Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/07/12/facebook-go-delete-yourself.html
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If Facebook takes down any content, then its “we don’t want to censor free speech” argument is bullshit. They’re afraid of losing too many advertisers from right-wing-leaning companies (and Russia?). Zuck it up and take a stand.
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seriously, delete your Facebook accounts. There are other ways to share photos and events with people in your life and removing yourself from it will cause your family/friends to go on it less
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Until you do something that hurts them financially, like stop using the platform, nothing changes. We get the corporations and politicians we deserve.
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It would be nice if that was the case, sadly.
Facebook will start to die when grandparents everywhere stop using it, not BB users.
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Everyone with a brain could delete their facebook accounts, and there’d still be half a billion brainless people using facebook continuing on as if nothing happened. I think they have to be literally pursued with the legal system and taken apart somehow instead as this is bordering on criminality how people are being exploited. Advertisers aren’t allowed to lie to people, yet facebook is and does by fostering this environment unchecked. If it were child porn being spread, would they say pedophiles are allowed free speech?
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a lot of grand parents only go to see grand kids photos, then they stay and get fed lies and hate. Stop posting on fb and they don’t go there in the first place. worked for many friends.
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Sadly, until there’s an alternative with the same ease of use and combination of accessibility and meme-friendliness – so grandma can see photos, the news, and kittens all in one visit – Facebook will still be popular. If the grandkids photos go away, well, at least there’s still kitten memes from another grandparent.
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I guess if you can’t prove Reptilians don’t exist, then it’s fair game to “report” on what the Reptilians are doing. On that note, I suppose if I set up a site that was analyzing rumors about Zuckerberg’s private sex life it would be A-OK, since it’s not slander, it’s just conjecture.
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We see Pages on both the left and the right pumping out what they consider opinion or analysis – but others call fake news.
This is true. I am not sure every biased news source should not be allowed on the platform.
BUT, Infowars is more than just a biased source - it is bat shit crazy. Of course if you kick them off, you just become part of the Reptillian conspiracy who is putting fluoride in the water to make you gay.
Also this would entail actually going out and starting to police sources. I mean maybe you can get by with nuking the largest, worst offenders. But anything beyond that will take time, money, and resources to properly manage. It is easier to just say “free speech” and let it continue. The problem will be like Reddit or youtube where areas get too toxic advertiser start to distance themselves.
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I’d also like to see anyone provide examples of anything on the left side of the spectrum that is not only equally off its rocker but also has such a direct line into Congress and the White House. The problem isn’t so much that it exists (though it’s frustrating to say the least), it’s that Republicans have widely embraced Alex Jones and his ilk as mainstream media personalities worthy of being taken seriously. The entire right-wing bullshit pipeline doesn’t start at Fox, it ends there, having been fed by the tar sands of places like InfoWars and Drudge.
There’s certainly considerable partisanship in this country’s media environment, but at this point, Republicans have manufactured an entire industry devoted to maintaining a parallel reality in which they’re the only sane people on Earth, when in fact they’re crackpot conspiracy theorists who have gone so far down the rabbit hole they’ve ended up in Oz*. There’s simply no comparison to be made between what’s going on over there and whatever fringe nutbaggery exists on the left. Of course any effort to weed out “fake news” is going to impact conservative voices more heavily!
*Yes, I know that’s not where the rabbit hole goes. That’s my point.
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“Analysis” and “InfoWars” are mutually exclusive terms, unless one allows for the type of weekly session with a therapist Jones so obviously needs.
We’re going to have to resign ourselves to the hard truth that as long as Facebook has this business model they’re going to pandering to the lowest (and most deplorable) common denominator.
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So the fake news has been out there since there has been news. Growing up, the Enquirer and others were in the checkout lane and I remember laughing at the headlines. Sometimes I would buy one just to see how cooky the stories were. What is different now? Could it be the medium it is coming across on gives it legitimacy, or could it be that facebook has given all the cooks a way to join forces and vote?? Either way the result has been catastrophic to our society. It seems that people that think the moon is made from green cheese are almost in charge of the space program…
Discuss…
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Isn’t Drudge Primarily just a link aggregate? They don’t really make content, do they?
Oh you better believe he’s part of the problem.
Even as a link aggregator, though, his reach is tremendous, and the things he highlights – not to mention the way he highlights many of them – are tailor-made to play into the right-wing bullshit machine and whinge factory.
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He’s really obsessed with what Reagan called “strapping young bucks” going on crime sprees against helpless white people.
Not a word from him about all the Pool Patrol Paulas and Permit Pattys, of course.
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I guess I see link aggregation and misleading headlines as different than Infowars. There is some truth in the articles linked, usually, (depends who they are linking too.) And many sites have both misleading headlines and misleading images. Not saying this isn’t a problem as well, but just not in the same way as infowars. Or is he ranting about gay frogs as well by while selling you magic pills to block radiation?
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