Wednesday, May 04, 2016

How Facebook, Instagram, Google, and Twitter Use Censorship to Kill Free Speech

This blog has been a regular critic of the authoritarian attitudes of internet technology companies, particularly social media networks and certain Search Engine Operators. We have of course previously noted how certain organisations practice censorship and are more than willing to collaborate with government in advancing the politically correct, globalist agenda. While the companies involved, and governments deny this, and fans of big government and global tyranny among the user base screech 'conspiracy theory', anyone with a mind of their own can see what is increasingly happening with web content.



A new study by Onlinecensorship.org — a collaborative effort between the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Visualizing Impact reveals that social media sites and search engine operators have been collaborating closely with government agencies to control the type of content we may see online.
Most readers will know of people who have been kicked off the social networking site for designated periods of time for ‘violating community standards.’ Some may even have had their Facebook accounts closed permanently due to the site’s  ‘real names’ policy (while I have an account that is obviously a joke name  - and no, I'm not telling you what it is - that has never been questioned.).

UNFRIENDING CENSORSHIP: Insights from four months of crowdsourced data on social media censorshipis the title of the report which is based on on data provided by users of major social networking sites between in 2015 and 2016. The study  asked users to submit reports when their content was reported or their accounts were removed from Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, and YouTube.

“Account suspensions, the most stringent form of moderation, were the most frequent type of content takedown in our dataset,” the report notes.

After analysing the collected data across geography, platform, content type and issue areas, the analysis revealed a number of trends in social media censorship. Here are some highlights of the information gathered from 161 submissions across 26 countries, with content in 11 languages:

Facebook was the most frequently reported platform, with account suspensions the most reported content type.

– Nudity and false identity were the most frequent reasons given for the removal of  content on Facebook.

– Of 119 reports received from Facebook users, 13% had been asked to prove their identity to Facebook under its name policy.

Instagram users tended to report “inappropriate content” as the reason their content was taken down.

Twitter takedowns tended to be linked to targeted abuse, harassment, or fraud/spam.

– Nearly half of copyright-related takedown submissions came from YouTube.

– 53% of users did not appeal the takedown of their content, 50% said they didn’t know how, and 41.9% said they didn’t expect a response. In four cases content was restored, but in 50 cases the user didn’t receive a response.

– There were widespread reports that flagging is being used for censorship, and 61.6% of users believed that this was the cause for the removal of their content.

The content was the Wikipedia photo of human anatomy showing a man and a woman in full frontal nudity. It is against Facebook’s guidelines about nudity,” reads one case study.

Although measures were used to help verify reports — and users were given the opportunity to send screenshots to support their claims — onlinecensorship.org did not work with the social media companies to obtain their data. Consequently, the study does not claim to be representative of all content takedowns or user experiences.

EFF explained the importance of tracking how social media companies are regulating the speech of their users:

“As self-ordained content moderators, these companies face thorny issues; deciding what constitutes hate speech, harassment, and terrorism is challenging, particularly across many different cultures, languages, and social circumstances.” adding that while the U.S.- based companies don’t believe their policies constitute censorship, the purpose of onlinecensorship.org is to challenge this assertion by examining how such policies  may have a limiting effect on freedom of speech.








RELATED POSTS:

Is it possible to eradicate all diseases?

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife have dreamed up this great money making scheme. They have announced they will try to eradicate all diseases by the end of the century. It follows down the same path of greed and self interest previously trodden by Bill and Melinda Gates and their Gates Foundation which has been so sucessful in its efforts to eradicate disease and poverty that it now gets $2 from governments and the United Nations for every $1 it spends ...

Shock, Horror! Millennials Safe Space Violated As Facebook Algo Accident Exposes Them To Diverse Ideas
Late last month (August 2016,) the Zuckerbugger's zoons put an algorithm in charge of the Facebook “trending” feature, to select the most popular topics, articles and keywords on the web in a narrow timeframe and with due respect for the 'safe space' of millenials who can be traumatised if they encounter microaggrrrrressions in the form of controversial ideas or unorthodox opinions ...


Google, Facebook, Amazon: algorithms will soon rule our lives so we'd better understand how they work

One of the most interesting announcements in last week's Budget – well, for me at least, as someone who has no savings and doesn’t play bingo or drink much – was the new Alan Turing Institute: £220 million of government support will be invested into "big data and algorithm" research.


White House Official Cozied Up to Google Before Antitrust Lawsuit Was Shelved

As The Federal Trade Commission considered whether to charge Google with violating antitrust laws in January 2013, the Obama White House, which as we have reported previously has a mutually beneficial relationship with the world domination freaks who run Google was watching closely, and apparently was eager to protect the interests of Obama's friends.

Google Now Has Access To Millions Of Patient’s Health Records
Threat to Free Speech
The ~Importance of Free Speech
Right to freespeech has limits
Free speech attacked
Free speech abolished
Free speech denied by France
Free Speech threatened in Germany
Google becoming The Ministry Of Truth
Internet threat to civilised society
Privacy theft and the internet
Bloggers being cencored on the nternet

Elsewhere: [ The Original Boggart Blog] ... Daily Stirrer ...[Little Nicky Machiavelli]... [ Ian's Authorsden Pages ]... [Scribd]...[Wikinut] ... [ Boggart Abroad] ... [ Grenteeth Bites ] ... Ian Thorpe at Flickr ] ... [ Tumblr ] ... [Ian at Minds ] ... [ Authorsden blog ] ... [Daily Stirrer News Aggregator]

No comments: