The Internet Censors Chortle at Their Success With the EU


The Internet Censors Chortle at Their Success With the EU


We did it!!!!

Hours ago, the EU Parliament overwhelmingly voted in favor of the most ambitious regulation ever drafted to end the era of toxic social media.

We’re still in shock. 

We were up against some of the most powerful corporations in the world. But we were louder.

Donating in the thousands, flooding key decision-makers with messages, delivering powerful solutions in meetings, and publishing groundbreaking investigations showing the harms caused by Big Tech: the Avaaz community has helped shape history this week, together with other awesome groups out there fighting alongside us and brave lawmakers who decided to listen.

We’re not done yet, but if EU lawmakers stand strong in further negotiations, this could be the first wave of a cascade of new laws all over the world that finally put people before platforms and their profits: whenever Facebook, Youtube or TikTok would harm our societies at scale – from making dangerous disinformation go viral to spreading harmful content to kids or misusing our personal data — our democracies would be able to ensure they take responsibility.

Join the celebration by retweeting the Avaaz tweet here or posting on Facebook here


Social media has brought powerful innovation to our societies. But for too long they have been  able to evolve with literally just one goal: maximizing their profit, even if that meant radicalizing our societies, delegitimizing science or a rise in teen depression.

Now, thanks to this regulation which some have called a new constitution for the Internet, we can demand a future where technologies are shaped around common values, and protect our fundamental human rights, instead of exploiting our weaknesses.

Also, with so much disillusionment around politics, this regulation has shown Europe at its best. With almost all the demands from citizens, experts and civic society organizations landing in some way in the text just voted including:
Detoxify the algorithm— make the platforms take responsibility for the harms they cause to our societies, like the viral spread of dangerous disinformation;  Big sanctions — Face fines up to 6% of their global income, yes we’re talking billions of dollars here, if they don’t fix their systems;Open the black box — Allow independent auditors, researchers and civic society to scrutinize their actions and uncover their wrongdoings;Stop surveillance ads — Ban the exploitation of children’s data, and our political beliefs or gender choices, to target us with ads.

Join the celebration by retweeting the Avaaz tweet here or posting on Facebook here

For over four years Avaaz has been on the forefront of the public push to force social media platforms to tackle the harms they create. From the EU, to the US, or Brazil, we have reported on disinformation and its scale, commissioning polls on its harmful effects, evaluating platforms’ efforts to tackle them, and identifying their failures. None of this would have been possible without the Avaaz membership. It was a huge shared effort. But it paid off. And now we’re making history.

With deep excitement and determination,

Luca, Sarah, Christoph, Joana, Nadia, Andy, Rosie, Luana, Camille, Barbara, Sam and the rest of the Avaaz team

Facebook has shut down 23 major populist Italian pages with 2.5 million followers just two weeks before the European elections.

Facebook has shut down 23 major populist Italian pages with 2.5 million followers just two weeks before the European elections.

[It’s time to demand legislation that will treat these near monopolies — Facebook, You Tube, PayPal, Twitter — as public utilities which will be forbidden to discriminate against people because of their views or beliefs. Spread the world! — Paul Fromm., Director, CANADIAN ASSOCIATION FOR FREE EXPRESSION.]

According to Italian media, the majority of the pages supported the populist parties La Lega (The League) and the 5-Star Movement (M5S) — who currently govern Italy in a temporary coalition.

Facebook has justified its dramatic move by claiming that the sites shared fake news, so-called “hate speech”, and “divisive content” regarding immigrants, vaccines, and Jewish people.

Facebook used information from a report produced by a left-progressive NGO called Avaaz, which deals with “human rights” and environmental campaigns.

“We thank Avaaz for sharing its research so we could investigate,” said a Facebook spokesperson. “We are committed to protecting the integrity of the EU elections and around the world. We have removed a series of false and duplicate accounts that violated our policies on the subject of authenticity, as well as several pages for violation of the policy on changing the name.”

“We have also taken action against some pages that have repeatedly spread misinformation. We will take further measures if we find other violations,” the spokesperson warned.

Breitbart London@BreitbartLondon

Delingpole: Then Facebook Came for Paul Joseph Watson… https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/05/03/only-trump-can-stop-silicon-valleys-war-on-freedom-of-speech/ 

Delingpole: Then Facebook Came for Paul Joseph Watson…

President Trump retweeted a Breitbart News story about Facebook’s blacklist of prominent conservatives including Paul Joseph Watson. Good.

breitbart.com

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In its report, which was presented to Facebook on May 3, Avaaz said it had identified 14 Italian networks on Facebook comprising 104 pages and six groups, with a total reach of 18.2 million followers.

This week, Facebook took punitive action against 23 pages in these networks, with a total of 2.46 million followers and 2.44 million interactions over the last three months.

Facebook has also reportedly “weakened” pages that spread content with allegedly false news, presumably making them less visible to Facebook users.

The technical motivation for the closing of the pages is linked to name changes: it is claimed they initially suggested themes that did not seem to allude to political parties or movements, but later changed the theme.

Among the closed pages are “We want the 5-star Movement in government”, which had 129,000 followers and almost 700,000 interactions in three months, “Beppe Grillo for President”, “Lega Salvini Sulmona” — which had 307,000 followers” — “Lega Salvini Premier Santa Teresa of Riva”, and “We Are 5 Stars.”

The most active page in support of the Lega party was among those closed, just as polls are showing that the Lega is currently the party with the most support among Italians for the upcoming elections.

Facebook’s efforts in Italy to influence the European elections are just the tip of the iceberg, Italian media noted.

According to the Italian daily La Repubblica, on May 2 Facebook opened a “war room” in Dublin devoted full time to the European electoral campaign, with 40 teams of engineers, scientists, researchers, threat specialists, and experts for each country.

There are 500 people working on the elections, with the assistance of 21 supposed “fact-checkers,” operating in 14 different languages.