'The Big Delete:' Inside Facebook's Crackdown in Germany (go.com) 78
"Days before Germany's federal elections, Facebook took what it called an unprecedented step: the removal of a series of accounts that worked together to spread COVID-19 misinformation and encourage violent responses to COVID restrictions," reports the Associated Press.
The crackdown, announced Sept. 16, was the first use of Facebook's new "coordinated social harm" policy aimed at stopping not state-sponsored disinformation campaigns but otherwise typical users who have mounted an increasingly sophisticated effort to sidestep rules on hate speech or misinformation. In the case of the German network, the nearly 150 accounts, pages and groups were linked to the so-called Querdenken movement, a loose coalition that has protested lockdown measures in Germany and includes vaccine and mask opponents, conspiracy theorists and some far-right extremists.
Facebook touted the move as an innovative response to potentially harmful content; far-right commenters condemned it as censorship. But a review of the content that was removed — as well as the many more Querdenken posts that are still available — reveals Facebook's action to be modest at best. At worst, critics say, it could have been a ploy to counter complaints that it doesn't do enough to stop harmful content. "This action appears rather to be motivated by Facebook's desire to demonstrate action to policymakers in the days before an election, not a comprehensive effort to serve the public," concluded researchers at Reset, a U.K.-based nonprofit that has criticized social media's role in democratic discourse....
Even with the new rule, a problem remains with the takedowns: they don't make it clear what harmful material remains up on Facebook, making it difficult to determine just what the social network is accomplishing. Case in point: the Querdenken network. Reset had already been
monitoring the accounts removed by Facebook and issued a report that concluded only a small portion of content relating to Querdenken was taken down while many similar posts were allowed to stay up... Facebook initially declined to provide examples of the Querdenken content it removed, but ultimately released four posts to the Associated Press that weren't dissimilar to content still available on Facebook...
Reset's analysis of comments removed by Facebook found that many were actually written by people trying to rebut Querdenken arguments, and did not include misinformation.
The crackdown, announced Sept. 16, was the first use of Facebook's new "coordinated social harm" policy aimed at stopping not state-sponsored disinformation campaigns but otherwise typical users who have mounted an increasingly sophisticated effort to sidestep rules on hate speech or misinformation. In the case of the German network, the nearly 150 accounts, pages and groups were linked to the so-called Querdenken movement, a loose coalition that has protested lockdown measures in Germany and includes vaccine and mask opponents, conspiracy theorists and some far-right extremists.
Facebook touted the move as an innovative response to potentially harmful content; far-right commenters condemned it as censorship. But a review of the content that was removed — as well as the many more Querdenken posts that are still available — reveals Facebook's action to be modest at best. At worst, critics say, it could have been a ploy to counter complaints that it doesn't do enough to stop harmful content. "This action appears rather to be motivated by Facebook's desire to demonstrate action to policymakers in the days before an election, not a comprehensive effort to serve the public," concluded researchers at Reset, a U.K.-based nonprofit that has criticized social media's role in democratic discourse....
Even with the new rule, a problem remains with the takedowns: they don't make it clear what harmful material remains up on Facebook, making it difficult to determine just what the social network is accomplishing. Case in point: the Querdenken network. Reset had already been
monitoring the accounts removed by Facebook and issued a report that concluded only a small portion of content relating to Querdenken was taken down while many similar posts were allowed to stay up... Facebook initially declined to provide examples of the Querdenken content it removed, but ultimately released four posts to the Associated Press that weren't dissimilar to content still available on Facebook...
Reset's analysis of comments removed by Facebook found that many were actually written by people trying to rebut Querdenken arguments, and did not include misinformation.
Days before? (Score:1)
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has reached a suitable agreement with the powers that be
You mean the Cheyenne Dialysis King?
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Because it is not about doing good.
It is about looking good.
Psychopath behavior patterns 101.
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Agree. To spell it out; Facebook's business model is attracting user viewing hours to its pages, i.e. attention (what Facebook calls "engagement"), Facebook then sells that attention to advertisers. Whatever attracts the most attention makes the most money for Facebook & that tends to be whatever provokes indignant outrage, in other words, "engagement" usually means "enragement." At the moment it seems to be elections & COVID-19 vaccines... until it moves onto the next hot topic of enragement.
I'm gu
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Because four years ago, there was no such things as groups against COVID-19 health measures? /sarcasm
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Anti-vaccine conspiracy theories were already going strong, and led to a resurgence of diseases that had been extirpated in the civilised world.
Re: Days before? (Score:3)
Covid-19 vaccines. Four years ago.
Think about that for a moment.
That's great (Score:1)
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Not big enough. (Score:3)
Facebook still exists.
(And thinks it is a physician or virologist too.)
You wouldn't hit a poster with glasses? (Score:3)
Reset's analysis of comments removed by Facebook found that many were actually written by people trying to rebut Querdenken arguments, and did not include misinformation.
HTML needs a
tag.
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If Facebook deletes posts they agree with, based on mistakenly thinking there is misinformation in those posts... how can we hope the company will be accurate when handling posts they disagree with?
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Ni hao! (Score:3)
Facebook is putting on a performance for an audience in Beijing. If they jump through enough hoops with sufficient grace and poise, they might be allowed to play in the biggest walled garden there is.
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He does not even know what the 2A is about.
Hint: it does not regulate citizen versus citizen hate speech, libel, slander etc.
And: it does not regulate citizen versus corporation "publishing rights"
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Censorship is a reason for americans to use their 2nd amendment tools.
Does that mean we get to use our 2nd amendment tools against the Fox tabloid which refused to run ads critical of the con artist, or an ad by a group showing the violent attempt to overthrow the government on January 6th and criticizing the GOP for fomenting the unrest?
In my day ... (Score:1)
Now the kinder must stay off my lawn.
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And just like then, a mindless mob cheering around the pyres applauds the silencing of opposing opinions, feeling elated as representing a majority, not realizing how quickly the same repressive mechanisms will be turned against them, eventually.
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And just like then, a mindless mob cheering around the pyres applauds the silencing of opposing opinions, feeling elated as representing a majority, not realizing how quickly the same repressive mechanisms will be turned against them, eventually.
You might find the paradox of tolerance in interest concept to contemplate in the context of US freedom of speech: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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He's counting on it.
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That sounds like wrongthink, citizen. Off to Room 101 with you...
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Q is fake (Score:4, Interesting)
Querdenken is the German version of the QAnon shit for brains. Yes, that's "harmful content". One of those paranoids fatally shot a gas station attendant for reminding him of the mask requirement two weeks ago.
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Querdenken is as much a movement as a "bowel movement". Apart from that it's a cult of numbnuts following the same retarded conspiracy hallucinations as QAnon. QAnon symbology is present wherever Querdenkers show up. And that killer was indeed radicalized by that same "everybody against us" manipulation that incited the Capitol insurrection. Last year, "Querdenker" had also organized an intrusion into the "Reichstagsgebäude", where the German Bundestag, the parliament, convenes. It's the exact same bul
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Please also cite where Querdenken "organized" the (tiny) group of people who walked up some stairs towards the Reichstagsgebäude. In contrast to what you seem to believe, "Querdenken" officials did neither "organize" nor endorse that silly episode in any way, quite on the contrary, they published
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Oh fuck off you moron.
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That flood of reality distorting bullshit is not an argument and you know it. It's the written diarrhea you bunch of fuckwits employ to pretend the bloody obvious isn't to be believed and the cult is in full control of how it is to be viewed, just read their "manifesto". You dipshits will forever be treated with the same undying disdain as the Nazis you secretly aspire to be.
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That depends upon the ideas under consideration.
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"harmful" (Score:2, Flamebait)
The very notion that certain ideas, however misguided they may be, are harmful to society and must be controlled, is all the evidence I need to know that the West has fallen.
If you think ideas are "harmful", thank a teacher. I remember my teachers taught us to think critically, to brush off insults, to question everything. Apparently, critical thinking is no longer taught, and you can't trust society to think for itself.
Apparently, today's society believes anything, falls for everything, and hasn't s
Re:"harmful" (Score:4, Interesting)
The very notion that certain ideas, however misguided they may be, are harmful to society and must be controlled, is all the evidence I need to know that the West has fallen.
So then you're fine with people posting that a concoction of arsenic will help cure covid, right?
If you think ideas are "harmful", thank a teacher.
No, thank Republicans. When critical thinking is taught suddenly people become "libtards" because they do think, they see the truth behind the matter, and they do question what they've been told. Don't believe me? In Tennesse, parents are upset [cnn.com] their children are being taught about the civil rights movement, how white people were shouting and cursing at black children being allowed in schools with whites. Why? Because their children might be uncomfortable hearing the truth about what happened.
Two tell the story of Ruby Bridges, a 6-year-old who integrated an elementary school in New Orleans in 1960. "Ruby Bridges Goes To School," written for elementary school students by Bridges herself, is fine for kids to read, Steenman says. But she says teachers should not be allowed to lead discussions of the pictures in the book -- one of which is the famous Norman Rockwell painting of Ruby, the US Marshals who had to protect her from an angry segregationist White crowd, and the ugly slur hurled at her by adults.
"There's no need to emphasize it," she says of the slur. "Just, you know, if they want to read 'this book has a famous painting,' fine. And then just move on."
Apparently, today's society believes anything, falls for everything, and hasn't sense enough to challenge authority
As witnessed by the multitude of people who still think hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin have any effect when it comes to covid, who refuse to get a covid vaccine because of its "side effects", who still think the election was "stolen", who literally raised up a golden calf [cnn.com] for a failure, yes, large portions of today's society believes anything, falls for everything and hasn't any common sense.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
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Wish I had mod points.
Was having a good discussion with a few people recently and we were all lamenting how some significant segment of our population will surrender their freedoms for the belief that someone else will make them safe. We all had different perspectives and experiences of this phenomenon.
The sincere belief of something along the lines of 'we have the right to be/feel safe' completely disregards all of history and well reality.
The way I put it to a lawyer friend of mine (where we were talking
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Russia interfering with the election (Score:2)
What? The US?
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What? The US?
They all do it. Every country wants outcomes to be favorable to them. That is usually done behind the scenes. Even private citizens such as George Soros is widely known to influence elections abroad. He's proud of it I understand. Some other countries would love to get their hands on him in fact. Russia is one of them. I'm sure there are many others that do the same thing. Bill Gates comes to mind though I don't know if he does or not.
Funny how these crackdowns (Score:2)
Re:Funny how these crackdowns (Score:4, Interesting)
First you make sure that it's really a bug exploit by testing it out thoroughly. Then when it's no longer lucrative enough you report it and make yourself look like a good guy.
Well, wherever the COVID misinformation was, it doesn't seem to have had a really large effect. But an effect might be there. Over 80% of the votes were for parties that do not support that misinformation stuff. The AfD, the only *major anti-science party by denying Climate Change and supporting a lot of COVID misinformation, got 10.3%. Then there's also the newer party "Die Basis", which outright calls the vaccines genocide which got 1.6%
The AfD lost about as much votes as the Basis gained, so there's some speculation that they've lost voters to that party, but since ballots are secret, there's really no way to be sure.
*There's also quite a bit of science denial among the "Grüne" party when it comes to things like GMO, but that's minor compared to the rest at the moment.
Re:Funny how these crackdowns (Score:5, Insightful)
There's a line between doubt and denial. Those who are in doubt && 'scientific' can accept evidence and will have to change their minds according to the evidence. Those who are in doubt but also in 'denial' will resort to moving the goal posts, shift the burden of proof, or come up with whatever other sophism to justify their denialism.
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"Die Basis"? Really? "The base/foundation"?
Or, in Arab, "Al-Qaeda"?
Please tell me you made that up.
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Yes, it's exactly as in "The Foundation". They brand themselves as "We are the 99%", grass roots."
Allegedly the movement was started through anti-COVID19 measure demonstrations. There's quite a bit of disgruntled people there.
Their web presence: https://diebasis-partei.de/ [diebasis-partei.de] take a look at your own risk using a translator.
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A party that essentially called itself the German translation of Al Quaeda was up for election and was, if I get their "program" right probably mostly elected by people who are in the "Querdenker" movement which is akin to the QAnon stuff in the US.
The irony is just too sweet. Please tell me some German comedy news show picked up on that.
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I haven't seen anything humorous in the news papers I still look into now and then besides of the general narrative of depicting the "Querdenker" as Nazis.
From personal experience, there are certainly some of that calibre among them, with people who are Holocaust deniers and some others that made statements like "Now I know how Anne Frank felt". But all in all it's not a homogeneous group
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They're not Nazis. The Nazis had an "and then what" plan, as in, they had an idea what they wanted to do instead.
These stupid fucks only know they don't want that. What instead, they don't know, but NOT THAT. I get reminded of a small child throwing a tantrum to whatever food you want to give them, then throwing yet another one for being hungry.
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"Schwarmintelligenz", the concept of collective intelligence based decision making where the 'truth' is up for election. After all they brand themselves as the 99% and following that logic, what they think must be correct, right?
Of course if you look further, their definition states that only members of themselves are allowed to participate in that. So what they want as "base democra
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Reality isn't a democracy, though. It's not up for election. Else there would be no gravity in the US anymore with all the lard asses certainly voting against it.
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Elections in Germany - no idea about the rest of the EU - are not a topic on Facebook.
During the elections - every reporting on it - is prohibited. I think the only exception is, mentioning how many people seem to go.
So only private persons can start posts about it, which is legal, ofc.
"Querdenken" = QAnon (Score:3, Informative)
Just in case that wasn't clear.
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Now please tell me how you come to the conclusion that this movement is similar to Qanon in any meaningful way?
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Take a look at the picture. [www1.wdr.de] Or this one. [www.nzz.ch]
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Coincidences wherever you look. Nothing is real, believe the manifesto. Fuck you, cultist.
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Not really. The "Querdenker" are mentally defectives and mental underperformers that believe they are far smarter than everybody else. These people mistake their personal feelings and unfounded fears for facts. They believe nonsense like that the vaccine is really a WHO campaign to kill a majority of the population and similar complete nonsense. In a sense, these are people where education has failed, because these people are universally Dunning-Kruger left-side cases.
Now, the QAnon idiots share some charac
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The People's Front of Judea: "Fuck the Judean People's Front."
The rise of the pharmaceutical industry (Score:2)
Smoking, drinking, aging population, sedentary lifestyle, overeating, malnutrition, lack of sport grounds, etc. are facilitating this process. The sales are in trillions.
The oil & auto have changed our cities and our life immensely.
Remember your history (Score:1)
There was this queer little guy with a funny moustache that did just that almost a century ago, youâ(TM)d think Germans wouldâ(TM)ve gotten smarter by now,
Puppies and kittens only! (Score:2)
Well, that's all fine then (Score:1)
FB is basically scum at this point (Score:1)
I've left FB for good. Their white-supremacist pro-insurrection "community standards" moderators understand the incendiary language being used by the right-wing trolls and they stifle any counter-claims or push-back under the guise of community standards and random banning for things that you may have said months ago and were never notified or banned-at-the-time for, but now they'll use it against you. Without equivocation: Facebook is right-wing Neo-conservative fascist and white-supremacy-oriented per M