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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

#181

Post by takeda »

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.

Given the date of the post, the content and that it happened with delay, I am quite sure his friends who disagreed with him politically reported it as a spam.

Perhaps after certain number of people report it, it automatically will be marked as one (such logic would be more reliable on FB, than for example reddit or HN, since most FB users have a single profile tied using their real name)

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

#182

Post by tommymachine »

chmod600 wrote: post #4

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

There's actually no such thing as "misinformation". It's a completely made up concept. There's just information. a la: "Look, this person said this. Here's another person, who said something else." All of this is just regular old information.

In publishing, editorial makes some amount of sense because the brand of the publisher is staked behind the claims being made. But in social media, it's the personal(/account) brand that is staked behind the claim, not that of the social media company. For example, ISIS doesn't get an editorial column in the NYT. But they can have their own page on FB & Twitter.

These companies are existing in a magical reality where they are able to exercise complete control over what can and can't be said, and garner no liability for when they use that power to promote falsehoods and stifle the truth.

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

#183

Post by zimpenfish »

FiXato wrote: post #153
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?

While mastodon.social would ensure you are always on the latest branch of the mainline Mastodon server software as it's the 'flagship' maintained by Mastodon's main/original developer, its large size has caused an increasing number of instances to mute (still allowing their users to follow users on mastodon.social, but not to include its posts in their 'federated timeline'), or outright block the instance (meaning no…

There's also the minimalist Honk[1] from 'tedunangst

[1] https://humungus.tedunangst.com/r/honk

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

#184

Post by Nevermark »

tayo42 wrote: post #122

Probably just a bug, I work in different social media, but see these kinds of posts pop up about it when something happens by accident. The comment threads are filled with people throwing out unfounded accusations, "obvious" conspiracy theories. The mob is riled up. One of the most amusing things about actually working in one of these companies is just seeing how confidently wrong some internet commenters are about w…

Well maybe the big powerful corporation should be up front about what it moderates and what it doesn't, and changes in policy as it learns. Then abide by and reference that.

That way people can understand why their post was removed without having to speculate.

Maybe filtering changes should be rolled out slowly at first, with every customer complaint analyzed, to catch these bugs you speak of before they are widespread, frustrating and look obviously suspicious.

Maybe the big powerful corporation should hire staff in proportion to their mistakes, instead of blaming a pandemic for its record profits, er ..., I mean lack of interest in finding ethical solutions to problems.

Maybe if the company made good faith explanations of mistakes, and actually fixed them, instead of letting them fester, or continually playing hide and seek with information, speculation would not be necessity.

Your attitude about your company's customers is equally disappointing.

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

#185

Post by takeda »

thinkloop wrote: post #75
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.

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.

The explanation is much simpler, look at the date, text of the post and that it was removed with a delay. His friends who disagreed with him politically must reported it as a spam. Since FB accounts are tied to real names, FB unlike other social sites can trust reports more and start blocking automatically.

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

#186

Post by jdavis703 »

type0 wrote: post #151
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.

> could get Facebook in trouble with a regulator if you squint at it. How could it?

I think congressional Republicans might hold a hearing about this… But I don’t think this runs afoul of mainstream interpretations of current regulations. Happy to stand corrected if someone has a plausible explanation for what agency would bring what kind of action on this.

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

#187

Post by bellyfullofbac »

whoknowswhat11 wrote: post #108
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.

What is the violation? I'm serious. If I post a link to a target product page on walmart it will be taken down. I'm sure amazon does the same. Do business have to allow you to promote their competitors? Such a weird thing for regulators to be chasing - there seems to be so many more obvious issues than this. Is this a political winner - in other words, does the average person think I can put of Burger King flyers in…

I remember reading an article about censorship in China, someone talking to his friend on the phone mentioned a particular term that the government didn't like, and the line got disconnected a second later. Was it a coincidence, or was someone listening, or was it computers?

Nowadays most of our communication channels are owned by corporations. Are you okay that they get to decide what we're allowed to talk about? Zoom for example banned meetings talking about the Tiananmen Square massacre; You can't post links to The Pirate Bay in private chats on Facebook... on private chat!

And this coming from me who's quite okay with Twitter banning Trump and other idiots off their platform.

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

#189

Post by jdavis703 »

Barrin92 wrote: post #133
thinkloop wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 p…

> do you seriously think there's someone sitting at facebook taking names and making lists about a social network that practically nobody even uses

Yes, when I worked at a 500-person startup there was an employee who’s sole task was to stay aware of our established competitors and nimbler startups. It was jokingly nicknamed the “office of paranoia.”

That said, I highly doubt FB is using their list of competitors to block posts mentioning them.

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

#190

Post by otterley »

tommymachine wrote: post #182
chmod600 wrote: post #4

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

There's actually no such thing as "misinformation". It's a completely made up concept. There's just information. a la: "Look, this person said this. Here's another person, who said something else." All of this is just regular old information. In publishing, editorial makes some amount of sense because the brand of the publisher is staked behind the claims being made. But in social media, it's the personal(/account) b…

Publishing provably false statements or reports with intent to deceive (or even just gross negligence) falls pretty squarely under the definition of misinformation. This isn’t very controversial, except among nut cases.
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