different than two folks on the phone getting interrupted by ATT

Those entities aren't comparable. Internet and telecom operators, much like the post, is a carrier in a legal sense. Not sure about your jurisdiction, but in many countries this is an actual law, secrecy of correspondence.

Facebook however, is operating a publishing service on the web, much like Nature or NY Times. Nature isn't obliged to publish your article just because you upload it, and they certainly do a fair amount of fact checking.

To continue the parable you started, while AT&T isn't allowed to snoop the article you upload to NY Times, the latter is allowed to refrain from publishing it on their web. Stretching the definition of carrier to encompass Facebook and Twitter would have wide reaching consequences and risk making it much more difficult to operate a web page.

Re: Facebook is now claiming official CDC.gov links are “False Information”

#159

Post by burnished »

13years wrote: post #118
LeifCarrotson wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technology changes - magnifies, accelerates, projects, distorts - many social effects. One of those is removing the previously invisible, small cost of spreading an idea. If two people want to have a conversation or exchange a letter, or one person wants to speak to everyone within earshot or post a sign for people walking by to read, that's one thing. Maybe you say something dumb, and it gets shot down, or maybe it…

You only have two choices, let all information be available regardless of whatever downside there may be, given that at least you still have some control over how to deal with that, or live in a truly Orwellian society in which you have no control over what you know.

Can you substantiate this? It seems pretty loaded, and I'm reminded of that fallacy where you state there are only two extremes possible as outcomes, you doing that on purpose or what?

Re: Facebook is now claiming official CDC.gov links are “False Information”

#160

Post by munk-a »

13years wrote: post #118
LeifCarrotson wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technology changes - magnifies, accelerates, projects, distorts - many social effects. One of those is removing the previously invisible, small cost of spreading an idea. If two people want to have a conversation or exchange a letter, or one person wants to speak to everyone within earshot or post a sign for people walking by to read, that's one thing. Maybe you say something dumb, and it gets shot down, or maybe it…

You only have two choices, let all information be available regardless of whatever downside there may be, given that at least you still have some control over how to deal with that, or live in a truly Orwellian society in which you have no control over what you know.

The world isn't a black and white place and there are a variety of more nuanced stances between those two extremes. Any amount of censorship doesn't necessarily and immediately devolve into 1984.
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