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Facebook Censored Me For Mentioning Open-Source Social Network Mastodon

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

#161

Post by erehweb »

danShumway wrote: post #157

I think this is highly unlikely to be a targeted attempt to censor Mastodon. The simpler explanation (and the explanation with most historical evidence behind it) is just that Facebook's AI algorithms are kind of bad and nobody in the company understands how they work or what associations they build. However, the underlying idea that Facebook would block links to competitors is historically valid. As recently as 2016…

Definitely agree that the first assumption you should jump to re FB is that the algorithm is bad, or something broke. Of course FB knows this, so their lack of investment in people who could clean up after these repeated errors is damning.

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

#163

Post by avsteele »

throwawaysea wrote: post #111
mikeytown2 wrote: post #22

https://joinmastodon.org/ Might as well see what FB is scared about

The big problem I have with Mastodon is that it has a culture of censorship equivalent to Facebook. My recollection is that to be listed in their directory of instances, you need to abide by the content rules created by key Mastodon people, and those instances in turn are required to only peer with other instances that follow the same rules. Those rules basically include moderation based on various progressive politi…

I think you are correct about having your instance listed, but I created my own server from a digital ocean droplet (newathens.net) (its quite easy) and I can follow anyone. So I don't know about that second part

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

#164

Post by tentacleuno »

folmar wrote: post #89
silisili wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perfect. I'll give it a go. Any specific recommendations? I figured mastodon.social just because it's the largest, is that bad reasoning?

It's not bad for a user, but somewhat kills the distributed effect in the long run.

In reality, Mastodon instances block a lot of other neighboring instances a lot of the time.

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

#165

Post by sneak »

ineedasername wrote: post #47
mikeytown2 wrote: post #22

https://joinmastodon.org/ Might as well see what FB is scared about

If I used social networks, I might give it a try. (I did actually check it out though) But all social media networks seem anti-productive to me and, well, just not actually very social. With respect to connecting with family & friends, I'd much prefer a pure platform based pretty much on just that. With respect to other people with interesting things to say, I'd prefer blogs aggregating & curated sites like, well, HN…

The social networks you may be used to are historically manipulative, censoring and shaping your feed to benefit the social network, not the society.

The nice thing about these open protocols is that they are simply reverse chronological. You see what you choose to see, in the order it was published.

It's a totally different experience than the engineered rollercoaster that is corporate social media.

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

#166

Post by baby »

Imnimo wrote: 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.

But… it makes for great publicity for Mastodon.

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

#167

Post by heavenlyblue »

cowsandmilk wrote: post #154
stncls wrote: 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.

There are far more discreet approaches than marking these messages as spam and notifying users. My guess is that an actual person reported this as spam and Facebook automatically accepted the report.

Spam is an easy plausible deniability

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

#168

Post by sneak »

silisili wrote: post #70
schmorptron wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a timeline that randomly mixes in posts from users from other instances whom users from your instance follow

Perfect. I'll give it a go. Any specific recommendations? I figured mastodon.social just because it's the largest, is that bad reasoning?

Beware, many instances will blacklist other instances simply based on rumor or clique, and it makes it impossible to follow or read users on those other instances via the first.

I recommend evaluating primarily based on the censorship policies of the instance operator. For example, the list of servers on joinmastodon is restricted to those who are actively engaged in censorship of legal speech (full uncensored instances are not indexed there) so you may be interested in searching for instances not shown there, depending on your attitude toward censorship.

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

#169

Post by fortran77 »

Where did he post this? My guess it wasn't just to his "wall."

If he posted it to a group (i.e., his college alumni group, or a sports fan forum, or a gamers group), no doubt several people tagged it as spam--which it may have been--and the algorithm kicked in.

There's no Big Conspiracy at Facebook to keep Mastodon down.

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

#170

Post by danShumway »

erehweb wrote: post #161
danShumway wrote: post #157

I think this is highly unlikely to be a targeted attempt to censor Mastodon. The simpler explanation (and the explanation with most historical evidence behind it) is just that Facebook's AI algorithms are kind of bad and nobody in the company understands how they work or what associations they build. However, the underlying idea that Facebook would block links to competitors is historically valid. As recently as 2016…

Definitely agree that the first assumption you should jump to re FB is that the algorithm is bad, or something broke. Of course FB knows this, so their lack of investment in people who could clean up after these repeated errors is damning.

I'm sure someone could link here to the Mozilla thread about Google being slow to fix "convenient" mistakes that broke Firefox, regardless of whether or not those mistakes were intentional or not. Sometimes even accidents can be revealing about where a company's priorities lie and what things they actually think are important.

But that's probably a much deeper, longer conversation to have. I do believe that Facebook regularly uses the poor performance of its moderation algorithms at scale as a shield against public scrutiny, and as a way to occasionally influence public policy.

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