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Facebook Advertising Censorship Government

Facebook and Instagram Confront Historically Bad 'Reputational Crisis' in the Middle East (nbcnews.com) 81

Posted by EditorDavid from the popularity-movements dept.
NBC News reports: Facebook is grappling with a reputation crisis in the Middle East, with plummeting approval rates and advertising sales in Arab countries, according to leaked documents obtained by NBC News.

The shift corresponds with the widespread belief by pro-Palestinian and free speech activists that the social media company has been disproportionately silencing Palestinian voices on its apps — which include Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — during this month's Israel-Hamas conflict... Instagram has taken the greatest reputational hit, according to a presentation authored by a Dubai-based Facebook employee that was leaked to NBC News, with its approval ratings among users falling to a historical low.

The social media company regularly polls users of Facebook and Instagram about how much they believe the company cares about them. Facebook converts the results into a 'Cares About Users' metric which acts as a bellwether for the apps' popularity. Since the start of the latest Israel-Hamas conflict, the metric among Instagram users in Facebook's Middle East and North Africa region is at its lowest in history, and fell almost 5 percentage points in a week, according to the research... Instagram's score measuring whether users think the app is good for the world, referred to as 'Good For World,' has also dropped in the region to its lowest level after losing more than 5 percentage points in a week...

The low approval ratings have been compounded by a campaign by pro-Palestinian and free speech activists to target Facebook with 1-star reviews on the Apple and Google app stores. The campaign tanked Facebook's average rating from above 4 out of 5 stars on both app stores to 2.2 on the App Store and 2.3 on Google Play as of Wednesday. According to leaked internal posts, the issue has been categorized internally as a "severity 1" problem for Facebook, which is the second highest priority issue after a "severity 0" incident, which is reserved for when the website is down. "Users are feeling that they are being censored, getting limited distribution, and ultimately silenced," one senior software engineer said in a post on Facebook's internal message board. "As a result, our users have started protesting by leaving 1 star reviews."

Internal documents connect the reputational damage to a decline in advertising sales in the Middle East. According to the leaked presentation, Facebook's ad sales in the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Iraq dropped at least 12 percent in the 10 days after May 7.
NBC adds that pro-Palestinian civil society group believe Israel is flooding Facebook with reports of violations. "The Israeli government is spending millions on digital tools and campaigns targeting social media content," said Mona Shtaya from 7amleh, a nonprofit that focuses on Palestinians' digital rights.

The article points out that Israel "also funds a program that pays students to post and report content on social media in what is described as 'online public diplomacy.'"
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Facebook and Instagram Confront Historically Bad 'Reputational Crisis' in the Middle East More

Facebook and Instagram Confront Historically Bad 'Reputational Crisis' in the Middle East

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  • Good (Score:5, Insightful)

    by phantomfive ( 622387 ) on Sunday May 30, 2021 @10:49PM (#61438584) Journal

    The more people support free speech, the better. Even if the initial motivation is, "they are not supporting my side," if the conclusion supports free speech, then it is a net win.

    • Re:Good (Score:4, Informative)

      by arglebargle_xiv ( 2212710 ) on Monday May 31, 2021 @12:43AM (#61438776)
      Facebook: "ZOMG, the livestock have achieved sentience! They're starting to get upset at the way we're farming them! Quick, someone do something!".

    • That’s literally never how it works. People like this only care about free speech when their voice is being silenced, and are usually happy to call for censorship whenever it suits them. They simply concoct rationalizations for why their speech should be protected, while others’ should not.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by jmccue ( 834797 )

        Just undoing a twitch when I modded you. Was trying for interesting but missed and you got off-topic.

        While I am here, that seems to be the case everywhere, but seems we crossed another barrier over the last few years.

        In the past Facebook was all about what I am eating, parties, kids pictures, farmville type apps and LOL cats. Now it seems it crossed the line into a propaganda platform for all sides.

        • "Now it seems it crossed the line into a propaganda platform for all sides." - No, only for one side. If it was for all sides, then it would not be a problem.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by GoTeam ( 5042081 )
            I'm not going to put words in the mouth of the person you're replying to, but I'd think they're saying that all sides have used it for propaganda. The argument can now be that fb has taken a more active role in picking sides. Foreign countries can sometimes take a less accepting stance on outside entities contradicting their governments opinions.

        • It was very polarized back in the W days as well, though.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Zuckerberg can do what he wants, he's not likely to be popular with Arabs in anyway. After all his name is ZuckerBERG.

      It doesn't matter that he doesn't care too much about his Jewish heritage, a lot of Arabs will see him as one of the most powerful Jews in the world.

      Anything can do will tie perfectly well into their religion crazy conspiratorial beliefs that every single one of them is being oppressed by the Jewish Cabal, despite being a huge majority compared to Judaism.

      They're not too dissimilar to

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Zuckerberg can do what he wants, he's not likely to be popular with Arabs in anyway. After all his name is ZuckerBERG. It doesn't matter that he doesn't care too much about his Jewish heritage, a lot of Arabs will see him as one of the most powerful Jews in the world.

        That bold statement is belied by the fact that the share of Facebook users as a percentage of Internet users in the Middle East was close to 90% up until a few years ago when it started falling of a cliff in a few places. Facebook is still at about 82% of all internet users in Saudi Arabia of all places as well as being in the same range in Egypt, Lebanon and the UAE so ZuckerBERG being a Jew doesn't seem to carry much weight.

        Anything can do will tie perfectly well into their religion crazy conspiratorial beliefs that every single one of them is being oppressed by the Jewish Cabal, despite being a huge majority compared to Judaism. They're not too dissimilar to the Alt-Right in the West in their convictions. They also treat women badly and hate gays.

        Having talked to a bunch of them myself this is a pretty good description of Isra

      • The actual honest Greater Israel/Sinai Option supporting Jews are kinda like the alt-right.

        Zuck seems more the standard AIPAC supporter, standing on the side occasionally tut tutting when the frog gets boiled too fast, but always ready to scream anti-Semitism when BDS comes up.

    • Facebook has always been trash. Anything that takes more people away from its user base is a good thing, at least in some small part.

    • The more people support free speech, the better. Even if the initial motivation is, "they are not supporting my side," if the conclusion supports free speech, then it is a net win.

      What does that even mean? If I run a website, and the local NAMBLA chapter decides that they need to be allowed to post hookup dates between their audience, I''m compelled to allow it?

      The problem with the concept is that conceptually, we can claim that 100% unfettered speech is great, there are other basic concepts at work. Like property rights.

      In addition, there are definitions of free speech that include - "My lies are as valid as your truths", "I must be allowed to have my say -if you react to it, y

      • Facebook is a public company. Zuk is not the sole proprietor. Here is its stock ticker: https://finance.yahoo.com/quot... [yahoo.com]

      • ok, so what?

        Facebook can legally censor people, and I can legally say they are trash for doing so.

        Facebook is trash for many other reasons as well, but their censorship is a big one. Free speech is important.

        • ok, so what?

          Facebook can legally censor people, and I can legally say they are trash for doing so.

          Facebook is trash for many other reasons as well, but their censorship is a big one. Free speech is important.

          Yes, the ability to speak your mind and redress greivances is definitely important - And I surely agree that Facebook and twitter are trash of the worst sort. I'm only there because I'm required to be there. I tel people it's my cross to bear.

          But if my right to free speech depends upon Facebook, which is the lowest common denominator, the Here comes Honey Boo Boo of social media, the hovel of subnormals who believe that calling others "stupid fuckhead" wins the argument - that is truly sad. Gar - might

  • Good and hard (Score:4, Informative)

    by Impy the Impiuos Imp ( 442658 ) on Sunday May 30, 2021 @11:22PM (#61438644) Journal

    Facebook & friends are learning the hard way that pressure from governments to ban harassing and "dangerous" speech is really about shutting down your political opposition.

    You were warned this would happen on "the other side" eventually. I just didn't think it would happen so soon.

    So wonderfully soon, actually, in the sense of the fastest way to repeal laws, or mass psychotic behavior in this case, is to ensure it is fully applied all the time.

    And you got it, good and hard.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      There are an awful lot of people who believe the fairy tale that swords only cut your enemies.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        A bit like the USA then, with their "right to bear arms".

        Guns weren't invented back when the Koran was written down.

        • A bit like the USA then, with their "right to bear arms".

          Guns weren't invented back when the Koran was written down.

          I like that logic. AR-15s with 30 round mags weren't yet invented when the US constitution was written. Thus, if you are a diamond hard US constitutional literalist, the US constitution guarantees you at best a single shot screw-breech loading flintlock rifle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] ... now where is my flame proof suit?

          • Re:Good and hard (Score:4, Informative)

            by jedidiah ( 1196 ) on Monday May 31, 2021 @09:27AM (#61439518) Homepage

            > Thus, if you are a diamond hard US constitutional literalist

            That means that your freedom of speech is limited to technologies available in 1783.

          • I'm completely with you. Hell, I'm even fine if the government gives a muzzleloader to every registered member of a state militia. More power to them.

            Incidentally, the only firearm I've ever owned was a 0.50 caliber rifled bore cap lock muzzleloader. My friend and I purchased it together to go target shooting. When we asked the gun store owner if we needed a license or anything, he replied, "The days of robbing banks with these are long over. No, you don't need a license."

            It turns out that non-cartridge rif

        • Only a couple hundred years later. Weak, weak argument.

          Useful hint to you: "arms" doesn't just mean pistols and rifles or even "firearms".

  • This is what really drives (Score:5, Insightful)

    by hdyoung ( 5182939 ) on Monday May 31, 2021 @12:06AM (#61438728)
    Facebook, and all it's ilk. Ad sales. Ad sales. What drives them? Ad sales. What do they care about? Ad sales. Do they care about anything else? Truth? Factuality? Integrity? Responsibility for any damage they cause? Responsibility to moderation of any sort? Responsibility for any ethnic cleansing that's organized using their platform? No, no, no, and no. They care about, repeat after me, AD SALES and NOTHING ELSE. Any moderation they undertake is because they are forced to by law or by popular opinion. At the core, they care absolutely nothing about anything except AD SALES.

    That's what they do. That's why they exist. The social networking platform is nothing more than a honeypot to sell more ads.

    Trump sold ads while he was president. It's no coincidence that he was able to say whatever he wanted. Consequences be damned for the country. Why is he banned now? Because his potential to sell ads has fallen now that he's out of office. Even if 30% of the country says they support Trump, most of them will lose interest amazingly quickly, because nobody likes a loser. His draw potential for ad sales is probably dropping off a cliff. And Facebook knows it.

    Did Facebook care they were selectively banning pro-Palestinian talk? While it had no impact on their ad sales, not at all. Now that it does? Suddenly there will be change. They are driven by ad sales and nothing else.

    This isn't unique to Facebook. Companies are AMORAL. They aren't bad. They aren't good. They simply don't care about either. They care about MONEY. Nothing. Else. Get that through your head and you will be much, much starter. If you use any free service, you are being monetized.

    Anyone that uses Facebook for any sort of news or political commentary is an idiot that's being played by the larger forces who are writing the checks. This is why I pay a hefty annual fee for a news source and political commentary. My source for news and strategic analysis works for ME, not the other way around.

    • This isn't unique to Facebook. Companies are AMORAL. They aren't bad. They aren't good. They simply don't care about either. They care about MONEY. Nothing. Else.

      In my book, that's bad. You simply can't be amoral — you can feel amoral, you can try to act on an amoral basis, but decisions have moral ramifications that cannot be ignored in the final analysis. Actions have consequences and saying one doesn't make decisions based on morality doesn't change that.

      Anyone that uses Facebook for any sort of news or political commentary is an idiot that's being played by the larger forces who are writing the checks.

      Facebook doesn't report news, it simply repeats reports. Anyone who doesn't know that what subset of the material that could be in your feed shows up there is curated by Facebook is a spectacular ding-dong,

    • Save "amoral" for anything that's **incapable** of morality, like machines or animals (maybe). Humans can't be amoral, everybody has a subjective definition of what's moral and what's not.

  • Paid liars, small wonder (Score:3)

    by lessSockMorePuppet ( 6778792 ) on Monday May 31, 2021 @12:21AM (#61438742) Homepage

    From the linked article at the end of the summary,

    The PMO is looking to invest close to NIS 3 million to recruit, organize and fund the activities of hundreds of university students, as part of the country’s public diplomacy effort.

    Seaman informed the public tender committee that the Prime Minister’s Office was interested in having the student union recruit up to 550 students with knowledge of foreign languages from Israel’s seven universities.

    Seaman informed the committee that the diplomacy units at each university would take direction from staff at the Prime Minister’s Office, but its public face would be one of an independent student entity. “The idea requires that the state’s role not be highlighted and therefore it is necessary to insist on major involvement by the students themselves without any political link [or] affiliation.”

    It is apparent from Seaman’s document that a diplomacy group will be set up at each university and structured in a semi-military fashion. The head of the unit will be a student “senior coordinator,” who will receive a full scholarship from the Prime Minister’s Office.

    “It was decided to establish a permanent structure of activity on the Internet through the students at academic institutions in the country,” Seaman wrote. “The students are an organized population that is familiar with, and active on, the Internet on an ongoing basis, trained in use of the field, [who] live and speak the language of the [medium].”

    The Prime Minister’s Office said in response that the project is designed to strengthen Israel’s public diplomacy and adapt it to changes in how information is being consumed. “The national public diplomacy unit in the Prime Minister’s Office places an emphasis on social network activity,” the office stated. “As part of this, a new pro-Israel public diplomacy infrastructure of students on Israeli campuses is being established that will assist in advancing and disseminating content on the social networks, particularly to international audiences.”

  • Carry on Middle East (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    and give Facebook etc the cold shoulder.
    The US owned and dominated social media sites are highly addictive (by design) and the more you can keep your people from becoming addicted the better for you.
    It is too late here in the west. We are doomed, beyond help.

  • In the Middle East? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by peppepz ( 1311345 ) on Monday May 31, 2021 @01:24AM (#61438816)
    Facebook are facing a reputational crisis... in the Middle East only? I thought their image was perceived as bad universally.

    • Re:In the Middle East? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by JaredOfEuropa ( 526365 ) on Monday May 31, 2021 @05:14AM (#61439044) Journal
      Not enough. Same as people recognizing Amazon as an evil corporation and Bezos as a shit human being, but still ordering their dog food and toilet paper from him.

      • I pay more to get stuff from other sources.

        But occasionally that backfires, like when I order stuff from eBay and then it turns out some dickface has ordered the stuff off of Amazon with my address as the delivery address. I specifically went around Amazon on purpose, god damn it.

  • Propaganda bots I would say. What passed as the Palestinian cause on social media is primarily propaganda.

  • So exactly like in the far east and west and north and south.

  • The anti-Israel crowd are disproportionately spreading hate speech and inciting violence against Jews. This is not Freedom of Speech. If anything deserves to be restricted, this is it. The fact that it makes Facebook less popular in dictatorships should not surprise anyone.

    • The anti-Israel crowd are disproportionately spreading hate speech and inciting violence against Jews.

      The pro-Israel crowd is disproportionately spreading hate speech and inciting violence against Palestinians.

      If you do everything you need to do to prevent all hate speech, you will also prevent some non-hate speech.

      A lot of anti-Netanyahu speech, or even anti-Zion speech, is taken as anti-Semitic. A lot of anti-Hamas speech is taken as anti-Palestinian. That doesn't mean it is that, although sometimes it is. Sometimes it is not.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Mitreya ( 579078 )

        The pro-Israel crowd is disproportionately spreading hate speech and inciting violence against Palestinians.

        Do they, though?

        A lot of anti-Netanyahu speech, or even anti-Zion speech, is taken as anti-Semitic. A lot of anti-Hamas speech is taken as anti-Palestinian.

        The difference is, Hamas is the government of Palestine. So it can be difficult to talk about Palestinians without mentioning Hamas.

        • A lot of anti-Netanyahu speech, or even anti-Zion speech, is taken as anti-Semitic. A lot of anti-Hamas speech is taken as anti-Palestinian.

          The difference is, Hamas is the government of Palestine. So it can be difficult to talk about Palestinians without mentioning Hamas.

          No more difficult than talking about Israelis without mentioning Netanyahu.

    • Dictatorships and war lords do not buy Ads, so I don't see why any of this hullabaloo is a real problem.

  • Get a Web Site (Score:3)

    by rbrander ( 73222 ) on Monday May 31, 2021 @12:27PM (#61439964) Homepage

    There's a guy in BC who's in jail until he calls up whatever foreign ISP is giving Canadian courts the finger when they are ordered to take down his web site showing his marital sex tapes that he's using to hurt his ex.

    It's really hard to actually censor "The Internet". This is about social media.

    I don't care about "social media". I hope they censor it to death. I hope everybody flees it and gets web sites.

    It's not "the internet"; it's a cluster of monopolies that use slot-machine psychology to sell user-generated content for advertising.

  • " that the social media company has been disproportionately silencing Palestinian voices on its apps"
    Well, they're always the aggressors, are brought up by their parents to be anti-Semitic racists, and they hide behind civilians while launching rockets so they can use their deaths as propaganda. Let me put this in cartoonishly simple terms. THEY'RE THE BAD GUYS.

    • That is cartoonishly simple, and also as a result, simply wrong.

      Neither the average Palestinian nor the average Israeli is the bad guys. They're just people trying to live their lives.

      Hamas isn't ruling by mandate, they're ruling by force. And they are only able to operate with funding from foreign nations. Basically just like Israel's government, actually.

  • Since the start of the latest Israel-Hamas conflict, the metric among Instagram users in Facebook's Middle East and North Africa region is at its lowest in history, and fell almost 5 percentage points in a week, according to the research... Instagram's score measuring whether users think the app is good for the world, referred to as 'Good For World,' has also dropped in the region to its lowest level after losing more than 5 percentage points in a week...

    It is inconceivable that they even *had* five points

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