Facebook interferes in local politics

biko

While Facebook claims to protect the EU elections they interfere with Indian politics.

Facebook temporarily hid posts calling for the resignation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, marking the platform's latest foray in a series of controversial decisions affecting free speech in a country experiencing a full-blown COVID-19 crisis.

Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone declined to comment on why the hashtag had been hidden, but said it had been restored everywhere after this story's publication. He declined to provide further details on what happened and only said the company was "looking into it."

It sounds like the old adage "We can't protect you if we can't control you".

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/may/05/facebook-admits-huge-scale-of-fake-news-and-election-interference
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/facebook-blocking-posts-hashtag-resign-modi

Agent Coulson

I'm shocked Shocked! I tell you that such an upstanding company would so such a thing.

biko

Let me be the first in this thread to say "It's a private company, they can do what they like.."

Overheal

Does anyone else sometimes share an article etc. with one headline only to have the headline switch around once shared, clicked on, etc?

Like there's one today on a Bernie Sanders Op-ed, the headline I clicked was "Bernie Sanders: The US must support an even-handed approach in the Middle East" and what I got was "Bernie Sanders: The US must stop being an apologist to the Netanyahu government"

Is that switcheroo on facebook's end or the media site's end?

Overheal

Overheal wrote: »

Is that switcheroo on facebook's end or the media site's end?

Interesting. gave up Facebook years ago so I jhaven't seen that, but I assume the content creator is responsible for inputting the headline(s) and they chose that one to bypass filters and widen the potential audience.

Jesus OP. This should be a shock to absolutely no one. Come on and get with it.

Overheal

Same thing again with the same article, the headline in Google is “Bernie Sanders: The Approach the Israel-Palestine Conflict Needs”