{"id":27386,"date":"2017-10-28T14:10:28","date_gmt":"2017-10-28T19:10:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=27386"},"modified":"2017-10-28T14:10:28","modified_gmt":"2017-10-28T19:10:28","slug":"facebook-censored-me-criticize-your-government-and-it-might-censor-you-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=27386","title":{"rendered":"Facebook censored me. Criticize your government and it might censor you too."},"content":{"rendered":"<section id=\"module-position-QXveYTfOvz4\" class=\"storytopbar-bucket story-headline-module story-story-headline-module\">\n<h3 class=\"asset-headline speakable-headline\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/opinion\/2017\/10\/27\/facebook-censored-cross-your-countrys-government-and-they-might-censor-you-too-james-bovard-column\/795271001\/\">Facebook censored me. Criticize your government and it might censor you too.<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/section>\n<div class=\"asset-double-wide double-wide p402_premium\" role=\"main\">\n<div id=\"module-position-QXveYTkJZSU\" class=\"story-asset video-asset\">\n<div class=\"ui-video-wrapper \">\n<div class=\"js-ui-video-init ui-pluto-video js-video-aps js-ui-pluto-video story-video inline-story-video priority smallarticleattophtml5\" data-video-id=\"106422144\">\n<div class=\"ui-pluto-still\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"ui-pluto-still-img\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/-mm-\/9f2c77c49ee5c8c5597ec74afecf329ec1d3fc20\/r=540\/https\/media.gannett-cdn.com\/29906170001\/29906170001_5601287886001_5601269180001-vs.jpg\" width=\"540px\" height=\"304px\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ui-video-controls story-video inline-story-video priority\">\n<p class=\"video-desc\">Facebook is apparently clamping down on the distribution of political advertisers using the social media platform. <span class=\"credit\">Buzz60<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"module-position-QXveYTk3GbI\" class=\"story-asset story-leadin-asset\">\n<p class=\"lead-in\"><strong>Facebook said my post&#8217;s image of a violent FBI raid &#8216;incorrectly triggered our automation tools.&#8217; But it wasn&#8217;t the first time an iconic image vanished.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"module-position-QXveYTkPFUI\" class=\"story-asset story-metadata-asset\">\n<div class=\"article-metadata-wrap\">\n<section id=\"module-position-QXveYTidQxI\" class=\"storymetadata-bucket expandable-photo-module story-expandable-photo-module\">\n<aside class=\"single-photo expandable-collapsed\">\n<div class=\"image-wrap\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"expand-img-horiz\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/-mm-\/ef35a3b3e75a45915f332ec6a159243107a15d18\/c=0-0-3538-2660&amp;r=x404&amp;c=534x401\/local\/-\/media\/2017\/10\/24\/USATODAY\/USATODAY\/636444584432355407-AFP-515491259-53635509.JPG\" alt=\"AFP 515491259 A CIT USA DC\" data-mycapture-src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/media\/2017\/10\/24\/USATODAY\/USATODAY\/636444584432355407-AFP-515491259-53635509.JPG\" data-mycapture-sm-src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/-mm-\/521cd80a4fb9f1f1edf37d025629b379daee5bba\/r=500x332\/local\/-\/media\/2017\/10\/24\/USATODAY\/USATODAY\/636444584432355407-AFP-515491259-53635509.JPG\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"image-credit-wrap\"><span class=\"js-caption-wrapper\"><span class=\"credit\">(Photo: Karen Bleier, AFP\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"speakable-p-2 p-text\">Responding to\u00a0Russian-funded political advertisements,\u00a0Facebook chairman\u00a0Mark Zuckerberg declared\u00a0last month that \u201cwe will do our part to defend against nation states <a href=\"https:\/\/m.facebook.com\/story.php?story_fbid=10104067130714241&amp;id=4\">attempting to spread misinformation<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0But Facebook is effectively sowing disinformation by kowtowing to foreign regimes and censoring\u00a0atrocities such as\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/exclusive-rohingya-activists-say-facebook-silences-them\">ethnic cleansing in Myanmar.<\/a>\u00a0In the name of repressing fake news\u00a0and hate speech, Facebook is probably suppressing far more information than Americans realize.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Facebook blocked a post of mine last month for the first time since I joined it nine years ago. I was seeking to repost a blog article I had written on Janet Reno, the controversial former attorney general who died last year.\u00a0I initially thought that Facebook was having <a href=\"http:\/\/downdetector.com\/status\/facebook\">technical glitches<\/a>\u00a0(no novelty).\u00a0But I checked the page and saw the official verdict: \u201cCould not scrape URL because it has been blocked.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\"><span class=\"exclude-from-newsgate\"><strong>More: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/opinion\/2017\/10\/09\/donald-trump-owes-george-orwell-for-1984-memory-hole-brian-klaas-column\/746119001\/\">Trump owes Orwell for &#8216;1984.&#8217; Big Brother is his role model.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\"><span class=\"exclude-from-newsgate\"><strong>More: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/opinion\/2017\/10\/24\/truth-matters-fake-news-test-citizens-heres-how-to-pass-it-bruce-bartlett-column\/791256001\/\">Fake news is a test for citizens. Here&#8217;s how to pass it.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">\u201cPshaw!\u201d I said, or some other one-syllable epithet. I copied the full text of the article into a new blog post.\u00a0Instead of using\u00a0\u201cJanet Reno, Tyrant or Saint?\u201d as the core headline, I titled it: \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2017\/09\/13\/janet-reno-american-saint\/\">Janet Reno, American Saint<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0Instead of a 1993 photo of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texasmonthly.com\/articles\/the-fire-that-time\/\">burning Branch Davidian compound<\/a> in Waco, Texas, I substituted an irreproachable official portrait\u00a0 of Reno.\u00a0Bingo \u2014\u00a0Facebook instantly accepted that crosspost.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Facebook censored me. Criticize your government and it might censor you too. Facebook is apparently clamping down on the distribution of political advertisers using the social media platform. Buzz60 Facebook said my post&#8217;s image of a violent FBI raid &#8216;incorrectly triggered our automation tools.&#8217; But it wasn&#8217;t the first time an iconic image vanished. (Photo: [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[16752,379,16751,16750],"class_list":["post-27386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty","tag-facebook-censorship","tag-government","tag-james-board","tag-use-today"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27386"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27387,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27386\/revisions\/27387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}