Former Facebook Curators Reveal How Conservative News is Censored

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“Oh yeah, I’ve been meaning to ask you why you’re getting off Facebook,” is the guilty and reluctant question I’m hearing a lot these days. Like we kinda know Facebook is bad, but don’t really want to know.

I’ve been a big Facebook supporter – one of the first users in my social group who championed what a great way it was to stay in touch, way back in 2006. I got my mum and brothers on it, and around 20 other people. I’ve even taught Facebook marketing in one of the UK’s biggest tech education projects, Digital Business Academy. I’m a techie and a marketer — so I can see the implications — and until now, they hadn’t worried me. I’ve been pretty dismissive towards people who hesitate with privacy concerns.

With this latest privacy change on January 30th, I’m scared.

– From last year’s piece: A Very Disturbing and Powerful Post – “Get Your Loved Ones Off Facebook”

Facebook is a private company and has every right to do as it pleases with its platform, even if that means pushing a political agenda via its “news” feed. That said, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been explicit with his intention to dominate news dissemination to his users. For example, we learned the following in last year’s post, Facebook Reveals its Master Plan – Control All News Flow:

In recent months, Facebook has been quietly holding talks with at least half a dozen media companies about hosting their content inside Facebook rather than making users tap a link to go to an external site.

The new proposal by Facebook carries another risk for publishers: the loss of valuable consumer data. When readers click on an article, an array of tracking tools allow the host site to collect valuable information on who they are, how often they visit and what else they have done on the web.

And if Facebook pushes beyond the experimental stage and makes content hosted on the site commonplace, those who do not participate in the program could lose substantial traffic — a factor that has played into the thinking of some publishers. Their articles might load more slowly than their competitors’, and over time readers might avoid those sites.

One of the ways Facebook has been pursuing its news push is through its trending tool. The idea is that a neutral algorithm determines what readers are interested in and talking about at a grassroots level, then place position those stories appropriately within the trending feed. That’s how you’d hope it work, but the reality appears to be far different.

From Gizmodo:

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At Facebook, Some Hate Speech is More Equal Than Others

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Just in case you harbor that sneaking suspicion that Facebook’s “hate speech” policy is inconsistent and incoherent, you now have your answer.

From FastCompany:

Facebook has gone out of its way this year to clarify its hate speech policy, explaining in March that it aims to be consistent with the type of content it removes.

So why has the social network appeared to have made an exception for Donald Trump, who recently posted a video saying Muslims should be barred from entering the United States? Facebook has removed statements similar to Trump’s proposal in the past, according to employees. And the decision to let Trump’s post remain public was made by the highest levels of management.

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Mark Zuckerberg to Place Facebook “Philanthropic” Shares in a For-Profit LLC – This is Why

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Yesterday, all the media hoopla over Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement to “give away” 99% of his Facebook shares to philanthropic causes, came and went in the expected torrent of internet commentary. However, what you might have missed are the specifics around how he decided to safeguard those shares, and how unusual the for-profit LLC structure is for a charity.

Bloomberg reports:

The decision by Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, to gradually give away 99 percent of their Facebook fortune is big news not just for the huge sum involved—about $46 billion—but for how the couple chose to achieve their philanthropic goal. Rather than set up a private foundation or charitable trust as Bill and Melinda Gates did, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative will be structured as a limited liability corporation. 

It’s a highly unusual step for a massive philanthropy. “I’ve never seen someone set up an LLC exclusively for a philanthropic purpose before,” says Jane Wales, vice president of philanthropy and society at the Aspen Institute. “Normally they set up a foundation for the tax advantages of doing so.” Here are some significant ways that LLC status will shape what Zuckerberg and Chan do with their wealth.

1. There won’t be limits on lobbying

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Protesters at Smith College Demand Journalists Swear Loyalty Oath Before Reporting on Them

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Students and faculty at Smith College apparently didn’t want a repeat of that ugly episode at the University of Missouri, where a communications professor was filmed calling for the forcible removal of a journalist from an on-campus demonstration earlier this month.

So when they held a sit-in Wednesday to protest racial discrimination, their solution was to not let in members of the media in the first place — unless said media members pledged allegiance to the cause.

– From the Washington Post article: These College Protesters are Demanding the Media Who Cover Them Support Their Cause

In yesterday’s post, Not a Safe Space – Canadian University Suspends Yoga Class After Students Become Offended, I explained how those most responsible for the almost inconceivable authoritarian idiocy spreading across college campuses are not the students themselves, but their spineless and inept administrators.

These kids are more or less acting like Wall Street financiers after the bailouts. After the bankers were provided with trillions of dollars in backstops and no one went to jail for destroying the economy, they immediately paid themselves record bonuses a year after the worst of the crisis, and are now once again thieving and pillaging at will.

Why? Because when no one is held accountable, the incentives are in place to steal. Similarly, no adults are holding these out of control child-fascists accountable for their despicable behavior. As such, these tyrants-in-training are getting more out of control every day, and getting away with it. Thank you college administrators.

In the latest example of the above, I present to you the stupidity of Smith College.

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Facebook Caught Secretly Lobbying for Privacy Destroying “Cyber Security” Bill

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Before I get into this post, I want to thank everyone for all the congratulations and kind well wishes on the recent birth of our first child. Mom and baby are doing great, and we couldn’t be happier. Now let’s get back to the business of liberty.

There’s a privacy destroying bill moving through Congress called the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, or CISA, and it’s imperative that the American public stop it in its tracks. Here are a few bullet points on the bill from Fight for the Future:

  • All privacy policies effectively null and void. Companies can share any private user data with the government, without a warrant, as long as the government says it is being used for a “cybersecurity” purpose.
  • In exchange, companies are given blanket immunity from civil and criminal laws, like fraud, money laundering, or illegal wiretapping (if a violation was committed or exposed in the process of sharing data).

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Freedom of Speech? Boston Mayor Bans Bad Mouthing of Olympics, as Facebook Will Filter Out “Fake News”

In case you need a refresher, here’s the text of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Apparently, this doesn’t apply to the Mayor of Boston when it comes to silencing the speech of public employees who may not like that the Olympics may be coming to town.

The Boston Globe reports that:

If you’re a Boston city employee, there’s now an official decree: don’t badmouth the Olympics.

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