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Facebook Needs To Protect Human Rights Issue, Civil Groups Say (cnet.com) 47

Posted by msmash from the act-responsibly dept.
Facebook needs to be more forthcoming about the kinds of content it takes down. That's according to 73 organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Black Lives Matter, SumOfUs and more, who signed a letter sent to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. From a report on CNET: The group asks for more clarity on the social networking giant's position on removing video and other content that highlight civil rights issues at the behest of authorities. The growing importance of Facebook in your life means it plays a central role in the news, video and content you see. That was made horrifyingly clear over the summer when its Facebook Live streaming video tool was used to broadcast the shooting of a black man by a police officer in Minnesota. The next day, the medium was used to broadcast a sniper firing shots at police officer at another civil rights demonstration. "With the onset of Facebook Live, your company is taking on an increasingly central role in controlling media that circulates through the public sphere," the letter said. "News is not just getting shared on Facebook: it's getting broken there."
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Facebook Needs To Protect Human Rights Issue, Civil Groups Say More

Facebook Needs To Protect Human Rights Issue, Civil Groups Say

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  • "News is not just getting shared on Facebook: it's getting broken there." That sounds like a quote from the news industry not real people. The news gets broken when it goes to the networks, everyone knows it yet here we are talking about facebook again.

    • Re:Forest for the trees (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Archangel Michael ( 180766 ) on Tuesday November 01, 2016 @01:42PM (#53193131) Journal

      MSM stopped reporting the news a long time ago. It is now just propaganda for the power class. See WikiLeaks for evidence.

      It is Hackers breaking news, and the "networks" trying to keep a lid on it all.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Penguinisto ( 415985 )

        MSM stopped reporting the news a long time ago. It is now just propaganda for the power class.

        ...and the people too old/lazy/busy to get it anywhere else than their TV set. Until the baby-boom generation is dead, it'll still have that influence for a very long time (that is, the 'TV and papers are the only place to get legitimate news' mindset.)

        • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

          by Archangel Michael ( 180766 )

          I am a "baby boomer" (supposedly, and depending on when the end date actually is).

          A lot of babyboomers (people older than me) have disconnected from the MSM (Newspapers, TV) completely. They aren't getting "news" at all, because they find it unreliable. The REAL people in love with MSM are the progressives who love pointing to the echo chamber of the MSM for all their own view points.

          For instance, these people are the ones that cannot formulate a single coherent reason why Clinton should be president, excep

          • Re:Forest for the trees (Score:5, Interesting)

            by Tailhook ( 98486 ) on Tuesday November 01, 2016 @02:55PM (#53193673)

            The REAL people in love with MSM are the progressives who love pointing to the echo chamber

            This.

            Last Sunday night at 9PM ET an outfit operating from a spare bedroom in Alabama streamed a Trump rally from NM to Facebook. No MSM filter. No MSM commentary condemning everything said as RaYSiSt!!1.

            3.2 million views in less than 2 hours..... on a Sunday night. Several times more eyeballs than all of the cable news echo chamber combined during the same period.

            ESPN SJW crap and malcontent NFL players are driving away viewers so fast that Major League Baseball is starting to win the ratings war for the first time in thirty years. The last reason many people had to pay for cable — pro football — is being ruined by the echo chamber and 621,000 subscriptions ended last month.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by tsqr ( 808554 )

            She could be involved in child sex slavery and they would still vote for her.

            You're probably right about that. I recently came across a FB "share" originating from "Occupy Democrats". Can't remember it verbatim, but it was along the lines of "If Hillary were found trading blowjobs and state secrets for crack cocaine in the parking lot of a middle eastern 7-11, I'd still vote for her." Most of the comments were of the "LOL, true dat" variety.

        • That may have been true 20yrs ago but not so much these days. For example, I'm pushing 60, the wife and I spend most of our spare time together platooning on world of tanks.I spend about 2hrs a week watching TV and an hour a day scrolling thru my FB/google news feed, even my 84yo dad spends more time on the web than in front of the TV.

          In my experience it has always been difficult to get the full story from anyone, but the web does allow you to hear the story from the horse's mouth on all sides.

      • See WikiLeaks for evidence.

        But I can't read Cyrillic.

        • Hillary has more in common with Russia than Trump does. But don't let the facts get in the way of a good troll right?

          • Hillary has more in common with Russia than Trump does.

            That's exactly why Putin wants Trump to be president.

            http://thehill.com/blogs/ballo... [thehill.com]

            • Re: (Score:1)

              by mi ( 197448 )

              Putin wants Trump to be president.

              Pathetic... Seriously... Are we supposed to believe, Trump will be better for Russia, than the alternative, who:

              • "A former senior intelligence officer for a Western country who specialized in Russian counterintelligence provided the FBI with information he says shows the Russian government has spent years trying to influence Donald Trump.

                In June, the officer, who now works for a U.S. firm gathering information on Russia for corporate clients, was told to research the Republican presidential nominee's dealings in Russia, Mother Jones reported Monday night.

                "It started off as a fairly general inquiry," the ex-spy said.
                As

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by mi ( 197448 )
                  Unattributed "could, might, what if". Also known as FUD. Like I said: pathetic. The munchkins are in revolt and Her Beautiful Wickedness is doomed.

                  • Unattributed "could, might, what if". Also known as FUD.

                    And the emails on Huma Abedin's laptop could, might, what if contain some evidence of wrongdoing.

                    Also known as FUD.

                    • Re: (Score:2)

                      by mi ( 197448 )

                      And the emails on Huma Abedin's laptop could

                      Funny, how you choose to ignore, what I posted and attack instead, what I did not. Strawman much?

                  • Putin is playing Trump like a fiddle, he is the poster boy for what used to be called "useful idiots".

                    • Re: (Score:2)

                      by mi ( 197448 )

                      Putin is playing Trump like a fiddle

                      And you know this from pings "emanating" from a Russian bank?.. Right...

  • Uphold Journalistic Standards (Score:5, Funny)

    by BigBuckHunter ( 722855 ) on Tuesday November 01, 2016 @01:35PM (#53193063)
    I believe we need to hold Facebook to the same high standards of Journalism (Accuracy, objectivity, ethics, unbiased and verified) as we do the major media outlets like Fox, CNN, NYT, NPR, and Rolling Stone Magazine.

    (Thank goodness nobody can see my face as I typed that)

  • We wouldn't have these problems (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    We wouldn't need to make a company do the people's bidding if people made use of the Internet instead of Zuckernet. Stop putting everything behind those walls.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      We wouldn't need to make a company do the people's bidding if people made use of the Internet instead of Zuckernet. Stop putting everything behind those walls.

      Please address the Farcebook community properly as idiots.

      We "people" don't consider the amplification of narcissism via social media as a viable or accurate channel for news.

    • Re:We wouldn't have these problems (Score:5, Insightful)

      by TheRaven64 ( 641858 ) on Tuesday November 01, 2016 @01:52PM (#53193201) Journal
      It's a shame this is at -1, but it's entirely right. If you have a Facebook account and you use it to communicate with people then you are responsible for giving Facebook this power. Don't want Facebook to abuse its power? Don't give it its power in the first place. Boycott Facebook, and more importantly boycott companies that use it to advertise.
  • It would be really nice if Facebook would do more to protect and promote civil rights but they're under no obligation to under the law. They're a private, for profit corporation, and as such, they're not required to protect civil rights. The only legal requirements that corporation has are that it not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity, and age.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by mjr167 ( 2477430 )
      People also do not need to be nice people. It makes the world a better place when people are kind and considerate to each other, but there is not law requiring you to be polite. Doesn't mean we don't want people to be nice. We also talk about people having social obligations. These obligations are not mandated by law, but instead by your own personal sense of decency. Corporations are (or should be) the same. They should be 'nice' because it makes the world a better place.
  • That list of organizations reminds me of the "Life of Brian". "The People's Front of Judea" belongs on that list along with "Students for Justice in Palestine" and "Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights"

  • Power grabs! Power grabs everywhere! (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    "The growing importance of Facebook in your life means it plays a central role in the news, video and content you see." (aka they have too much power over what you see so we want some of it too)

  • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Facebook Needs To Protect Human Rights Issue, Civil Groups Say

    That headline seems to have got a bit garbled. They're not being told to protect "a human rights issue", whatever that means, but just "human rights."

  • Twitter [washingtonpost.com] and Youtube [newsbusters.org] are rather lousy in this regard too...

  • Back to theocracies, monarchies, kingdoms flooding US social media with their cash for access.
    Users think they are using a free, protected US platform.
    Or will a clean up of any negative comments be policy to keep the easy funding flowing?

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