Facebook and Free Speech, Done?

Facebook has abandoned the ideas of free speech and diversity of thought. We know that from a recent speech given at a publishing and technology conference by Campbell Brown, Facebook official. He announced FB would be censoring news based on its internal biases.

Would they really do that? What might they decide to censor? Well, measured usage statics from numerous sites and sources show they already are and what they are censoring. Thinking is, FB is just getting started.

All Hail the King

All Hail the King

A good report on what is happening data-wise is on the hardest hit site, The Gateway Pundit’s coverage Zuckerberg’s Announcement.

The new media site The Outline started the reporting on the impact of Facebook’s changes. Once people started realizing how pervasive the impact is the excitement started.

For Americans, the idea of free speech is a critical part of the country’s foundation. Democracies require an informed electorate.

Toward that end, we have laws to prevent our government from controlling our speech. However, it is a good double-edged sword that while protecting private individuals’ speech from government suppression they also prevent government forced speech. So, Facebook, a privately-owned company, cannot be forced to provide balanced coverage of the Left and Right sides of various issues. They are free to run their site as they choose.

The constraint on such companies is the free market. Most Americans are now conditioned to think the marketplace cannot have a significant effect on a company. But, voting with your dollars is an old cliché that is similar to voting with your eyes, clicks… whatever denotes a participation on your part that bestows a benefit to someone. We know from visible evidence that it works. We also know corporations are aware too and do things to insulate and protect their companies from such behavior.

But still, it works in most cases. It got Bill Oreille off the air and destroyed Kathy Griffin’s career.

This whole hullabaloo is about capturing eyes and selling advertising. Facebook has decided they can change what you see and not suffer a loss of eyes (income), which they market to their advertisers. You’ll have to decide what works for you.

Facebook provides a service that currently has no competition. Ello, raftr, Deviant Art… while some claim they are replacements, they are NOT the social exchanges that Facebook is. MySpace is sort of competition. But, it has a learning curve… and who do you know that is on MySpace… ?

Basically, there is no good alternative, IMO. Many Second Life peeps have left or been thrown off Facebook. More and more people are coming to hate Facebook. But, so far, the exodus hasn’t woken up Zuckerberg. It likely never will.

The only defeat I can think of which we can deal Facebook is to get our news from other sources. (Ref) We now know that news coming via Facebook is going to be one-sided. How will you be informed if you only here one side of an issue? Isn’t that point of propaganda, to allow only one side to be heard?

3 thoughts on “Facebook and Free Speech, Done?

  1. Free speech is an illusion. The ones who seem to get away with it most are the trolls and hate-speech drummers. People trying to do beneficial research actually get told not to use specific words that might reflect badly on the government:
    https://www.socialworkers.org/News/News-Releases/ID/1617/NASW-says-Trump-Administration-should-refrain-from-word-censorship

  2. they aren’t censoring based in political bias, if you’re a reliable news source, you wont be “filtered”, if your a crackpot fake news site like The Gateway Pundit, you will not be promoted, they are just salty AF for the consequences of their own BS.

    The filtering isn’t based on ideology, its based on integrity 😛
    So if your a fear mongering conspiracy theorist, you’re done….

    Plus, if your getting your news from Facebook, your doing it wrong 😛

    • I agree one is doing it wrong if they get their news from Facebook.

      But, we have a lots of evidence FB is censoring based on political bias, as are other social media sites. You need to do some research and get the facts.

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