Meta blocks links to hacked JD Vance dossier over election interference concerns
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Re: Meta blocks links to hacked JD Vance dossier over election interference concerns
#2Per the change log in https://transparency.meta.com/policies/community-standards/p... the bracketed language below, providing for exceptions for newsworthiness, was removed from Meta’s policy on June 27, 2024.
> {Except in limited cases of newsworthiness, }content claimed by the poster or confirmed to come from a hacked source, regardless of whether the affected person is a public figure or a private individual.
Coincidentally, this was the exact same day that, per the indictment (pg. 27, https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25176674/iran.pdf), Iranian hackers allegedly reached out to try to share the documents in question with campaign officials.
It’s exceedingly fast for a leak about the hack to have turned into legal language changes, and it’s unlikely the events were directly related, unless there’s more to the story. But this is also in the context of Meta’s shutdown of other transparency tools: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
In isolation, it’s perhaps good that Meta is not setting itself as an arbiter of newsworthiness, if the rule is applied evenly and equally to future hacks of various parties. But the rule is too new, even setting aside coincidences, to know if it will be.
Re: Meta blocks links to hacked JD Vance dossier over election interference concerns
#3I’m not thrilled corporations are so willing to engage in a coverup.
Democracy is vulnerable to manipulation. But that’s an essential vulnerability.
In the end, it’s the citizenry which is responsible for sober decision making.
I understand the impulse to keep “irrelevant” or “manipulative” information away from decision makers, but this impulse is only appropriate when the decision makers are perfunctory.
Is that where we are? I don’t think so.
Re: Meta blocks links to hacked JD Vance dossier over election interference concerns
#4link to pdf of dossier here
https://www.kenklippenstein.com/api/v1/file/fc39e78d-f510-49...
Re: Meta blocks links to hacked JD Vance dossier over election interference concerns
#5I really wish these companies would be consistent about their policies. It feels like they pick and choose when to enforce them, often times seemingly in line with their employees’ or leaders’ biases. For example what constitutes a ‘hacked’ item? The JD Vance dossier? Biden’s daughter’s journal? Trump’s tax returns? Hunter Biden’s laptop? Diplomatic cables from Wikileaks? Why are some of these given a pass and others censored? I don’t care for the completely subjective claim of “newsworthiness”, which is clearly a shameless excuse for biased application of policies.
Stepping back - the degree to which suppression of information has been normalized is disturbing. We’re seeing this all over the world today. Brazil with secret censorship of social media content and users. The EU with DSA. Australia with the recently proposed misinformation bill and fines for social media companies. Canada with various censorship measures. The US with government agencies aggressively pressuring private companies to perform censorship on their behalf. And of course private companies acting in near perfect coordination to shut down information sources. The most recent example of that is probably the ban of RT (Russian state controlled media).
Individuals should be allowed to communicate freely, access information freely, and decide for themselves what to make of that information. They should be able to decide what is factual. They don’t need protection, and the claims that they should be censored for their won good is at worst dystopian and at best a way to keep people from seeing information that undermines those in power. We need a massive revival of free speech values, globally.
Re: Meta blocks links to hacked JD Vance dossier over election interference concerns
#6I really wish these companies would be consistent about their policies. It feels like they pick and choose when to enforce them, often times seemingly in line with their employees’ or leaders’ biases. For example what constitutes a ‘hacked’ item? The JD Vance dossier? Biden’s daughter’s journal? Trump’s tax returns? Hunter Biden’s laptop? Diplomatic cables from Wikileaks? Why are some of these given a pass and others…
Well you will be happy to hear that Facebook scrapped their newsworthiness exception just in time for this.
Re: Meta blocks links to hacked JD Vance dossier over election interference concerns
#7I’m not thrilled corporations are so willing to engage in a coverup. Democracy is vulnerable to manipulation. But that’s an essential vulnerability. In the end, it’s the citizenry which is responsible for sober decision making. I understand the impulse to keep “irrelevant” or “manipulative” information away from decision makers, but this impulse is only appropriate when the decision makers are perfunctory. Is that wh…
Fortunately Enron Musk is here to defend free speech.
Re: Meta blocks links to hacked JD Vance dossier over election interference concerns
#8If it's in the public interest, and it's true, then it's news and should be published regardless of who came up with it or their possible motives are for doing so.
The PDF link posted by moneycantbuy in this thread appears to be appropriately redacted, hiding personal information which isn't newsworthy such as his social security number and home address.. but even then, I just tried Googling "JD Vance home" and I get tons of results showing his home. I'm sure anyone could go to the Hamilton County records office and obtain the redacted property records.
Basically, this all looks like public information. There's no good reason for any platform to censor this, unless a version containing the unredacted SSN is floating around.. I can see reason in disallowing that version, if it exists.
Re: Meta blocks links to hacked JD Vance dossier over election interference concerns
#9If it's in the public interest, and it's true, then it's news and should be published regardless of who came up with it or their possible motives are for doing so. The PDF link posted by moneycantbuy in this thread appears to be appropriately redacted, hiding personal information which isn't newsworthy such as his social security number and home address.. but even then, I just tried Googling "JD Vance home" and I get…
On the other hand this type of censorship occurred in favor of the Biden candidacy in relation to the Hunter Biden laptop scandal.
What’s fair is fair, if they censor one set of controversial findings they ought censor the other.
Re: Meta blocks links to hacked JD Vance dossier over election interference concerns
#10If it's in the public interest, and it's true, then it's news and should be published regardless of who came up with it or their possible motives are for doing so. The PDF link posted by moneycantbuy in this thread appears to be appropriately redacted, hiding personal information which isn't newsworthy such as his social security number and home address.. but even then, I just tried Googling "JD Vance home" and I get…
On the other hand this type of censorship occurred in favor of the Biden candidacy in relation to the Hunter Biden laptop scandal. What’s fair is fair, if they censor one set of controversial findings they ought censor the other.
I think the censorship of this JD Vance document is positive for the Harris campaign. The actual document is run-of-the-mill opposition research, but when some people unfamiliar with the contents hear about it being censored they will assume it's as scandalous as Hunter Biden's laptop.