More Silicon Valley Mind Control: Questioning Jewish Tribal History Banned from Facebook

More Silicon Valley Mind Control: Questioning Jewish Tribal History Banned from Facebook

Facebook bans Holocaust denial content

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The infamous "Abeit macht frei" (work makes you free" slogan over Auschwitz's entrance
image captionThe gates of Auschwitz concentration camp, now a memorial, where more than one million people died

Facebook has explicitly banned Holocaust denial for the first time.

The social network said its new policy prohibits “any content that denies or distorts the Holocaust”.

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg wrote that he had “struggled with the tension” between free speech and banning such posts, but that “this is the right balance”.

Two years ago, Mr Zuckerberg said that such posts should not automatically be taken down for “getting it wrong”.

“I’m Jewish and there’s a set of people who deny that the Holocaust happened,” he told Recode at the time.

“I find it deeply offensive. But at the end of the day, I don’t believe that our platform should take that down because I think there are things that different people get wrong. I don’t think that they’re intentionally getting it wrong.”

His remarks led to a large public backlash.

But on Monday, as Facebook changed its policies, he wrote that he had changed his mind.

“My own thinking has evolved as I’ve seen data showing an increase in anti-Semitic violence, as have our wider policies on hate speech,” he wrote in a public Facebook post.

Facebook Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is seen in extreme close-up
image captionMr Zuckerberg had previously said he did not want to ban mistaken beliefs

“Drawing the right lines between what is and isn’t acceptable speech isn’t straightforward, but with the current state of the world, I believe this is the right balance.”

Earlier this year, Facebook banned hate speech involving harmful stereotypes, including anti-Semitic content. But Holocaust denial had not been banned.

Facebook’s vice-president of content policy, Monika Bickert, said the company had made the decision alongside “the well-documented rise in anti-Semitism globally and the alarming level of ignorance about the Holocaust, especially among young people”.

She said that later this year, searching for the Holocaust – or its denial – on Facebook would direct users to “credible” information.

But she also warned change would not happen overnight, and training its employees and automated systems would take time.

The World Jewish Congress – which had conferred with Facebook on anti-Semitism – welcomed the move.

“Denying the Holocaust, trivializing it, minimizing it, is a tool used to spread hatred and false conspiracies about Jews and other minorities,” the group said in a statement.

But it also noted that it had campaigned for the removal of Holocaust denial content from the platform “for several years”.

Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, tweeted: “This has been years in the making.”

“Having personally engaged with Facebook on the issue, I can attest the ban on Holocaust Denial is a big deal… glad it finally happened.”

Presentational grey line
Analysis box by James Clayton, North America technology reporter

This was a bit of a “wait, they don’t do this already?” moment.

Perhaps that’s because Facebook has quite radically shifted its position on removing hate speech and fake news in recent months.

We’re still seeing loopholes from an old moderating regime being closed.

Critics, though, argue this isn’t happening fast enough.

The combined platforms of Facebook and Instagram – which is owned by Facebook – have an extraordinary reach of billions of users worldwide.

That influence has to be used responsibly, and Facebook acknowledges this.

The advertising boycott in July also helped cement the view internally that more had to be done to tackle hate speech.

Mark Zuckerberg’s instincts have always been to champion freedom of speech – the best way to fight bad speech is good speech he’s always said.

But this latest move appears to indicate Facebook now accepts it needs to be more proactive in combating hate speech.

Trump’s Executive Order Aims to End Left-Wing Social Media Censorship of Conservatives

Trump’s Executive Order Aims to End Left-Wing Social Media Censorship of Conservatives

President Donald Trump has had it with the social media behemoths abusing the law by picking sides in the political, social, and cultural issues of our time – usually the side he’s not on.

And he’s particularly keen that the social media platforms wield great power to influence the masses ahead of the November election, so he’s preparing some executive actions to curb their ‘election meddling’ because Democrats in Congress won’t (since their party is benefitted by the censorship of conservatives).
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“If Congress doesn’t bring fairness to Big Tech, which they should have done years ago, I will do it myself with Executive Orders,” Trump wrote ahead of a House hearing on big tech Wednesday. “In Washington, it has been ALL TALK and NO ACTION for years, and the people of our Country are sick and tired of it!”

Slated to appear before the House Judiciary Committee regarding potential antitrust violations: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

During an interview with the Daily Caller in June, the president expressed his frustration with the repeated examples of Left-wing social media platform censorship of right-leaning opinion.

“It’s really unfair what’s going on with the conservative voice. You’d solve the entire problem of  the various, you know, monopolists, if you ever voided Section 230.”

Trump is referring to a section of the Communications Decency Act which says, “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.”

The section gives platforms immunity for content posted, but over time the same platforms have begun censoring content — like a publisher. 

So what are they? Platforms or publishers? 

In response, Trump issued an executive order Monday aimed at making the distinction that, if they are upheld, will prohibit the kind of censorship taking place.

The Office of the Press Secretary issued this statement:

On Monday, the Department of Commerce, as directed by President Donald J. Trump’s Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship, filed a petition to clarify the scope of Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act. The petition requests that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) clarify that Section 230 does not permit social media companies that alter or editorialize users’ speech to escape civil liability. The petition also requests that the FCC clarify when an online platform curates content in “good faith,” and requests transparency requirements on their moderation practices, similar to requirements imposed on broadband service providers under Title I of the Communications Act.  President Trump will continue to fight back against unfair, un-American, and politically biased censorship of Americans online.

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“When it comes to issues of public safety, the government is the one who must act on behalf of society at large.  Law enforcement cannot delegate our obligations to protect the safety of the American people purely to the judgment of profit-seeking private firms.  We must shape the incentives for companies to create a safer environment, which is what Section 230 was originally intended to do,” Attorney General William Barr said last month when the Justice Department issued its recommendations for the president. 

“Taken together, these reforms will ensure that Section 230 immunity incentivizes online platforms to be responsible actors.  These reforms are targeted at platforms to make certain they are appropriately addressing illegal and exploitive content while continuing to preserve a vibrant, open, and competitive internet,” he added. 

“These twin objectives of giving online platforms the freedom to grow and innovate while encouraging them to moderate content responsibly were the core objectives of Section 230 at the outset.”