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Facebook users in Romania see content related to street protests reviewed

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Re: Facebook users in Romania see content related to street protests reviewed

#31
post #5

I was joking before and said that it is inevitable that Facebook, Google and Twitter will eventually sell SaaS (Silencing as a Service). But maybe it wasn't a joke after all... It is simply too tempting to not do it. They have information which the Stasis and KGBs of the past would kill for. One thing Romanian government should be careful with is not listening to protesters. That is at least one country where they ha…

Occupy and anti-Trump protestors should study and learn how that works. You see to have effective peaceful protests, there has to be a credible threat of extreme and overwhelming violence that will follow unless the government listens. Government should be afraid of the people. Those groups cannot begin to challenge the government with violence. What you are suggesting is much more likely to end up in an orgy of bloo…

The parent was clearly refering to the early 2017 protests, not those of 1989. It's as if you did not read one of his paragraphs, the one just before what you quoted.

Re: Facebook users in Romania see content related to street protests reviewed

#32
post #5

I was joking before and said that it is inevitable that Facebook, Google and Twitter will eventually sell SaaS (Silencing as a Service). But maybe it wasn't a joke after all... It is simply too tempting to not do it. They have information which the Stasis and KGBs of the past would kill for. One thing Romanian government should be careful with is not listening to protesters. That is at least one country where they ha…

> Occupy and anti-Trump protestors should study and learn how that works. You see to have effective peaceful protests, there has to be a credible threat of extreme and overwhelming violence that will follow unless the government listens. Government should be afraid of the people. Please don't encourage violence. The anti-Trumpers aren't fighting corruption, they're fighting democracy and their fellow citizens. Note t…

Unexpected words from the devil himself!

Re: Facebook users in Romania see content related to street protests reviewed

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Occupy and anti-Trump protestors should study and learn how that works. You see to have effective peaceful protests, there has to be a credible threat of extreme and overwhelming violence that will follow unless the government listens. Government should be afraid of the people. Please don't encourage violence. The anti-Trumpers aren't fighting corruption, they're fighting democracy and their fellow citizens. Note t…

> But that's no justification for putting on masks and beating up random people. Nor is it an excuse for encouraging others to do the same. The problem is, until those in powers are not afraid that their bodies will literally be dragged through the streets, they have no incentive to not do anything they need to stay in power. And the more authoritarian the rule of those in power is, the greater the desire of those no…

When the revolution comes for your head, too, you might have a different view on that, and history has shown that to happen time and time again.

Re: Facebook users in Romania see content related to street protests reviewed

#34

Couldn't it be that the Romanian government (or someone who has an interest in this matter) is mass reporting these posts and users? If I wanted to make someone shut up on Facebook; I'd write a bot that uses hundreds of fake Facebook accounts to report certain users. This would cause Facebook's automated systems to temporarily disable posting rights till they've had a chance to review the user in question. Eventually…

That's most likely the case. There's even no need for bots or automated ways, the ruling party has a lot of followers which are know to follow orders. Plus, there's been plenty of times when they bought votes and people support.

Re: Facebook users in Romania see content related to street protests reviewed

#35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Occupy and anti-Trump protestors should study and learn how that works. You see to have effective peaceful protests, there has to be a credible threat of extreme and overwhelming violence that will follow unless the government listens. Government should be afraid of the people. Those groups cannot begin to challenge the government with violence. What you are suggesting is much more likely to end up in an orgy of bloo…

The parent was clearly refering to the early 2017 protests, not those of 1989. It's as if you did not read one of his paragraphs, the one just before what you quoted.

[deleted]

Re: Facebook users in Romania see content related to street protests reviewed

#36
post #22

As a Romanian what seems to happen is that a large group of supporters of the ruling party were coordinated in reporting the protests-related posts. I think facebook could easily implement an algorithm to detect reporting rings and actually suspending their member's accounts. Just like reddit is doing with the upvoting rings.

and what precisely is the difference between a 'reporting ring' and an 'activist group', algorithmically?

The ring is just an indicator of coordination. Coordiniation of what is left up to the humans.

Re: Facebook users in Romania see content related to street protests reviewed

#37

This is exactly why I think it's dangerous to have a company like Facebook censor people, even in the name of "fake news." It's within their right to do so on their platform, but I don't think they should. You'll never get it 100% right, and real/legitimate people will end up silenced because of it. I wouldn't want that on my conscience.

Centralization is the real issue here. If people were sending emails to each other, this could not have happened.

Some would perhaps end up in spam, but if you're receiving the "same" message from multiple people, the information itself would eventually came through.

Re: Facebook users in Romania see content related to street protests reviewed

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Occupy and anti-Trump protestors should study and learn how that works. You see to have effective peaceful protests, there has to be a credible threat of extreme and overwhelming violence that will follow unless the government listens. Government should be afraid of the people. Those groups cannot begin to challenge the government with violence. What you are suggesting is much more likely to end up in an orgy of bloo…

The parent was clearly refering to the early 2017 protests, not those of 1989. It's as if you did not read one of his paragraphs, the one just before what you quoted.

OP said: “Nobody forgot that. (the 1989 protest)”.

Thus the implication seems quite clear - rise up and murder a leader if you want to be heard (then and now).

Re: Facebook users in Romania see content related to street protests reviewed

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Occupy and anti-Trump protestors should study and learn how that works. You see to have effective peaceful protests, there has to be a credible threat of extreme and overwhelming violence that will follow unless the government listens. Government should be afraid of the people. Please don't encourage violence. The anti-Trumpers aren't fighting corruption, they're fighting democracy and their fellow citizens. Note t…

> But that's no justification for putting on masks and beating up random people. Nor is it an excuse for encouraging others to do the same. The problem is, until those in powers are not afraid that their bodies will literally be dragged through the streets, they have no incentive to not do anything they need to stay in power. And the more authoritarian the rule of those in power is, the greater the desire of those no…

Violence? Drag his body down the street? Attacking innocent people until everyone does what you say? Those groups get labelled terrorist.

That is the difference between a first world country and a second or third. Some people may hate trump but they also know in a few years people will have the option of voting for someone else.

When you change leaders by dragging them down a street you get the types of leaders who will drag you down the street if need be.

Re: Facebook users in Romania see content related to street protests reviewed

#40
post #26

I chose to believe that this is a side-effect of facebook trying to combat fake news with some lame algorithms and an understaffed department of reviewers, not facebook actively trying to please the Romanian authorities. But even so, this shows how utterly unprepared facebook is for its role as a de facto news business. A bunch of engineers thinking they are smarter than they actually are unwillingly facilitate the e…

Zuckerberg's Switchblade: Make it look like a side-effect of trying to combat fake news.
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