Today, the Oregonian ran a story from the AP about the high costs of ACA insurance policies. I added two comments to the story. One of my comments appears online and the other is “shadow banned”. When I am logged in to the Oregonian, I see this When I am not logged in, I see only this which is presumably what everyone else sees as well. In other words, my comment is visible only to me but invisible to everyone…
Eating too much protein will kill you? That’s the message left by hundreds of headlines and news stories earlier this week. But the statement was misleading at best and untrue in regards to the individual who died. Yet most stories ran with quotes like this: Meegan Hefford, a mother of two and bodybuilder, died after an overconsumption of protein shakes, supplements and protein-rich foods. Source: Bodybuilder mom dies from too much protein before competition | New York Post or “That…
I just scanned Twitter for items about the Affordable Care Act. I estimate 99% of the Tweets were lies, contained significant errors, left out key information, or significantly exaggerated points. This included linked news stories at mainstream news services such as the Los Angeles Times and NPR and others, which contained significant inaccuracies or left out crucial information and data that refuted the thrust of the article. How many read the ACA? Probably a number approaching zero. How many researched…
My Occupy Propaganda page on Facebook was shadow banned beginning about December 15th. Read on for the update – and confirmation.
TL;DR Summary ‘Milwaukee police “accidentally” shot a 13 year old girl at an elementary school after she became “combative”.’ By placing the word “accidentally” in quotes, followed by the word “combative”, this propaganda poster sets the viewer up to believe the police intentionally shot a 13 year old “combative” girl. The poster leaves out that the officer’s gun was in the holster and that the MPD weapons do not have holster safeties. This information negates the attempted spin on the…
Mark Zuckerberg has been accused of an abuse of power after Facebook censored one of the most famous images of the Vietnam war from Facebook. Source: Mark Zuckerberg accused of abusing power after Facebook censors Vietnam war ‘napalm girl’ photo Facebook censored the use, by Norway’s largest newspaper, of a very famous historical photo from the Vietnam war, taken by a Pulitzer Prize winning photographer. Facebook then censored the prime minister of Norway when she posted the censored photo on…
Facebook temporarily shut down Gaines’ account at the request of the police. It came right before officers opened fire, killing her and striking her 5-year-old son. The decision put a spotlight on another Facebook activity: its routine censorship of users. Source: How Facebook censors your posts (FAQ)
If you have followed this blog, you understand social media has become a frictionless conduit for the spread of propaganda. Propaganda is messaging intended to encourage a target to take some action. There are two sides to propaganda messaging – those promoting a propaganda message and those with opposing views. The strongest form of opposition is when platform operators directly censor third-party opinions. Normally, the answer to speech someone disagrees with, is more speech, not censorship. Today, Reddit censored comments from those quoting…
German Chancellor Angela Merkel met with Facebook Nation president Mark Zuckerberg to request that Facebook Nation censor certain kinds of speech on social media: Speaking to the European leader at a luncheon, Zuckerberg was heard saying ‘we need to do some work’ in reference to the German push against racist and xenophobic posts on the Internet. ‘Are you working on this?’ Merkel, who has seen an increase in violence against immigrants in her country during a massive intake of Syrian…
Groups opposed to some U.S. immigration programs claim Facebook has suppressed their content and visibility of their groups. These allegation, if true, could be due to algorithm design errors or deliberate. Either way, these allegations illustrate the potential of social media propaganda: