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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

#211

Post by ssivark »

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.

Well, Facebook bought the Israeli startup Onavo explicitly so they could track which new social apps are starting to become popular on user phones, so they could quickly acquire those or copy their features and kill the competition.

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

#212

Post by [deleted] »

tommymachine wrote: post #209
otterley wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What's the burden of proof for calling someone a nut case?

[deleted]

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

#213

Post by pokey00 »

judge2020 wrote: post #41
silisili wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, seems mastodon is fragmented or segmented into many independent networks. Do those interact with each other in any way? I'd hate to join one and miss truly interesting content on another...is it possible to distill multiple into one on the user end? Just asking, as I've never tried it before and the concept seems a little confusing.

Yes, on mastodon you can follow @someone@anothermastodon.local even if you are on firstmastodon.local, and the server running your instance will phone out to anothermastodon.local to retrieve posts from the person you follow.

Does firstmastodon.local need to be federated with anothermastodon.local for you to follow someone on it?

I don't understand the system well enough to know if this is a dumb question or not.

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

#214

Post by ThrowAway145 »

jdavis703 wrote: post #186
type0 wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Congressional Republicans? Lina Khan from the FTC who is personally taking up targeting FB as her claim to fame is a Democrat. Rep. Mike Doyle, chair of the House subcommittee on Communications and Technology, who grilled FB in 2020 on mis-information and Section 230 is also a Democrat.

Make no mistake, this is bi-partisan. Both sides have their own agendas against Big Tech.

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

#215

Post by tayo42 »

Nevermark wrote: post #184
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 widespre…

Your making excuses for being confidently uninformed.

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

#216

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

Ekaros wrote: post #18

Remember private platform and only governments can censor. Also first amendment. Free speech only applies to government not private companies. They can show you door if you try to use their platform to market your competing product...

How does that work when the government admits to directly working with that private company to ask for specific posts and people to be censored? Is that still not a violation of 1A?

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

#217

Post by vmception »

jonnycomputer wrote: post #37
vmception wrote: post #2

This seems like an anticompetitive practice Even if its toward an open source federated network that has no head and can host marginalized content The implementation here seems to be an anticompetitive practice, which is sanctionable by governments in the US

"practice" assumes a lot here.

okay, replace the word with “action”.

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

#218

Post by rglullis »

ribosometronome wrote: post #203
rglullis wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there is a tiny little bit of a jump if you are acting this quickly and this harshly on information without verifying. Concretely to your hypothetical: don't attribute to misinformation the issue that is most like your barbaric reaction. Not to say that the liar should not be punished, it should bear a big responsibility in the consequences of the actions. But at the end of day it was not the liar the one tha…

It would be, but also you showed him pictures to prove it, he just didn't know they were photoshopped. And linked him to a news article on thebostontribune.com that was reporting that his kids were dead. And his family and friends were sharing their condolences. It's not as if folk AREN'T acting on misinformation or showing that they aren't really capable of distinguishing between the two. Tons can. And tons won't re…

This seems like really stretching the analogy just to remove personal responsibility.

If I am the father of the missing children and I see the "family and friends" sharing their condolences, I would go talk to them first. If someone comes with pictures trying to accuse someone of something, no matter how shocking the accusations, there would still be the question of (a) why is someone bothering with taking pictures and not taking to the authorities beforehand and (b) what are the consequences for me if I went on a rampage attack based on bogus evidence.

To get a little bit on topic: the reason that censorship is worse than misinformation is that we should always operate on the premise that our information is incomplete, inaccurate or distorted by those controlling the information channels.

Without censorship, I can listen to different sources (no matter how crazy or unsound they are) and I can try to discern what makes sense and does not. With censorship, any dissent is silenced, so we get one source of information - who can never get questioned - or worse we get to see many sources of information but only the ones that are aligned with the censors and gives us a false consensus and the illusion of quality in information.

Only idiots can walk around in the world of today and confidently repeat whatever they hear from "official" sources as unquestionable truths.

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

#219

Post by minoru »

tayo42 wrote: post #124
Lio wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that were so, why censor mentions of it?

you dont know that theyre censoring mentions of it. You have one post that got removed that happened to have it in it. And an article trying to be a victim and jump on the facebook is evil bandwagon. Do you have proof of a trend?

The post was now updated; it mentions that at least three more FB posts with links to joinmastodon.org were marked as spam: https://octodon.social/@yhancik/106897948169079191

Four data points ain't a lot, but you can no longer claim it's a one-off event either.

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