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Facebook Dislikes Terrorism
Via the WSJ:
The [fallout from the San Bernardino massacre] highlights how Facebook, under pressure from government officials, is more aggressively policing material it views as supporting terrorism. The world’s largest social network is quicker to remove users who back terror groups and investigates posts by their friends. It has assembled a team focused on terrorist content and is helping promote “counter speech,” or posts that aim to discredit militant groups like Islamic State.
The moves come as attacks on Westerners proliferate and U.S. lawmakers and the Obama administration intensify pressure on Facebook and other tech companies to curb extremist propaganda online. Top U.S. officials flew to Silicon Valley on Jan. 8 to press their case with executives including Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg. Last week, Twitter Inc. said it suspended 125,000 accounts associated with Islamic State.
More:
Published in GeneralSome counterterrorism experts say Facebook shouldn’t quickly delete user accounts, so police can monitor them and possibly snare others. But Ms. Bickert, who worked on public corruption and gang-related violence cases as a prosecutor, said leaving up terrorist messages could cause harm.
The company is also helping activists who try to discredit organizations like Islamic State with counter-propaganda. That includes lessons on how to create material more likely to be shared and go “viral,” said Erin Saltman, a senior counter-extremism researcher for the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. Facebook also offers ad credits worth hundreds of dollars to groups to defray the cost of testing their campaigns.
Facebook’s new approach wins plaudits from some academics and activists, who say the company is more helpful than other tech firms. Mr. Wallace of the Counter Extremism Project, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, calls Facebook “the social-media company that’s on the greatest trajectory to be a solution to the problem.”
This will be an issue. I suspect that the present government’s definition of who is a terrorist differ greatly from most people’s. I would not be surprised to see Ricochet’s Facebook page be taken down by this effort. (They are already shutting down any pages involving gun clubs and organizations)
Facebook’s ceo Mark Zuckerberg, afaik, recently told Germany’s Angela Merkel that he would work on limiting ‘hate’ speech, by which he meant criticism of Muslims, so I would not trust his criteria.
I seem to agree with “some counterterrorism experts”. If shut this stuff down you lose visibility to it.
Facebook has banned all kinds of pro-Israel information for years. I very much doubt that there will be a clear and transparent set of rules going forward.
Then, too, my gut is always toward more speech rather than less. But my heart insists that a great many people really cannot tell the difference between good and evil, and exposing those impressionable idiots to evil will foster terrorism.
Agreed with others that the managers of social media are already enthusiastic enforcers of political correctness and Democrat sycophants. It is very likely that this will silence benign traditionalists as often as true hatemongers and terrorist recruiters.
And when the FBI desigmates Tea Party groups as hateful belligerents, media managers will have legal cover to discriminate against conservatives.
Should people on the no-fly list even be allowed to have Facebook accounts? Or maybe (based on their posts) Facebook could provide names to the no-fly list….
And yet…
German authorities, meanwhile, have reached a deal with Facebook, Google and Twitter to get tougher on offensive content, with the outlets agreeing to apply domestic laws, rather than their own corporate policies, to reviews of posts.
http://www.steynonline.com/7407/checkpoint-charlie-hebdo
Sorry, I didn’t explain that the above was in reference to :
I don’t use Facebook. I’m not a Luddite, it’s just that there’s no reason for me to use it. All the people I know I keep up with by e-mail.