Facebook’s forcible suppression of opposition

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More of Facebook’s forcible suppression of opposition. Below is a screenshot my European partner Anders Gravers took after he tried to share my post about Google’s scrub of search results when it comes to articles that criticize Islam. When he clicked to share, FB said only people that I have chosen in a specific audience are allowed to see it. I HAVE CHOSEN NO SUCH AUDIENCE. I am public. Everything I write and share is public. We need legislation to free us from the chokehold Facebook and social media giants have on our First Amendment rights.

Thomas Lifson of The American Thinker writes here:

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Facebook has become the dominant force in the distribution of news in the United States, making it powerful beyond the dreams of Edward Bernays.  If Facebook determines that a source of news is to be shunned, the results can be catastrophic, effectively silencing the voice involved just as surely as cutting off the loudspeakers at a large rally would silence a speaker.  That makes this dispatch from The Gulf Today, which seems to have been ignored by our media, very disturbing:

ISLAMABAD: The Facebook management has assured Pakistan that it will remove fake accounts and explicit, hateful and provocative material that incites violence and terrorism.

The commitment was given by Vice President of Facebook Joel Kaplan who called on Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Saturday. …

The interior minister, the spokesperson said, has been playing a proactive role in engaging the internet service providers and finding solution to the issue of misuse of social media.

This also included convening of a special meeting of the ambassadors of the Muslim countries in March on a single-point agenda to discuss blasphemous content on social media and how to effectively raise voice of the entire Muslim world against the madness unleashed against Islam and holy personalities in the name of freedom of expression.

“Blasphemous content” means anything remotely critical or questioning of Islam, Mohammed, or any Muslim doctrine.  Sharia forbids it on penalty of death.  Even among Muslims, accusations can fly of blasphemy for even implying something negative, and the holier-than-thou crowd can always resort to violence because holy violence is sanctified in Isalm.  “Turn the other cheek” plays no role at all in sharia-compliant zones.

“Nothing is more sacred to us than our religion and our holy personalities,” the minister observed.

He said that the government of Pakistan firmly believes in freedom of expression but cannot allow anyone to misuse social media for hurting religious sentiments or undertaking unlawful activities.

Nisar said that Pakistan appreciates the understanding shown by the Facebook administration and the cooperation being extended on these issues.

These sharia-compliant policies are not new at Facebook, and they have already taken a toll on freedom of speech.  As Pamela Geller knows all too well:

My feed is blocked from my millions of followers on Facebook, and I have seen my circulation drop precipitously in the past three months. For news publishers, Facebook is the motherboard of link traffic. No news site can survive without them. None of us are immune, which is why my traffic is down upwards of 70% since the block. My Facebook page has a million followers; add my organizations to that, and it is roughly 1.5 million people. Now imagine their sharing capability, and their friends and their friends – you get the picture. It’s how we fight fake news. All of my FB followers experience similar issues with their posts and shares. I receive scores of emails everyday from readers telling me of new blocks, bans and Facebook jail sentences. It’s why I am suing.

Why the block? Because under Islamic law, you cannot criticize Islam. Facebook adhering to the most extreme and brutal ideology on the face of the earth should trouble all of us, because Mark Zuckerberg has immense power. He controls the flow of information. He controls what you see and don’t see on Facebook. We did not give him the power to abridge our unalienable freedoms.

Pamela believes that the Sherman Antitrust Act ought to be used to break up Facebook.  But because social networks require the broadest possible extent, I am not sure that that breakup would work.  The resulting half-networks would be crippled.  How would users be allocated to one or another of the new networks resulting from the breakup, for instance?  People would reconfigure their memberships anyway.

I would much prefer legislation that requires social media to censor only direct threats, making it illegal to delete content on any other basis.  That threat is necessary to counter the pressure Facebook obviously faces from Muslim governments like Pakistan’s.  Losing a billion-plus-strong market like the 57 Muslim countries is obviously undesirable for Facebook, so its management is responding to pressure.

The value of that market would have to be balanced against the value of markets like the United States that could stand up for free speech.  By seeming to cave in to the demand that Islam be the only subject that cannot be discussed openly and honestly, anywhere in the world, Facebook is in the process of handing the first global triumph of sharia, enforcing its ban on blasphemy.

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Benjamin Goldstein
Benjamin Goldstein
6 years ago

You are one hundred percent spot on. There needs to be proper legislation to step in. If there is a market place where ideas are shared and one group (in today’s Western World it is us conservatives) is excluded, one side becomes dominant over the other. The CONGRESS must react to this. Get talk radio and breitbart.com on to this!

Joe Newby
Joe Newby
6 years ago

Congress needs to immediately amend Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. Unfortunately, since Facebook gives them money hand over fist, they won’t even mention the “F” word. I know… I wrote about it…

Benjamin Goldstein
Benjamin Goldstein
6 years ago
Reply to  Joe Newby

This fight is worth fighting. FB has way too many data anyway. With data mining and artificial intelligence Zuckerberg can manipulate elections way more effectively in future than what we see now. This is very critical!

Joe Newby
Joe Newby
6 years ago

This is outrageous. Thanks for all you do, Pamela. This is frightening and is one of the reasons I co-authored this book, which, I’m proud to say, Pamela was gracious enough to endorse. https://www.amazon.com/Banned-Facebook-Enables-Militant-Islamic/dp/1944212221/

Suresh
Suresh
6 years ago
Reply to  Joe Newby

Like facebook , twitter, even Google has joined Islamofascist gang http://tinyurl.com/lgp28rs

To censor conservative and Anti-jihadi news to push the islamisation agenda of the Left/Liberal/jihadis funded by saudi/qataris

AdinaF
AdinaF
6 years ago
Reply to  Joe Newby

And, as co-author of BANNED: How Facebook Enables Militant Islamic Jihad, I thank Pamela too.

Adina Kutnicki, Israel
https://adinakutnicki.com/about/

Almacmccullough
Almacmccullough
6 years ago
Reply to  AdinaF

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Katrinacready
Katrinacready
6 years ago
Reply to  AdinaF

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livingengine
livingengine
6 years ago

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Benjamin Goldstein
Benjamin Goldstein
6 years ago

Also thank you for suing!
A Congress legislature to force FB and Co to keep all things up which are not direct threats would be ineffective in other countries (yet that is part of what is necessary). Still your idea about the break up of the large platforms is something that can use international law to enforce a wider reach of free speech. Go for it!

And yes, there are ways to legally force facebook, twitter and co to provice proper interfaces. There is no reason why you should be a member somewhere in order to respond to a post and have a user alerted to you. That is in the realm of what is technically and legally possible.

Joe Newby
Joe Newby
6 years ago

Again, remember that a federal judge said in 2014 that sites like FB can censor even constitutionally-protected speech with zero legal consequences. That’s included in our book. Last November, FB banned me for 30 days over a picture of an eagle superimposed on a U.S. flag. Legally, they were allowed to do so, thanks to Section 230 of the CDA. Even if FB were busted up, the law would still exist.

Benjamin Goldstein
Benjamin Goldstein
6 years ago
Reply to  Joe Newby

I don’t see how that contradicts my comment. The court made a judgement based on the legislation of 2014 and both of us talk about future legislation. FB lobbying stands against public pressure that conservatives could build up.
With ‘busted up’ you must think about interfaces (not about bringing down the company). Legislature can decide what access FB and other platforms must provide to non-members (it can be very unstylish, so the plattforms are not destroyed). There’s legislature to create specific interfaces e.g. for NSA access to all sorts of technical tools anyway. Don’t be fooled!
A market can be created and that can break the power, not just nationally but internationally.

AR154U☑ᵀʳᵘᵐᵖ DEPLORABLE 2020
AR154U☑ᵀʳᵘᵐᵖ DEPLORABLE 2020
6 years ago

comment image

Shirley Rosenhohn
Shirley Rosenhohn
6 years ago

Zuckerberg is a Mammon worshipper, i.e. his deity is MONEY, in the times of Moses he would have been swallowed by the forces of hell for worshipping the Golden Kalf when Moses threw thed Tables with the Commandments to the golden idol.
I will NEVER use FB!

AlgorithmicAnalystD
AlgorithmicAnalyst
6 years ago

Since the left is trying to monopolize the means of communication, alternative means of communication are needed, like Samizdat was needed in the USSR.

CreoleGumbo
CreoleGumbo
6 years ago

Maybe if we called Conservatism a religion we could get FB to eliminate offensive speech against us.

Benjamin Goldstein
Benjamin Goldstein
6 years ago

My guess is that you are British. Thank you for talking about the situation in Europe at large. German censorship is gross. I have seen Pakistani twitter accounts by opposition terrorist groups (Balochistan independance movement) celebrating cold-blooded murder of policemen and soldiers and Pakistan allows it. Meanwhile Germany shuts down everything. Think about it!

solange9
solange9
6 years ago

Unfortunately, when we are on Facebook, we are on private property, which can have its own rules, sort of like, when we are in someone else’s house, we abide by their rules. We sign off all of our input to FB when we agree to its terms.

Bruce Atchison
Bruce Atchison
6 years ago

I must not be trying hard enough. My posts keep appearing on Facebook, even though I’ve slammed Islam and other cults. Guess I’ll have to work harder so I too can claim my share of abuse.

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