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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

#61

Post by stncls »

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.

Yes, Facebook's upper management is definitely not freaking out about Mastodon. However, from my own experience working at a large, somewhat ethically-challenged organisation (not fb), it would not surprise me in the least if they gently yet actively pushed down a competitor, provided it can be done discreetly.

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

#62

Post by rgrieselhuber »

whatshisface wrote: post #60
rgrieselhuber wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Censorship is the sloppiest possible solution to the epistemological crisis. I thought we figured this out during the Enlightenment.

New people are being born every day who weren't around for the steps forward made in the past. If only there was an institution that could step up to the task of teaching them. Instead there are institutions for getting them to buy toys and making them do algebra drills.

It's a really hard problem to solve. History has shown time and again how easy it is to coopt institutions as well.

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

#63

Post by matthewmacleod »

breakingcups wrote: post #58
ineedasername wrote: post #32

Interesting how "because COVID" has become the thinly veiled excuse here. A similar manifestation of the "think of the children" trope that can be used to manipulate emotions and shut down dissent.

If there's one job that doesn't exactly depend on what location you're working from...

…then it's not content moderation, which AFAIK companies like Facebook and Google require to take place on-site, in a controlled environment with no electronic devices, due to the potential data security issues involved.

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

#64

Post by titzer »

rgrieselhuber wrote: post #56
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.

Censorship is the sloppiest possible solution to the epistemological crisis. I thought we figured this out during the Enlightenment.

Censorship, meet Filter Bubble. Filter Bubble, Censorship. And this little tike you've got with you, what's his name? Engagement Metric? Oh, how cute. Nice to meet you. You look innocent. I'm guessing you couldn't do any major societal damage at all. You're certainly not a little problem child.

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

#65

Post by silisili »

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.

Thanks. But how would I find said user...is there a way to get erm, the top posts of the day from anothermastodon and firstmastodon together?

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

#66

Post by deltree7 »

breakingcups wrote: post #58
ineedasername wrote: post #32

Interesting how "because COVID" has become the thinly veiled excuse here. A similar manifestation of the "think of the children" trope that can be used to manipulate emotions and shut down dissent.

If there's one job that doesn't exactly depend on what location you're working from...

It is more nuanced.

FB team can be overwhelmed with Covid related misinformation.

A lot of content moderation is outsourced to countries like India where productivity, availability may have degraded due to covid that ravaged through the country.

Many firms still have backlogs from Covid disruption.

If you have worked at / started any half-decent sized company you'd have known

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

#67

Post by Noumenon72 »

titzer wrote: post #64
rgrieselhuber wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Censorship is the sloppiest possible solution to the epistemological crisis. I thought we figured this out during the Enlightenment.

Censorship, meet Filter Bubble. Filter Bubble, Censorship. And this little tike you've got with you, what's his name? Engagement Metric? Oh, how cute. Nice to meet you. You look innocent. I'm guessing you couldn't do any major societal damage at all. You're certainly not a little problem child.

Filter bubble is not a real problem:

https://twitter.com/degenrolf/status/1261164727486615559?lan...

https://twitter.com/degenrolf/status/1067780924014772224

Whereas censorship is lindy among things that have bad effects on society.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindy_effect

So give the most caution against the proven bad thing and not the one you're in a trendy moral panic about.

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

#68

Post by schmorptron »

silisili wrote: post #65
judge2020 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Thanks. But how would I find said user...is there a way to get erm, the top posts of the day from anothermastodon and firstmastodon together?

There is a timeline that randomly mixes in posts from users from other instances whom users from your instance follow

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

#69

Post by jeroenhd »

breakingcups wrote: post #58
ineedasername wrote: post #32

Interesting how "because COVID" has become the thinly veiled excuse here. A similar manifestation of the "think of the children" trope that can be used to manipulate emotions and shut down dissent.

If there's one job that doesn't exactly depend on what location you're working from...

I disagree with the notion that anyone anywhere can do the job. These moderators don't just moderate the rants your grandma posts about shopping malls. There's a documentary about what the content moderation people do, and they end up seeing horrific stuff like (sexual) child abuse, gore, and all the other worst thing humanity has to offer. Many of these people end up depressed or in therapy.

I don't know if Facebook has their stuff together, but I think it's unethical to have people review random user uploaded content without close access to a mental health specialist.

You can have several degrees of intensity a reviewer might be able to see (to not expose all reviewers to the very worst on a regular basis), but no algorithm can clearly identify the nastiest of the nasty content. The algorithm sees "government pedo club", flags it as fake news, and who knows what the shared content actually contains. It could be a conspiracy nut, it could just as well be actual child porn. The probability is low, but you need someone standing by just as well, in my opinion.

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

#70

Post by silisili »

schmorptron wrote: post #68
silisili wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. But how would I find said user...is there a way to get erm, the top posts of the day from anothermastodon and firstmastodon together?

There is a timeline that randomly mixes in posts from users from other instances whom users from your instance follow

Perfect. I'll give it a go. Any specific recommendations? I figured mastodon.social just because it's the largest, is that bad reasoning?
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