Tag: alternative media

Facebook “fact checker” worked to bankrupt conservative and indy news sites by convincing advertisers to drop them

Facebook and other social media behemoths have consistently said they’re not biased against conservatives and independent publishers, and just as often as they deny it they are proven to be liars.

That happened again this past week and in a big way.

The National Pulse managed to unearth new evidence indicating that a so-called “fact checker” Facebook and TikTok, among other platforms, “attempted to coerce advertisers into dropping conservative media outlets as clients in social media posts,” the outlet reported.

The site said that it discovered Twitter posts from Lead Stories copy editor Leslie Lapides “follow the outlet’s founder and Editor-in-Chief Alan Duke repeatedly denying allegations of left-wing bias.”

But in fact, despite those denials, Lapides has posted at least four tweets showing support for Sleeping Giants, a left-wing internet activist organization whose members target advertisers seen on conservative sites like Breitbart News.

The activist group, which says it was formed to “make bigotry and sexism less profitable,” is well-known for convincing advertisers to drop listings on right-leaning sites through bullying campaigns, many of which have successfully bankrupted conservative media outlets.

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YouTube Financially Deplatforms Swath Of Indie Media Accounts

The Google-owned video sharing platform YouTube has demonetized numerous independent media accounts, a jarring escalation in the steadily intensifying campaign against alternative news outlets online.

Progressive commentators Graham Elwood, The Progressive Soapbox, The Convo Couch, Franc Analysis, Hannah Reloaded and Cyberdemon531 have all received notifications from YouTube that their videos are no longer permitted to earn money through the platform’s various monetization features, as has Ford Fischer, a respected freelancer who films US political demonstrations. No explanation has been offered for this decision beyond the vague claim that “your channel is not in line with our YouTube Partner Program policies” due to “harmful content”.

Like all large online platforms, YouTube’s appeals process is notoriously opaque and unaccountable. These accounts could remain demonetized for months, or forever, without any clear explanation at all. Ford Fischer, who has been in this situation before, said on Twitter that his account was left demonetized for seven months before YouTube reversed its decision.

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FBI launches open attack on ‘foreign’ alternative media outlets challenging US foreign policy

The FBI has publicly justified its suppression of dissenting online views about US foreign policy if a media outlet can be somehow linked to one of its adversaries. The Bureau’s justification followed a series of instances in which Silicon Valley social media platforms banned accounts following consultations with the FBI.

In a particularly notable case in 2018, the FBI encouraged Facebook, Instagram and Google to remove or restrict ads on the American Herald Tribune (AHT), an online journal that published critical opinion articles on US policy toward Iran and the Middle East. The bureau has never offered a clear rationale, however, despite its private discussions with Facebook on the ban.

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FBI launches open attack on ‘foreign’ alternative media outlets challenging US foreign policy

The FBI has publicly justified its suppression of dissenting online views about US foreign policy if a media outlet can be somehow linked to one of its adversaries. The Bureau’s justification followed a series of instances in which Silicon Valley social media platforms banned accounts following consultations with the FBI.

In a particularly notable case in 2018, the FBI encouraged Facebook, Instagram and Google to remove or restrict ads on the American Herald Tribune (AHT), an online journal that published critical opinion articles on US policy toward Iran and the Middle East. The bureau has never offered a clear rationale, however, despite its private discussions with Facebook on the ban.

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Facebook Introducing a ‘Virality Circuit Breaker’ to Prevent Spread of Viral Content

According to a recent report from the Interface newsletter by Verge reporter Casey Newton, Facebook is piloting a new program that will monitor viral posts that gain millions of views to ensure that they don’t violate community standards.

The Verge reporter Casey Newton reports in the newsletter the Interface that social media giant Facebook is developing a new program to fight viral misinformation on the platform. In the newsletter, Newton lists suggestions made by the Center for American Progress (CAP) to prevent the spread of certain content on the platform.

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