Hard Reality Hits the Masters of the Universe
The theory was that Facebook and Twitter (and the like) would change the world forever. That was the first promise. The second was that it would change it for the good. Good would triumph. Evil would be banished. Except the reverse has happened.
David French records the rise and imminent fall.
Social-Media Idealism Collides with Human Nature
By David French
National Review Online
Human nature wins.
There was a time, not too long ago, when the American tech billionaires truly believed they could have it all. They believed that they could create platforms for all people, encourage engagement and dialogue, get immensely rich, and change the world in a specific, progressive way.
Think back to 2011. That was the era of the “Twitter Revolution,” the social-media-empowered revolts of the Arab Spring that brought dictators to their knees. As Wired magazine put it, social networks didn’t overthrow governments, but “the speed of communication through digital channels [gave] activists unprecedented agility during street operations.”
America’s newspapers were full of think pieces analyzing the role of Twitter and Facebook in these protests. In those early days, the conventional wisdom was clear. The Arab Spring was good, and social media played an important role in making it happen.
Now think back to 2013. Playing electoral games with Facebook was seen as a good thing to do. In June of that year, the New York Times ran a long, glowing profile of the Obama digital team — a group of brilliant young tech nerds who developed a rather creative way to use Facebook, a method that granted the campaign extraordinary access to information about their supporters’ online friends.
Facebook took notice.
Showing posts with label Facebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Facebook. Show all posts
Wednesday, 5 December 2018
Saturday, 13 October 2018
The Evil Face of Facebook
Facebook Stifles Ads For Film On Abortion Monster Kermit Gosnell
Producer: 'Facebook is censoring this story and destroying our attempts to get the news about this film out to the public.'
Rich Cromwell
The Federalist
In the face of Russian attempts to sow discord, Facebook has attempted to take on the mantle of benevolent dictator. The social media giant has issued bans and threats for small reasons and occasionally memory-holed other content for ostensibly bigger ones. Never mind that those actions all seem to move in one direction — Facebook is just looking out for you.
On May 24, Facebook expanded its dedication to providing content as it sees fit to “boosted” and “promoted” posts, that is, posts made on an official page which the owner pays to promote in an attempt to reach a wider audience. It’s under this policy that the movie “Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer” found itself being censored by the tech behemoth.
The makers of the film say Facebook is refusing to allow them to promote their film. Facebook says their problems are due to not being a verified page.
“Gosnell,” the story of infamous abortionist Kermit Gosnell, opens Oct. 12. Its producer, Phelim McAleer, naturally wants to publicize the film as much as possible. He told me why he made the film:
Even making the film was an uphill battle. McAleer noted the difficulties in getting it from concept to the screen. “The Silicon establishment do not want this story told,” he said. “Kickstarter refused to let us crowdfund to fund the film and NPR have just rejected us from advertising the movie on the taxpayer funded station. Now Facebook is trying to censor the movie by preventing its creators from advertising on Facebook. They really, really don’t want this story told.”
As abortion is a political issue, and one that divides partisans more starkly than almost any other issue in modern America, Facebook found the posts to be in violation of its standards limiting political expression and wouldn’t approve the promotions. Granted, this story shouldn’t be a political issue other than guaranteeing women and children never again suffer at the hands of such a monster, but apparently it’s better to focus on the word “abortion” than on the story.
Censorship Cuts Both Ways
While it may seem to be an attempt to merely silence conservative voices, the social media company doesn’t limit its censorship to one side.
Producer: 'Facebook is censoring this story and destroying our attempts to get the news about this film out to the public.'
Rich Cromwell
The Federalist
In the face of Russian attempts to sow discord, Facebook has attempted to take on the mantle of benevolent dictator. The social media giant has issued bans and threats for small reasons and occasionally memory-holed other content for ostensibly bigger ones. Never mind that those actions all seem to move in one direction — Facebook is just looking out for you.
On May 24, Facebook expanded its dedication to providing content as it sees fit to “boosted” and “promoted” posts, that is, posts made on an official page which the owner pays to promote in an attempt to reach a wider audience. It’s under this policy that the movie “Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer” found itself being censored by the tech behemoth.
The makers of the film say Facebook is refusing to allow them to promote their film. Facebook says their problems are due to not being a verified page.
“Gosnell,” the story of infamous abortionist Kermit Gosnell, opens Oct. 12. Its producer, Phelim McAleer, naturally wants to publicize the film as much as possible. He told me why he made the film:
We are journalists and film makers and this is an incredible story. I’ve spent 25 years as an investigative journalist and this is one of the biggest stories I’ve ever worked on and it went largely unreported. This is a true story that was not reported on by the mainstream media in a meaningful way. There are real victims here whose story deserves to be told and we’ve set out to shine a light on the crimes of Gosnell and how the government allowed him to operate for 17 years without protecting women and children, which is what journalism is supposed to do. We want to tell the truth because it is extremely important that people have the facts before they make a decision‒especially with so many partisan journalists believing they are part of a political movement‒not reporting the facts as they are supposed to do.
Even making the film was an uphill battle. McAleer noted the difficulties in getting it from concept to the screen. “The Silicon establishment do not want this story told,” he said. “Kickstarter refused to let us crowdfund to fund the film and NPR have just rejected us from advertising the movie on the taxpayer funded station. Now Facebook is trying to censor the movie by preventing its creators from advertising on Facebook. They really, really don’t want this story told.”
As abortion is a political issue, and one that divides partisans more starkly than almost any other issue in modern America, Facebook found the posts to be in violation of its standards limiting political expression and wouldn’t approve the promotions. Granted, this story shouldn’t be a political issue other than guaranteeing women and children never again suffer at the hands of such a monster, but apparently it’s better to focus on the word “abortion” than on the story.
Censorship Cuts Both Ways
While it may seem to be an attempt to merely silence conservative voices, the social media company doesn’t limit its censorship to one side.
Monday, 3 September 2018
The Internal Revolt at Facebook
Facebook’s Conservatives Find Their Courage
David French
National Review Online
An internal revolt provides hope for real change.
In my many years of traveling the country, speaking at universities, litigating against universities, and interacting with conservatives who live and work in the most seemingly uniform progressive enclaves, I’ve come to understand three key truths:
First, there are more conservatives in virtually every major progressive institution than people realize.
Second, they tend to be scattered across the company or university and therefore perhaps feel more alone and isolated than their true numbers would suggest.
Third, they’re afraid of reprisals if they attempt to organize in any manner similar to their progressive colleagues.
The resulting sense of isolation and lack of collective action renders them increasingly vulnerable, reinforces the sense that one has to keep his head down to survive, and builds in the Left a false sense of unanimity that only reinforces their view that all sensible people share their views. Progressive activists interpret silence as agreement, and the lack of dissent only spurs more activism.
It takes real moral courage to break the isolation, declare your beliefs, and seek to organize like-minded conservatives (and sympathetic liberals). It also happens to be the single most effective way of breaking groupthink and initiating internal reform. As I’ve written before, it’s the internal mob that matters — especially when dealing with immense progressive institutions that hold commanding market positions. Harvard and Google care far more about their employees’ positions than they do about the political beliefs of customers who largely either have nowhere else to go or desperately seek the credential that only that institution can provide.
And that’s why the internal conservative revolt at Facebook may — just may — represent one of the most consequential news developments of the year.
David French
National Review Online
An internal revolt provides hope for real change.
In my many years of traveling the country, speaking at universities, litigating against universities, and interacting with conservatives who live and work in the most seemingly uniform progressive enclaves, I’ve come to understand three key truths:
First, there are more conservatives in virtually every major progressive institution than people realize.
Second, they tend to be scattered across the company or university and therefore perhaps feel more alone and isolated than their true numbers would suggest.
Third, they’re afraid of reprisals if they attempt to organize in any manner similar to their progressive colleagues.
The resulting sense of isolation and lack of collective action renders them increasingly vulnerable, reinforces the sense that one has to keep his head down to survive, and builds in the Left a false sense of unanimity that only reinforces their view that all sensible people share their views. Progressive activists interpret silence as agreement, and the lack of dissent only spurs more activism.
It takes real moral courage to break the isolation, declare your beliefs, and seek to organize like-minded conservatives (and sympathetic liberals). It also happens to be the single most effective way of breaking groupthink and initiating internal reform. As I’ve written before, it’s the internal mob that matters — especially when dealing with immense progressive institutions that hold commanding market positions. Harvard and Google care far more about their employees’ positions than they do about the political beliefs of customers who largely either have nowhere else to go or desperately seek the credential that only that institution can provide.
And that’s why the internal conservative revolt at Facebook may — just may — represent one of the most consequential news developments of the year.
Wednesday, 14 March 2018
Dumb, Dumber and Dumbest
Hopeless Idiots
John Nolte
Breitbart News
Facebook is run by dumboes. Here is a classic illustration which proves the allegation. It has attempted to come down hard on a satirical (christian) site, Babylon Bee.
The Christian satire site Babylon Bee has been fact-checked by Snopes and threatened by Facebook after it published an Onion-style article about CNN purchasing a washing machine to “spin the news.”
The Babylon Bee openly advertises itself as a satire site. Recent headlines include, “Local Pastor Hoping Curling Metaphors Go Over Big This Sunday,” “Nation That Calls Trump ‘Hitler’ Demands He Take All Guns Away,” “Calvinist Dog Corrects Owner: ‘No One Is A Good Boy’,” and “New Exercise Bike Forces You To Watch Christian Movies Until You Hit Your Calories Goal.”
Not only is this fairly anodyne stuff, but as you can see, the Babylon Bee is more than willing to satirize their own among the Faithful. Naturally, none of this matters to our left-wing tech overlords, who are becoming increasingly desperate to censor free speech coming from conservatives, Christians, and the like.
This time, in order to protect the far-left CNN from ridicule, Snopes and Facebook worked in tandem to teach the Babylon Bee (and all of us) a lesson about mocking your betters.
John Nolte
Breitbart News
Facebook is run by dumboes. Here is a classic illustration which proves the allegation. It has attempted to come down hard on a satirical (christian) site, Babylon Bee.
The Christian satire site Babylon Bee has been fact-checked by Snopes and threatened by Facebook after it published an Onion-style article about CNN purchasing a washing machine to “spin the news.”
The Babylon Bee openly advertises itself as a satire site. Recent headlines include, “Local Pastor Hoping Curling Metaphors Go Over Big This Sunday,” “Nation That Calls Trump ‘Hitler’ Demands He Take All Guns Away,” “Calvinist Dog Corrects Owner: ‘No One Is A Good Boy’,” and “New Exercise Bike Forces You To Watch Christian Movies Until You Hit Your Calories Goal.”
Not only is this fairly anodyne stuff, but as you can see, the Babylon Bee is more than willing to satirize their own among the Faithful. Naturally, none of this matters to our left-wing tech overlords, who are becoming increasingly desperate to censor free speech coming from conservatives, Christians, and the like.
This time, in order to protect the far-left CNN from ridicule, Snopes and Facebook worked in tandem to teach the Babylon Bee (and all of us) a lesson about mocking your betters.
Friday, 5 May 2017
Facebook Is Now the Fifth Column
Facebook Helps Pakistan Introduce a Global Islamic Blasphemy Law
The Barnabas Fund
In an alarming development, the Pakistan government is seeking to introduce what is in effect a global Islamic blasphemy law that prohibits any internet material critical of Islam.
The government is pursuing a twin track approach to this: it has met with ambassadors of 27 Muslim-majority countries to get international agreement to prosecute anyone who posts online any material deemed to be blasphemous; and it is pressurising internet companies such as Facebook and Twitter to remove immediately such content.
Already, the Pakistan government is claiming that Facebook has agreed to remove such content and over the past few months had blocked 17 such sites and has blocked a further 45 since being pressed further in March.
Disturbingly, the Pakistan government is seeking to prosecute people who post material not only in Pakistan but also across the world.
Pakistan government demands they identify suspects overseas to face extradition and trial
EditorialThe Barnabas Fund
In an alarming development, the Pakistan government is seeking to introduce what is in effect a global Islamic blasphemy law that prohibits any internet material critical of Islam.
The government is pursuing a twin track approach to this: it has met with ambassadors of 27 Muslim-majority countries to get international agreement to prosecute anyone who posts online any material deemed to be blasphemous; and it is pressurising internet companies such as Facebook and Twitter to remove immediately such content.
Already, the Pakistan government is claiming that Facebook has agreed to remove such content and over the past few months had blocked 17 such sites and has blocked a further 45 since being pressed further in March.
Disturbingly, the Pakistan government is seeking to prosecute people who post material not only in Pakistan but also across the world.
Thursday, 7 June 2012
SS Facebook Floats Then Sinks
Take the Money and Run
Did you get some Facebook shares? Well, good for you. You will now be part of the glorious rags to riches story. But maybe not.
There are some uncomfortable rapids ahead. Firstly, an old sage once observed that only fools and horses buy initial public offerings (IPO's). OK, so you are going to miss a bargain occasionally. But the whole purpose of a public offering in almost every case is to dress the company up for sale, hype it, promote it, tell all the goods news that is to come so as to get the best possible share price. IPO's parade mutton dressed as lamb.
Thus with Facebook. And that leads to our second point: Facebook shares at the IPO were priced at one hundred times current earnings. That means, if earnings stayed the same as today, you would have to hold the shares one hundred years just to earn back the price you paid--let alone get a return on your investment. Care to hang around that long? No, of course not, you say. Why not?
Did you get some Facebook shares? Well, good for you. You will now be part of the glorious rags to riches story. But maybe not.
There are some uncomfortable rapids ahead. Firstly, an old sage once observed that only fools and horses buy initial public offerings (IPO's). OK, so you are going to miss a bargain occasionally. But the whole purpose of a public offering in almost every case is to dress the company up for sale, hype it, promote it, tell all the goods news that is to come so as to get the best possible share price. IPO's parade mutton dressed as lamb.
Thus with Facebook. And that leads to our second point: Facebook shares at the IPO were priced at one hundred times current earnings. That means, if earnings stayed the same as today, you would have to hold the shares one hundred years just to earn back the price you paid--let alone get a return on your investment. Care to hang around that long? No, of course not, you say. Why not?
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