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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”

#221

Post by bamboozled »

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.

They're not just a carrier, they're created their own version of the Internet which they now have to police.

The Internet was fine without Facebook, it was largely self-governing and people could choose to browse others self-hosted content. Their decision to create the platform and use algorithms to direct peoples attention was totally self made, clearly problematic and now they have to workout how to cope with the fallout.

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

#222

Post by wffurr »

gunapologist99 wrote: post #210

Facebook seems to be censoring so much because Facebook believes that most people will actually believe whatever bits of misinformation are floating around out there. But is everyone that easily manipulated? More importantly, does everyone actually believe that they can be easily manipulated, or do they just think that everyone else is so easily manipulated, but somehow they're above the fray? And at what point does…

The problem is FB "recommending" content and groups and prioritizing the feed. They could just not do that and the problem solves itself.

Just show me a time descending list of posts filtered by whatever set of friends I am viewing.

Don't recommend groups or friends or content from people or groups I haven't subscribed to. Let me search for groups or friends instead.

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

#223

Post by travoc »

sam0x17 wrote: post #156
pier25 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Rate limiting is not the same as content filtering.

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

#224

Post by gunapologist99 »

wffurr wrote: post #222
gunapologist99 wrote: post #210

Facebook seems to be censoring so much because Facebook believes that most people will actually believe whatever bits of misinformation are floating around out there. But is everyone that easily manipulated? More importantly, does everyone actually believe that they can be easily manipulated, or do they just think that everyone else is so easily manipulated, but somehow they're above the fray? And at what point does…

The problem is FB "recommending" content and groups and prioritizing the feed. They could just not do that and the problem solves itself. Just show me a time descending list of posts filtered by whatever set of friends I am viewing. Don't recommend groups or friends or content from people or groups I haven't subscribed to. Let me search for groups or friends instead.

The discussion about the algorithmic feed seems to be out of context for this thread (i.e., Facebook is now claiming official CDC.gov links are “False Information”)

I don't believe the problem is facebook recommending anything -- the problem is facebook trying to ban certain content entirely (at least in the context of this thread -- algorithmic feeds are a separate problem.)

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

#225

Post by foepys »

gunapologist99 wrote: post #210

Facebook seems to be censoring so much because Facebook believes that most people will actually believe whatever bits of misinformation are floating around out there. But is everyone that easily manipulated? More importantly, does everyone actually believe that they can be easily manipulated, or do they just think that everyone else is so easily manipulated, but somehow they're above the fray? And at what point does…

> FB only works when you and 99% of your social group are on there.

You can choose whatever social group you want on social media. The days of physical presence and limited supply of peers are over.

Your IRL friends don't believe that the government is made up of lizard people? Go find yourself a Facebook, Telegram, Discord, etc. group, you will find plenty of like-minded people and "proof" there. People can and do survive on online contacts alone, so being shunned is not a problem for them. At least not in the medium term.

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

#226

Post by basementcat »

908B64B197 wrote: post #193
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…

I don't get why they can't add a regex to ok *.gov$ websites. > Nevertheless, the level of carelessness upon which this mechanism seems to have been built upon is an embarrassment. Same mechanism would flag and ban folks who argued that the lab leak hypothesis was a possibility and was worth investigating... Interesting how the media changed their narrative on this one.

Dems.gov

GOP.gov

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

#227

Post by 13years »

burnished wrote: post #159
13years wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

How to propose there is a middle ground? What everyone imagines is that if we only censor what is reasonable to censor it will be fine.

The fallacy is that we always view this from our personal perspective, yet we will not be the ones who make those choices. We give up that role to someone else.

Who has this role over society has immense power. Some would argue greater than governments themselves. It is only a matter of time before that vector will be exploited. It is in principle the same idea as regulatory capture, yet the incentives for capturing speech are far greater than a typical regulatory body.

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

#228

Post by kahirsch »

mikem170 wrote: post #3

The submitted postimg.cc screenshot had the following cdc.gov link [0], which appears to be flagged as false information. The following text was on that cdc page: > After December 31, 2021, CDC will withdraw the request to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of the CDC 2019-Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel, the assay first introduced in Febr…

People were spreading misinformation about the link. Just to be clear, there is no recall. The test is not defective. The test can be used through the end of the year. The CDC recommends using tests that can detect flu as well as COVID.

The current PCR test from the CDC does not detect flu at all, or other coronaviruses. The test is very specific. See pages 40 on in the Instructions for Use[1] if you are interested. The test sequences were compared (by computer) to hundreds of thousands of genomes of flu, the human genome, and other organisms, as well as tested on physical specimens.

[1] https://www.fda.gov/media/134922/download#page=41

Here is a sample of messages that were shared on Reddit:

> The FDA announced today that the CDC PCR test for COVID-19 has failed its full review. Emergency Use Authorization has been REVOKED. The FRAUDULENT PCR Test has finally been ruled a Class I Recall. This is the most serious type of recall. All measurements based on PCR Testing should come to an end ASAP:

> CDC retracts PCR test as it can't differentiate between COVID and the flu. It was all a Lie.

> CDC pulls PCR tests because they can’t distinguish Covid from the flu. We finally caught the SOBs who have lied to us about the coronavirus numbers the last year.

> The Pandemic narrative is unravelling... The FDA announced today that the CDC PCR test for COVID-19 has failed its full review. Emergency Use Authorization has been REVOKED. It is a Class I recall. The most serious type of recall. Too many false POSITIVES. This is the test that started the pandemic!

> CDC to Withdraw Emergency Use Authorization for PCR Test Because It Cannot Distinguish Between SARS-CoV-2 and the Flu.

> Watch the panicked minority bombard the comments with establishment talking points to try and refute this tweet.. PCR is being rescinded as a test, vaccinated people are filling hospitals, and our government officials are still urging us to get tested using PCR and get jabbed with the Covid vaccines. Alrighty then.

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

#229

Post by AnimalMuppet »

VLM wrote: post #208
AnimalMuppet wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is objective truth. The earth is objectively not flat. There are people who don't agree with that (or at least who say they don't), but the earth is objectively not flat, whether or not some people don't agree. Not only that, it's provably not flat. So those who don't agree, well... they prove the contrariness of human nature, I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The Earth is objectively and unironically flat from the point of view of some, in fact many, narratives. Certainly the architectural drawings of my house do not include a "bulge" in the basement due to heretical sphericalness. All discussion of my basement floor being flat within about 1/2 inch need to be censored by big brother to save us all from free and independent thought. The purpose of arguing about what shoul…

I never said flat-earthers should be censored. I said they are objectively wrong, no matter what they claim.

And when they argue that the earth is flat, they aren't arguing about whether it's flat on the scale of my basement.

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

#230

Post by Terretta »

gunapologist99 wrote: post #224
wffurr wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is FB "recommending" content and groups and prioritizing the feed. They could just not do that and the problem solves itself. Just show me a time descending list of posts filtered by whatever set of friends I am viewing. Don't recommend groups or friends or content from people or groups I haven't subscribed to. Let me search for groups or friends instead.

The discussion about the algorithmic feed seems to be out of context for this thread (i.e., Facebook is now claiming official CDC.gov links are “False Information”) I don't believe the problem is facebook recommending anything -- the problem is facebook trying to ban certain content entirely (at least in the context of this thread -- algorithmic feeds are a separate problem.)

> I'm not making the connection between an algorithmic feed and anything I wrote.

> The title of this thread is 'Facebook is now claiming official CDC.gov links are “False Information”'.

> I don't believe the problem is facebook recommending anything -- the problem is facebook trying to ban certain content entirely

You say you don't believe (a), and you state that the problem is (b). I'm seeing "belief" without substantiation in both of those sentences. I'm also actively not taking username "gunapologist" as related to the merits of beliefs or statements in any way.

Finally, it's not clear to me that Facebook is a censor. I hold they have a right to promote or not promote whatever they want. Give someone a megaphone, suddenly anyone not handed a megaphone cries censor. No, just not amplified. Commercially, choosing not to promote a thing is much like a TV channel choosing not to run an ad or sponsor an event, something they choose to not do all the time.

I'd rather FB promote nothing, go back to a timeline of posts from my connections, and seems like "a problem" (one of many) is solved.

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