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by ryandrake 2637 days ago
> They wouldn't do that, because there would be justified public outcry.

If Facebook and Twitter suddenly decided to de-platform and ban any discussion praising, defending, or favoring a political party, where would the outcry happen? On Facebook? Sorry, it’s banned!

1 comments

Traditional media, competing social media, forums, blogs, posters, demonstrations, sticker campaigns.

Journalists would be absolutely salivating at the thought of writing about Facebook's new policy, especially if it was that blatant.

FB and Twitter are not the entire world. It's good praxis to be involved with people in the real world.

No they wouldn't, because this already happens and you hear nothing.

For instance in the UK Facebook banned the pages of a political party and very little was said because the same kinds of people who control Facebook also control the mainstream media, so they're almost always in agreement, except that journalists would really love Facebook to ban even more stuff to achieve the 'right outcomes', as they see it.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/359847/facebook-bans-far-right-uk...

> the same kinds of people who control Facebook also control the mainstream media

There's that conspiracy language again!

And then you go on to link a piece of "mainstream media" that writes extensively about it! Did you mean to prove yourself wrong?

PC Mag is mainstream media, now? How many readers do you think it has compared to a national newspaper?

It's hardly a conspiracy - the worldviews of these people are formed in the same crucibles and result in the same outcomes. They want to manipulate the narrative to ensure the right outcomes, in their view.

> PC Mag is mainstream media, now? How many readers do you think it has compared to a national newspaper?

You're comparing apples to oranges. What's it's ranking among tech/PC websites?

How about the Guardian?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/14/facebook-bans-...

How about BBC?

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-46746601

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43398417

How about Wired?

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/facebook-britain-first-far-r...

Is that mainstream enough for you?

> They want to manipulate the narrative to ensure the right outcomes, in their view.

Prove it.

I said very little was said, not literally nothing. We see articles in these outlets decrying tech firms for not doing enough to combat 'extremism' nearly every day. How often do we see mention of political parties being banned? It's not discussed anywhere near as much.

Look, the original comment I was taking issue with said this:

"Journalists would be absolutely salivating at the thought of writing about Facebook's new policy [of de-platforming and banning any discussion praising, defending, or favoring a political party], especially if it was that blatant."

That clearly isn't the case because it's happened already and journalists didn't salivate over it - they reported the event once and then it was never brought up again.

Britain First (the political party in question) is a fascist white supremacist group, known for harassment actions and violence, particularly against muslims.

They're the British equivalent of the NSDAP.