Tag: corruption

Facebook rejects “disinformation dozen” narrative (censors them anyway)

In a company blog post, Facebook has addressed and rejected a theory spread by the media and politicians in the US that only 12 people are responsible for as much as 73 percent of what is considered online vaccine misinformation.

The 12 users have been censored anyway, but Facebook is pushing back against the claim that this is what it takes to deal with what the post said is a global problem of coronavirus vaccine misinformation.

Facebook says that the claim about the 12 key “superspreaders of misinformation” is a narrative (the company avoided referring to this narrative as false, using instead the term, “faulty”) that has not passed the test when confronted by evidence.

Nevertheless, Facebook reaffirmed that it has a zero tolerance policy toward what it happens to identify as vaccine misinformation, and announced that more than three dozen pages, groups and Facebook and Instagram accounts linked to the 12 persons have been removed.

The reason given is that these pages and accounts violated Facebook’s policies.

In addition, almost two dozen other pages, groups and accounts have been penalized for their links to the 12 – although logic dictates that they have not been found in violation of Facebook’s policies.

Keep reading

Biden administration demands Facebook hands over data on “misinformation” and vaccine skeptics

The Biden administration continues to pressure Facebook to collaborate and help it achieve its goals, one of them being to counter COVID vaccine skepticism and get more people in the US vaccinated.

After Biden shockingly denounced Facebook and others as “killing people” because they are allegedly letting COVID misinformation run rampant on their platforms, that pressure now continues in media reports, like the one The Washington Post published, citing three anonymous administration sources.

According to them, The White House and Facebook have had a series of meetings whose aim was to get the social media giant to turn over massive amounts of user data to the government, apparently as a “good will gesture” – since there doesn’t seem to be any legal ground for such a request.

Instead, the “tense” meetings saw the administration’s COVID crew “begging” Facebook to give them access to data showing how many people on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp see content branded as coronavirus misinformation, how many are still undecided whether to get the jab, and also the efficiency of Facebook’s censorship algorithms, i.e., how many people still get to see content that it aims to block.

It’s not obvious why the officials quoted by the article thought Facebook was under obligation to do this, but they accused the company of “hiding, filibustering and deflecting” – while at the same time commending Google and Twitter for apparently being much more accommodating in similar meetings around the same subject.

Keep reading

US says Kabul evacuees don’t need COVID tests

Amid the chaos and confusion at the airport, the United States said it had taken at least one step to ease requirements for those seeking to leave: COVID-19 tests.

Although Afghanistan had been a hotspot for the coronavirus pandemic, the State Department said Thursday that evacuees are not required to get a negative COVID-19 result to travel.

“A blanket humanitarian waiver has been implemented for COVID testing for all persons the U.S. government is relocating from Afghanistan,” the department said.

Keep reading

Instagram blocks critical comments of Biden through it’s “disrespectful” content filter

Instagram introduced a selection of new tools this year, intended at assisting users in protecting their accounts against “harassment.”

However, the tool appears to be working to protect the Biden administration from some unwanted criticism. In response to President Biden’s handling of the Afghan evacuation, Instagram invoked a comment-censoring effort to protect him from “disrespectful” words.

Author and filmmaker Mike Cernovich was first to notice the censorship.

“We’re flagging comments that may be considered inappropriate or disrespectful,” Instagram told some users who tried to comment on President Biden’s posts.

During periods of increased attention, such as when something goes viral, Instagram developed capabilities for screening “abusive” direct message (DM) requests, as well as a mechanism for users to limit other individuals from publishing comments or sending DMs.

Keep reading