Facebook removed a post on the Nation of Islam’s page that violated the company’s policies against misinformation about the coronavirus vaccine, the company said Friday.
The post linked to video of a Nation of Islam (NOI) event held last weekend in which the group’s leader, Louis Farrakhan, called the coronavirus vaccine a “vial of death.” Other speakers at the event falsely claimed that the vaccine has caused hundreds of deaths and thousands of serious injuries.
h/t Marvin
In a report that looked at child sexual abuse material on social media during the year 2020, Facebook was by far the largest violator with over 20 times more child sexual abuse material than other online platforms like Twitter, Google, and Reddit.
The 30 staffers, whose job was to spot and remove harrowing material on the site, claim they were not given adequate training to deal with the content or access to doctors or psychiatrists while working for Facebook.
British parliamentarians have challenged Facebook tsar Mark Zuckerberg over the tech giant’s abortive efforts to censor a history group for discussing the traditional Black Country dish faggots and peas.
As Turkey launched a military offensive against Kurdish minorities in neighboring Syria in early 2018, Facebook’s top executives faced a political dilemma.
Turkey was demanding the social media giant block Facebook posts from the People’s Protection Units, a mostly Kurdish militia group the Turkish government had targeted. Should Facebook ignore the request, as it has done elsewhere, and risk losing access to tens of millions of users in Turkey? Or should it silence the group, known as the YPG, even if doing so added to the perception that the company too often bends to the wishes of authoritarian governments?
Canadian media organizations are heralding Facebook’s decision to back away from its news sharing ban in Australia as a win for financially struggling news publishers across the world.
Australia has been at the front-line of governments pushing to make digital platforms pay for journalism and Facebook’s decision is “very significant” for Canada, said John Hinds, president of News Media Canada, a lobbying group.
“I think once these agreements have been made, and once the platforms agree in principle, it really is about moving to the mechanisms of how it’s going to be applied in Canada,” said Hinds, who supports Canada’s adopting a model like Australia’s.
I dunno, this doesn’t sound like much of a win.
Facebook blocked all Australian news content on its service over proposed legislation requiring it and Alphabet Inc’s Google to pay fees to Australian publishers for news links.
Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault, in charge of crafting similar legislation to be unveiled in coming months, condemned Facebook’s action and said it would not deter Ottawa.
Last year, the Australian government presented Google and Facebook with an ultimatum: if the companies wanted to continue to allow users to link to news articles, they would be required to compensate news organizations. The Australian plan called for the creation of a mandated code that would create a process to determine the price to be paid for the links. Facebook’s response made it clear that if that was the choice – links with mandated payments or no links – it would choose the latter and block Australian news sharing from its service. While some described this as a threat (including Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault) or a bluff, it turns out the company was serious.
For years, Facebook has been in a defensive crouch amid a slew of privacy scandals, antitrust lawsuits and charges that it was letting hate speech and extremism destroy democracy. Early Thursday, though, it abruptly pivoted to take the offensive in Australia, where it lowered the boom on publishers and the government with a sudden decision to block news on its platform across the entire country.
That power play — a response to an Australian law that would compel Facebook to pay publishers for using their news stories — might easily backfire, given how concerned many governments have grown about the company’s unchecked influence over society, democracy and political discourse. But it’s still a startling reminder of just how much power CEO Mark Zuckerberg can wield at the touch of a figurative button.
Topple the oligarchs.
Facebook Inc. will begin labeling some user posts that mention climate change in the same way it has annotated posts discussing elections and Covid-19, a sign the social network is taking climate-related misinformation more seriously.
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada vowed on Thursday to make Facebook Inc pay for news content, seeking allies in the media battle with tech giants and pledging not to back down if the social media platform shuts off the country’s news as it did in Australia.
Facebook blocked all Australian news content on its service over proposed legislation requiring it and Alphabet Inc’s Google to pay fees to Australian publishers for news links.
If you weren’t worried about the hoodies who run Silicon Valley, you should be now.
A showdown is underway between America’s tech giants and Australia just because it’s trying to get them to pay for copyrighted content they have stolen for decades from traditional media companies.
On Thursday, millions of Australians woke up to find a drastically different version of Facebook – one devoid of any news.
Overnight, Facebook banned Australian users from sharing or viewing news content on the platform – in response to a proposed law that would make tech giants pay for such content.
Facebook has, in just a matter of years, established itself as the place where many get their news. And the platform’s outsized influence on how some newsrooms make editorial and hiring decisions has led to it being described as “the absent editor in the room”.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has labelled Facebook’s decision to ban Australian users from viewing news content as “arrogant” and warned that he is in regular contact with world leaders, who are all contending with how to better regulate Big Tech.
“Facebook’s actions to unfriend Australia today, cutting off essential information services on health and emergency services, were as arrogant as they were disappointing,” he said in a statement posted on Facebook.
Google has been cutting deals with publishers such as News Corp, and now also is in talks with Canadian publishers but I suspect Facebook isn’t acting independently of their brethren in the Oligopoly.
This seems a suicidal position for FB to take. Or is it?
#DeleteFacebook! Campaign to ditch the social media giant surges on Twitter as US politician says blocking all news from Australians ‘wasn’t compatible with democracy’
