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Zuckerberg says FBI warning prompted Biden laptop story censorship

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Re: Zuckerberg says FBI warning prompted Biden laptop story censorship

#331
post #12

This is the great fear of many come to pass - censorship by algorithm. Facebook didn't outright ban sharing of the Hunter Biden laptop stories like Twitter did, they instead tweaked their algorithm to prevent the story from spreading. We found out about it this time because Zuckerberg owned up to it, but what about next time? For all we know, Facebook, Google and Twitter are doing this right now on a range of other s…

Their algorithms don't just target specific topics, they target specific individuals too. Certain individuals have their social media content promoted while others have their social media content suppressed.

I suspect that people are promoted or suppressed based on their stance towards the current power structure. If you say positive things about people in power and corporate entities, your content will reach more people.

Re: Zuckerberg says FBI warning prompted Biden laptop story censorship

#332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure every human has a family member with a drug problem. I don't think that justifies rifling through their possessions and data.

If you or even a family member has a drug problem, financial problems, a sex addiction, etc...all of that stuff is VERY easily exploitable by State-level espionage professionals. Since the potential for damage to the nation is high if certain information were to fall into the wrong hands, the first step in Risk Mitigation is to limit the access of the at-risk persons so they don't have the information in the first pl…

I'm curious - does that also apply to Donald Trump who himself had dealings with those countries as well as several of his children, and removed classified documents to his own house where foreign agents were known to frequent?

Re: Zuckerberg says FBI warning prompted Biden laptop story censorship

#333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever someone or something is labelled as being under the influence of Russia, I zone out.

Because there aren’t enough examples of it in recent history or just to be edgy?

Because some people think that Russia is solely a liberal boogie man. Oh the irony.

Re: Zuckerberg says FBI warning prompted Biden laptop story censorship

#334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[...] support current Russian and its invasion to Ukraine. I picked a random video with Chomsky [1] about the topic and he calls the invasion a criminal act against international law in his first sentence. [1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=68Rh1tKx98k

[dead]

What does this even mean, doubt about what? It's completely out of context. And to add a bit to my initial comment, judging something as moral or immoral, as just or unjust, as lawful or unlawful, as justified or unjustified are all different things as are understanding why someone did something, judging that decisions as good or bad, and supporting them. And do not forget that we have the benefit of hindsight when we are discussing past decisions and statements.

Re: Zuckerberg says FBI warning prompted Biden laptop story censorship

#335
post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While its easy to talk from outside the US, I am honestly a lot less worried about the content and a lot more about the fact that it is a non trivial question whether or not the son of the leader of the free world is a crack user. Reality and all this fake news stuff got weird fast. Which wasnt really surprising if you look at the upcoming clusterfuck of cheap realistic video simulations. After getting there already…

Do you have a link to the paper and or ML algorithms used in the channel you posted? Some of them have an impressive quality level.

https://ai.googleblog.com/2017/12/tacotron-2-generating-huma...

For a good one here is Obama reading the Trump Inaugural Address https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChzEdz7aVVs

Re: Zuckerberg says FBI warning prompted Biden laptop story censorship

#336
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The book example is literally one of the most common examples of censorship used throughout history. You’re redefining it.

If someone, or the state, orders or pressures me to stop publishing against my will that is censorship. If someone or a group convince me to change my mind and no longer publish, that is me exercising my free speech right.

That's not the definition of censorship. Censorship is the suppression of information by any authority who has the ability to suppress said information. The definition doesn't require a government or any aspect of coercion.

If I run an online forum and I start removing posts I don't like, that is censorship. I'm allowed to remove those posts because it's my website, but it's still censorship.

Re: Zuckerberg says FBI warning prompted Biden laptop story censorship

#337
To me, the interesting aspect of this interview was how Zuckerberg kept referring to his 'independent council of governance' as the solution to the responsibility problem, absolving the dictator-in-charge of whatever decisions those members made.

But it was not asked - and its disappointing Rogan didn't go there - to whom do these members of a presumably anonymous governance board, answer?

Without being able to observe the governance boards activities, the general public cannot exercise agency over their own rights. This is not a solution to the problem of tyranny and censorship regimes coming from those with much criminality to hide (i.e. governments), but rather cynical acqiuescance to the true source of power: the ability to keep secrets.

Re: Zuckerberg says FBI warning prompted Biden laptop story censorship

#338

Rogan kept putting words in his mouth. He kept insinuating that Facebook and the FBI talked specifically about the Hunter Biden laptop story, when Zuckerberg did not say that at all. Zuckerberg said the FBI warned them to be on high alert for propaganda. Facebook's judgment after that conversation was that the Hunter Biden laptop story fit that profile. As for the story itself, I don't know all of the ins or outs, bu…

> I don't know all of the ins or outs, but my understanding is that it doesn't amount to anything, and certainly nothing in comparison to the entanglements of the Trump family. This is a pretty astounding sentence, but I would let it go, except that I see this all the time. It reads like a dismissal of the importance of the story because there is nothing that matches the unique danger of "the Trump family". Is that f…

I'll double down on the quoted line.

Do you care about the laptop because it's ostensibly proof of corruption or because it tarnishes the reputation of the sitting president?

If it's the latter then go pound sand. If it's the former, then good, let's investigate and root out the corruption and address it in a court of law. But that requires being open to treating similar treatment of corruption by the prior administration.

Every mention of the laptop so far seems to fall in the "Biden is dirty" camp, not "let's punish this corruption".

> How would you know?

There's a wealth of evidence that Trump serves only Trump.

Disclaimer: I think the Hunter Biden affair was genteel corruption but there's been no substantiated evidence that his father was significantly influenced.

I put country over party, do you?

Re: Zuckerberg says FBI warning prompted Biden laptop story censorship

#339
post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

[...] support current Russian and its invasion to Ukraine. I picked a random video with Chomsky [1] about the topic and he calls the invasion a criminal act against international law in his first sentence. [1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=68Rh1tKx98k

There are tons of interviews and videos where he blames the U.S. and NATO for the war and sais that Ukraine must make concessions to the invaders, so yes that means being a supporter of the invasion and the regime that perpetrated it. If he is fully aware of the extent of the damage he is doing or it's just his misguided convictions, that's a different story.

Re: Zuckerberg says FBI warning prompted Biden laptop story censorship

#340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Joe Biden had been in the public eye for 50 years, releasing tax returns, etc. Hunter Biden was not running for office. Perhaps it is possible that this laptop, at the time completely unverified, had some magic smoking gun to bring down a 50 year career, magically showing up in a random place 10 days before the election. But obviously the much, much more likely situation is that it was either fake or insignificant. I…

If the question were Was it reasonable to suppress the laptop story? this would be an excellent answer. The question I asked is: If you rely, for your mental picture of what is... important and what can be dismissed, on the same institutions that suppress true stories and promote false ones, then how even are you making these choices?

Take in the information as a whole and sift out one's best guess. That's all anyone can do.

Cognitive bias is a bitch though.

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