There's an interesting discussion that happens in content moderation circles with regards to government requests for takedowns: are those requests about content that violates local laws or about the content violating website policies? Many people lump these two things together, but they're actually pretty different in practice. Obviously, if a government comes across content that…
Facebook Promises To Distinguish Takedowns From Governments; Whether They re For Illegal Content, Or Merely Site Rules Violations techdirt.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from techdirt.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Over the past few weeks, as protests in and in solidarity with Palestine have grown, so too have violations of the freedom of expression of Palestinians and their allies by major social media companies. From posts incorrectly flagged by Facebook as incitement to violence, to financial censorship of relief payments made on Venmo, and the removal of Instagram Stories (which also heavily affected activists in Colombia, Canada, and Brazil), Palestinians are experiencing an unprecedented level of censorship during a time where digital communications are absolutely critical.
The vitality of social media during a time like this cannot be understated. Journalistic coverage from the ground is minimal owing to a number of factors, including restrictions on movement by Israeli authorities while, as the New York Times reported, misinformation is rife and has been repeated by otherwise reliable media sources. Israeli officials have even been caught spreading misinformation on social media.
Re The Lefty Twit Called Zuck
We have no use for Donald Trump, but even less for the arrogant lefty twit, Mark Zuckerberg, who joined a conspiracy of Silicon Valley Robber Barons on January 6th to ban a then sitting president of the United States from their social media platforms.
Yes, we know they are private companies. So they can do anything they damn will please, including thanking the Donald for the $160 million of ads his campaign bought from Facebook in 2020 by kicking him off the platform.
But this isn’t really about free speech narrowly; it’s about the malign societal impact of free money from the Fed and the manor in which the vastly overvalued companies in the tech space have enabled the callow wokesters who run them to subordinate profit-maximization to left-wing virtue-signalling.