Live data from Hacker News

Facebook Censored Me For Mentioning Open-Source Social Network Mastodon

changelog.complete.org

131–140 of 304 posts

Re: Facebook Censored Me For Mentioning Open-Source Social Network Mastodon

#131
post #4

Censorship is always abused. Maybe this time or maybe not. But it's always abused. And yes, it's worse than misinformation.

Buddy Buddy WAKE UP, Facebook is not a public service, it's not there to serve a nobody like you, it's a private company that exist to make money. You can't use their service to trash them and promote their competition, that is not a reasonable business model for them. To finance you by giving you a free platform to promote their competition and trash them is not a good trade for them. DO YOU UNDERSTAND???

If it serves the public, it's a public service. Utility companies were private companies until people decided they weren't.

Re: Facebook Censored Me For Mentioning Open-Source Social Network Mastodon

#132
So they are at it again.

In late 2015 Whatsapp, which was acquired by Facebook in 2014, was caught with the pants down intentionally crippling functionality when detecting links to Telegram.

https://www.androidpolice.com/2016/09/09/whatsapp-is-blockin...

Re: Facebook Censored Me For Mentioning Open-Source Social Network Mastodon

#133
post #8

I doubt anyone at Facebook is freaking out about Mastodon and setting out to censor all mention of it. It's probably just a keyword or link that tends to co-appear with other, actually rule-breaking content, and some automated system has learned to block it. Still, it does seem like the sort of thing that could get Facebook in trouble with a regulator if you squint at it.

I have personally never heard of, or seen, any scams or malware related to mastadon - aren't you giving too much benefit of the doubt? My best guess is that their lists of competitors to keep an eye on got mixed up with other stuff. Or, of course, that they simply don't want to promote competitors on their platform, which would be normal for any non-monopoly.

>aren't you giving too benefit of the doubt

the largest mastodon instance has 500k users. Facebook has two billion users. If you can post twitter and tiktok and tumblr links on facebook, do you seriously think there's someone sitting at facebook taking names and making lists about a social network that practically nobody even uses

there are competitors a hundred times as large you can link too. My first guess is it probably tripped some NSFW filter because on some mastodon instances there's quite a lot of porn.

Re: Facebook Censored Me For Mentioning Open-Source Social Network Mastodon

#134
post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's probably an AI thing. When these things occur it's a good idea not to presumptively jumping to attributing to human interference until more evidence surface.

I would argue the opposite. We should not allow companies to use "AI" as an excuse to avoid responsibility. I think it is perfectly reasonable to hold Facebook directly responsible for this.

Exactly. Delegating decisions does not reduce responsibility.

Re: Facebook Censored Me For Mentioning Open-Source Social Network Mastodon

#135
post #82
post #77

I went to joinmastadon.org Please disable your ad blocker and reload the page. I disable adblock and reload. Please disable your ad blocker and reload the page. Yknow

It's joinmastOdon.org, not joinmastAdon.org. We don't own the misspelled domain. I wonder how many people fall prey to it though.

A shocking amount of people in the comments are misspelling it despite it being written in the headline.

Re: Facebook Censored Me For Mentioning Open-Source Social Network Mastodon

#136

Facebook has a blacklist on competitors, facebook wants to control the narrative, there is a reason your feed isnt by timeline, its artificially controlled. Same thing happens on youtube, twitter, etc. I've been using addons and rss feeds to go back to time/date ordered feeds, so I don't miss things I want to follow. You can use RSS feeds to go around soft censorship, using apps like IFTTT, etc. Pockettube addon for…

The naivety in here is astonishing. "The AI just messed up". Facebook's entire existence is 1) identifying the smallest details in information 2) buying up small competitors before they are an issue.

Re: Facebook Censored Me For Mentioning Open-Source Social Network Mastodon

#137
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What liability? A few million dollar fine? Look at what Microsoft did to numerous competitors over decades: Borland, Mozilla, etc. FB squelching Mastodon is minor league.

Yes, Microsoft has famously never had any major issues with antitrust

While they have run afoul of the government a few times the penalties and "negative press" ever amounted to anything that slowed down their growth or revenue. So to the OP's point if you can afford the fine it doesn't really matter?

Re: Facebook Censored Me For Mentioning Open-Source Social Network Mastodon

#138
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, Facebook's upper management is definitely not freaking out about Mastodon. However, from my own experience working at a large, somewhat ethically-challenged organisation (not fb), it would not surprise me in the least if they gently yet actively pushed down a competitor, provided it can be done discreetly.

Doubt it, not worth the liabillity risk.

[deleted]

Re: Facebook Censored Me For Mentioning Open-Source Social Network Mastodon

#139
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt Facebook even thinks of Mastodon as a competitor.

No doubt - but there was also a big move of Gab and some other more right wing communities to Mastodon I think at one point - be curious to know if the Mastodon links are all showing as high scoring in whatever generic facebook system is being used. Could easily imagine some involve links to stuff facebook isn't interested in pushing.

Gab and Torba are awesome. Crusaders against the tech hegemony
Post reply on HN