savoloysam
Britain's Most Wanted.
I have run out of people to block on Facebook. Times are hard.
Facebook: Australia content ban, SWP removal and related news
- Thread starter Smokeandsteam
- Start date
The39thStep
Urban critical thinker
If only Facebook could ban my sister from posting streams of faux expertise on subjects she knows very little of of and life affirming inspirational feel good memes sprinkled with things that never really happened.
moochedit
Mr Mooched It
You can "unfollow" her so she doesn't appear in your news feed. She won't know you've done it and you still show as a "friend".
gosub
~#
I'm not so sure, though given the Jan 6th thing was organised on facebook - so they shut down Parler ... Whatever is going on Big Tech is acting in concert and is very ban happy. That said just checked the Electoral Commission register and SWP aren't on it, which surprizes me (though not sure if its relevant. Would like to hear the justification.
Banning a sitting President from twitter changed dynamics and there is some recalibration going on
moochedit
Mr Mooched It
I may be out of date with this but i don't think the SWP runs candidates under their own name in elections (they have run candidates as part of "socialist allience" and "respect" in the past). Hence no need to be on the register.
They are back on fb now anyway.
Dogsauce
I’ve got Skol but I’m not a Scholar
Loads of stuff that has fuck all to do with politics, my feed is filled with stuff on Portuguese trains, a particularly good guitar group, a couple of old community groups I was once involved with, stupid stuff from wisecracking mates. It’s pretty benign.
Politics-wise I get the occasional post sponsored by the Tories, usually some rabble-rousing attack on Marvin Rees (sometimes disguised as a ‘survey’) about cycle lanes or whatever other culture war shit they’re desperately trying to jump on. It amuses me that they’re wasting their money targeting me.
klang
klang
imagine the christmas banner we'd get....
hitmouse
so defeated, thinks it's funny
In December 2010, at the height of the student fees protests after the coalition government comes to power, a Socialist Worker Student Society member comes up with a VERY hurtful chant about Nick Clegg. Deeply wounded, Clegg vows to take his vengeance, but as a master strategist, he knows better than to act in the heat of the moment, understanding that revenge is a dish best served cold. He sits back and begins to plan out the long game.
ska invita
back on the other side
IIRC I read that about a year ago within a week Twitter accounts for
Anarchist Festival
Sisters Not Cisters
London Radical Bookfair
Alliance of Radical Bookseller
...all got kicked off. From what I gather they restarted their accounts from scratch.
A couple of friends of mine lost their personal accounts for absolutely nothing rule-breaking.
It seems all it takes is some targeted reporting of accounts and they're taken down.
Considering how wealthy these tech company giants are it amazes how they appear to be run a on a shoe string, with minimum staff and moderation.
The task of monitoring Twitter sounds like hell on earth, and it seems to me at present to be left mainly to some crude AI to do much of it.
Trying to contact someone at Facebook or Twitter is IME impossible. Even getting an automated email response felt like a success.
I see even in the articles in hte OP it says " Twitter didn’t immediately return an email. "
Trump got booted off actively BY Twitter management. It is not clear these cases in the OP are by Twitter, or by malicious reporting. If its the first that's a big step. I expect its most likely the second.
One solution is for these companies to invest in moderation and for us to hope they do a good job. The other is to leave to alternatives, but these are natural monopolies really, and scale is everything. Fucked up situation.
Anarchist Festival
Sisters Not Cisters
London Radical Bookfair
Alliance of Radical Bookseller
...all got kicked off. From what I gather they restarted their accounts from scratch.
A couple of friends of mine lost their personal accounts for absolutely nothing rule-breaking.
It seems all it takes is some targeted reporting of accounts and they're taken down.
Considering how wealthy these tech company giants are it amazes how they appear to be run a on a shoe string, with minimum staff and moderation.
The task of monitoring Twitter sounds like hell on earth, and it seems to me at present to be left mainly to some crude AI to do much of it.
Trying to contact someone at Facebook or Twitter is IME impossible. Even getting an automated email response felt like a success.
I see even in the articles in hte OP it says " Twitter didn’t immediately return an email. "
Trump got booted off actively BY Twitter management. It is not clear these cases in the OP are by Twitter, or by malicious reporting. If its the first that's a big step. I expect its most likely the second.
One solution is for these companies to invest in moderation and for us to hope they do a good job. The other is to leave to alternatives, but these are natural monopolies really, and scale is everything. Fucked up situation.
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NoXion
You remain unbroken, for your fight... is Eternal
So it's the exact same bullshit that's been happening to left wing pages on Facebook since before even Trump. Get arbitrarily suspended for no reason, with the decision being reversed later. Often this all happens with absolutely no communication happening between FB and the people being fucked about like this. I know that when videos on YouTube are temporarily suspended, it has the effect of damaging monetisation income for the uploader. But what's the fucking point of this shit?
Remember that Trump only started facing consequences for his online behaviour after that coup attempt happened. So this idea that Twitter finally bringing the hammer down once they realised they wouldn't face significant backlash for doing so, somehow represents a new era of liberal authoritarianism is just junk. Trump got a ridiculously easy ride.
I saw some very online leftists maundering about how social media like Twitter are being subject to "enclosure", which I find to be a pretty damning misuse of a term with significant historical import. Twitter and Facebook are not and were never at any point publicly owned or otherwise held in common. If you want to argue that big social media websites should be collectively owned and managed, then fine, make that argument, personally I think it's a good one. But don't misuse already-defined terms in an attempt to give your argument the gloss of historical authenticity.
brogdale
Coming to terms with late onset Anarchism
Exactly; 'commons', my arse.
Platforms are privately owned/controlled enterprises accumulating wealth from 'consumer' as (unpaid) producer models.
ska invita
back on the other side
This is the thing though, they started as niche concerns and have become global communication platforms
You can definitely argue that it is a right to access them, so prevalent have they become, that to not be on them wold be an infringement of liberties.
As they're international its hard to see how they can be nationalised?
Nor does the idea of the state being in control of them fill me with any confidence. China is an extreme case, but a worrying one.
In theory you'd hope there could be some kind of open source/horizontal way of managing such sites but the moderation problem seems unsolvable other than by spending a lot of money
tommers
Fuck it, it's fine.
What does this mean?
ska invita
back on the other side
in practice i dont know what it means
it would be nice if the community could moderate itself somehow is what i meant
like wikipedia
brogdale
Coming to terms with late onset Anarchism
That's the bit I struggle with; are you suggesting access to corporate social media platforms is some sort of human right? To all?
NoXion
You remain unbroken, for your fight... is Eternal
Innit. People need to re-learn the lost art of creating and managing email lists, if they truly want their own communication channel that is 100% under their control.
mauvais
on reddit or something
There could in theory be mainstream services that were at least as independent as the Internet infrastructure itself, i.e. anyone could commission a node and join in. It won't ever happen because the interest in doing so is massively outweighed by having someone else do it.
nogojones
spelling is overrated
Which branch is she in?
ska invita
back on the other side
A case can be made for that, not by me, but by someone who has had training in debating, yes.
There's definitely an argument that can be made that a communication platform which is now so ubiquitous, which is free to sign up to, which governments use to make public announcements etc, has taken on a new social function.
The word "Commons" is a stretch, but I understand the sentiment.
gosub
~#
except due to the hollowing out of journalism, would be completely off radar of main stream media
Crispy
The following psytrance is baṉned: All
email and usenet are exactly that; decentralised common protocols that anyone can host or join.
There have been attempts at similar approaches for social media eg. Mastodon, but of course there's no critical mass, and no commercial incentive for any of the big boys to use such an open system. It would have to be enforced from above.
ska invita
back on the other side
But what happens if everyone got on mastadon and started to maliciously report each others posts, the far right start spamming it etc etc.
Supposedly Twitter has 330 million active users for example
Facebook nearly 3 billion
mauvais
on reddit or something
Email is a legacy mess that noone has ever managed to properly reform, only apply sticking plasters to, so not an enormously good model. The public web - HTTP(S), DNS, domain registration - is a better one as it has actually moved along with the times, but it's actual underlying nature is again legacy and a fresh start would no doubt look very different and much more private.
hitmouse
so defeated, thinks it's funny
Curiouser and curiouser, they went after the WSWS/SEP as well: Facebook purges left-wing pages and individuals
I'm honestly struggling to imagine what chain of events could lead to someone going "oh, this trot front group attempting to recruit London bus drivers, got to make sure we get them as well."
littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
This is the problem. Twitter has become the primary source for much news gathering yet it is a privately owned monopoly.
Idris2002
canadian girlfriend
"0600 hours. Radio Pilsen announced that it was "the last free radio station in Czechoslovakia".
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
I expect the profis updating his facebook as organiser argument (BECAUSE LENIN SAID SO) as we speak.
Crispy
The following psytrance is baṉned: All
I wasn't really advocating for that, but the idea of a transition from the open "commons" of Usenet to the "enclosed" world of forums and social media does make some sense.
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