Australian officials are pushing back against the totalitarian grip of Big Tech. {Go Deep} As a result of investigations into Google and Facebook the Australian government is set to establish fines against tech companies for anti-trust violations. However, some officials are now discussing taking actions that are beyond civil lawsuits, and are now advocating for arrest of company officers for unlawful conduct. {Go Deep}
The battle lines are being drawn, and in response to the Australian government position on anti-trust Facebook (feeling they are elite and above the law) has now decided to block all news articles from the entire country from their social media platform.
FACEBOOK ANNOUNCEMENT – […] this means people and news organisations in Australia are now restricted from posting news links and sharing or viewing Australian and international news content on Facebook. Globally, posting and sharing news links from Australian publishers is also restricted. To do this, we are using a combination of technologies to restrict news content and we will have processes to review any content that was inadvertently removed. (read more)
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/rupert-murdoch-s-news-corp-signs-global-news-partnership-deal-with-google-20210218-p573j6.html
also an interesting development
Interesting as in EVIL?
Just a reminder to all Americans who thought people died for our freedoms… Freedom is now an export.
This time we started dying once we gave up our freedoms and strapped on face diapers.
Perhaps that has something to do with Tucker Carlson (or Hannity) sayiing (tonight) that FOX is gonna get bigger.
I don’t watch FOX anymore. Period.
Murdochs are Globalists & the Australian Government is going after them for Media Monopoly – so no doubt they think that keeping Goog on their side to disseminate news is helpful.
Phenomenal.
You know… the elites might want us to know, but there’s danger in that too… if they piss off literally the entire world…
True.
I Hate that label “elites”, although I understand why its used; the attitude of ENTITLEMENT they display, but I prefer “effites” to “elites”, and I have doubts about that theory that “they WANT us to know”.
Yeah, and Marie Antoinette wanted the peasants to know she didn’t care that they were starving for bread, while she ate fancy cakes.
Same attitude of entitlement, and expectation that “things” will always be the way they have been, with them on top.
There was a PURPOSE to having the Jester in the Kings Court, but the (think they are)entitled of today have no jester.
No one to”speak truth to Power”, no one to point out their hypocrisy to them, or keep them humble.
They actually BELIEVE their own BS; In THEIR mind, they WERE “Saving the Country from
itself”, the REALLY do.
Dutchman, effites is a much better word to describe those who anointed themselves to rule us.
Facebook and fornicate both begin with the letter F – – how appropriate.
MAGA 2
That gives me an idea, Fakebook can self-fornicate.
News content wasn’t the only thing blocked, as some government and emergency response pages, including health authorities, fire services and the police also went dark. Facebook’s own page was also affected.
https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/social/shock-casualties-of-facebooks-news-block-bom-betoota-advocate-wa-fire-australian-government-pages-wiped/news-story/de46c2fb6fa9a4c03aec35a49c7d2e07
Stop using the platform and deny goverment funds to any taxpayer funded entity that does.
When the day comes and all these social spy companys get shut down completly the future world will
refer to it as The day of the zombie.
This really isn’t a big deal. Most of the sites are still available on the internet, just not through Fakebook. Qld Police have a Fakebook page, as do some other organisations who may have to look at other ways of getting information to the public. There are many Aussies, like me who don’t use Fakebook, choosing to link directly to information sources, and if our only source is Fakebook – then forget about it.
Emergency Services put alerts on TV and use SMS messages, when required. Talk about a storm in a teacup!
A lot of the older population in OZ use FB – I used to be on there until 4 years ago – most people I know still are.
How in Hades can these Oppressive Commie- Fascist bags of rotten sewage social media/mainstream media be knocked off their arrogant pedestals?
Criminal prosecutions.
We urgently need examples to be made. Prison time, and destruction level fines.
Group “Our Vote Matters” Is Suing Facebook, Dominion, Mark Zuckerberg, Certain State Officials, Others for Infringing Upon Right to Vote, Assemble and Speak Freely – You Can Join Too
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/02/group-vote-matters-suing-facebook-dominion-mark-zuckerberg-certain-state-officials-others-infringing-upon-right-vote-assemble-speak-freely-can-join/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=the-gateway-pundit&utm_campaign=dailyam&utm_content=daily
Not that I don’t want criminal prosecutions to occur, but do you think for one moment that our corrupt FBI and DOJ will allow this to occur, even on Australian soil?
The US Biden government will back Facebook 100 percent. In fact, Facebook already got assurances of that before they took on Australia. I hope I am wrong though.
That’s just it. The entire USA
” justice” system is corrupt to the core. Any lawsuit against these Commie-Fascist SOBs will be dismissed.
Looks like Aus is making a start. Wouldn’t be surprised if some countries join ’em.
Aus is a relatively low pop. place so FB probably figures they’ve got nothing to lose here. But if more countries join in, they’ll have a problem on their hands….once they get to a population count that’s higher – or getting close – to China.
already…POLAND,HUNGARY?,RUSSIA ?
Are they joining forces w/ Aus?
Mexico may. The Mexican President already “banned” it and has started work on a Mexican government run replacement. This was their response to post election censuring of election fraud coverage.
I was reading Gates of Vienna and a commenter said Hungary is starting to cave to the EU and globalists. Evidently Hungary stopped policing its borders, invaders have taken over some small towns and silence from the Hungarian government.
do not join their game they cannot play alone
I never signed up on fascist farcebook or totalitarian twatter
I fail to see what FB accomplishes with this move. Unless they expect the rest of Big Tech to follow their lead and deplatform Australia completely.
Seems to be just more of FB doing its typical tyrannical FB thing.
So far, they’ve gotten away with just….. everything?
Throwing their weight around because they *can*.
Howdy, sunnydaze!
You wrote: “Seems to be just more of FB doing its typical tyrannical FB thing.”
Just exactly who needs Facebook anyway? Users cede power to tyrannical Facebook.
If everyone on Facebook would just ask themselves, “Why do I have to have this? Are there no alternatives?” (Yes, there are other ways to share pics of the grandkids, what you had for dinner at that fancy restaurant, or how drunk they got at that party.)
Every Facebook user could just ditch their account tomorrow if they only thought about the numerous alternatives to the incremental benefit that Facebook brought to sharing info (which they just steal and sell).
sunnydaze: “Throwing their weight around because they *can*.”
Facebook is as weightless as an astronaut in space if nobody uses them.
I don’t have, have never, and will never access anyone’s Facebook account. If it’s on Facebook, for me, it does not exist.
Surprise! I’m still alive. The World hasn’t ended. More people should kick the Facebook habit. It’s just another form of tech opium for the masses. Facebook becomes a non-problem if people kick the habit.
As I understand it, it actually COSTS FB server space (which costs $) to “host” all its “users” Facebook pages.
Where the “make” $, is by harvesting Data, and selling it to advertisers, or so we’re told.
Maybe they have “enough” Data now, or have developed other means if harvesting it, in which case this is all a massive cost cutting move.
That is, they WANT people to close their FB pages, and delete their twitter accounts, is that possible?
If we want to bankrupt them, perhaps we should be OPENING as many FB sites as possible, and twitter accounts, while depriving them of any useful data?
Not a geek, just thinking out loud,..
I’m not a geek either, Dutchman.
You may be right that FB doesn’t care if accounts are closed, but I’m thinking advertisers will care.
People change over time. They start new hobbies, get injured and drop a favorite sport, take up a new sport, have kids, have kids leave the nest, move to another city or State… people change and advertisers know it.
So, FB has some data on users that doesn’t change, but if I’m buying info from FB to target customers, I don’t want info that was last collected 3 years ago on someone. I may be missing the target completely on a lot of customers and might just as well use the telephone book, if we still had telephone books ?
I dunno, though. You might be right, Dutchman, but that static data or user profile steadily loses value over time.
The shareholders will also care if accounts are closed. You can’t monetize data if you are not collecting it. And (I can’t remember who said it, but it was a tech guy) that data is always valuable and the more they collect on one individual the more they can update their programs and algorithms via AI to target you. If they succeed you will never see anything other than what gets you motivated and only info approved by the programmers.
Coming soon.
other developments explained:
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/02/facebook-bans-all-australian-news-content-over-pay-to-link-proposal/
my favorite post from the comments on this link:
“Reminder that when genocide happens, such as in Myanmar where the UN found Facebook to be a significant factor in the cause of the genocide, it does nothing, and when Facebook faces the unholy threat of… *checks notes*… having to pay news sites a fraction of the billions they rake in every year, they go the nuclear option. Zuck & Co. continuing to show their true colors….”
note: this comment will be updated to include the other terror in the room: Google…which has also some blood on its shoulders for creating a walled search with built in surveillance that has penetrated every single app and tech in the PRC…used most publicly to hammer the ushurs (sp?) and hong kongers. So, google has plenty of accountability. Which makes you wonder, to what extend does google play nice with the secret police spy state of the US (/s).
it’s an interesting moment right now. Lots of big players right now, losing a bit of control.
the gap narrows.
stage 3 advanced.
stay frosty.
Uighurs.
Funny how spell check doesn’t recognize that, n’est-ce pas?
funny..but not funny if you follow me.
also just remembered that I did turn off spell checker because nothing says capturing all original text and mining it, than sending every bit and byte as one types in real time to some eye in the sky….I know I know..they capture it anyway.
I mostly turn it off, because, in fact, I’ve seen enough defcon examples to know that’s all spell checkers “CAN” capture…(thud)
“NOT ALL “can” capture….
yes, I suck and can’t blame technology for my own mistakes.
Uyghurs. Apparently treating them in a manner similar to how the Nazis treated the Jews is a “cultural norm” in Joe’s eyes.
This idiot is advancing a narrative that china is within ITS right to dehumanize and entire population and strip them of any sense of influence over their own interests.
where have we seen this before…a certain politic element in the US that argued that Germany’s policies were their own and we should ignore them.
Almost every single historian has agreed, the US by delaying taking economic and military action against a tyrant Nazi threat, cost hundreds of thousands of lives. That we were capable of defeating it given those delays, is nothing short of a miracle. And a miracle it was.
now faced with an every looming threat far more serious than Nazi germany we have a President making the same comments and suggesting we just accept this is normal behavior of a communist tyrant state and stay out of it.
this is not going to end well.
Biden is the greatest threat to national security in the last 50 years! Incompetent, ignorant, senile ambulatory, corrupt, imbecile.
the future historians will look at this moment in time and shudder that the nation that saved the world in the second great war, learned nothing…because it was rot from the top.
those historians will be speaking chinese…
–“This idiot is advancing a narrative that china is within ITS right to dehumanize an entire population and strip them of any sense of influence over their own interests.”–
Of course he is advancing that narrative about China, because that is exactly the same narrative ‘they’ are advancing about the US government’s rights to do the same to the US citizens!
Big Guy has to advance that narrative. It’s what he’s being paid to do by the CCP. His son and brother too. I think his daughter as well.
But, just like in Australia right now, Americans were told that was fake or it was just completely removed from feeds.
The commenters that say- this is no big deal, Facebook isn’t needed, are just as dangerous as those who get their information from Facebook. Why? Because, those commentators fail to realize how many people are actually on that plat form. Hundreds of millions, maybe a billion or two. Let’s just say 1/3 of them only get their info from Facebook (I think it’s more like 50%- but I want to be conservative in my projections) that’s a lot of people being denied information while having their views funneled in one direction. Those commenters fail to see the bigger picture. I don’t disagree- we dont’ need Facebook but there are people who use it religiously for all that matters in life.
Facebook, Google, and others are playing King maker. They control the public narrative because so many of those people only believe what the tyrants tell them is real. These social media sites upped their game further by using the red tags: this story is disputed, this video has been modified, this is false selectively to scrutinize any info not aligned with their goals.
To show how powerful this is- the video that was leaked of Biden’s interview with People (the one where he looks like a zombie staring in spaciest while he smacks his lips) is being removed or it is tagged with “this video has been manipulated”. The video wasn’t manipulated, its a 33 second clip with no edits. Is it a small cut from a bigger video yes but the 33 seconds itself is not manipulated.
Now, if that video was tagged as manipulated and hence is being removed when the AI catches it then why were cut videos of the January 6th speech by Trump not treated the same way?
We know the answer but that is why this is dangerous and why those commenters, although not incorrect about not needing FB or others, need to realize this is a big deal. They are controlling society.
Remember, most humans are followers not leaders. That is by natural design. Most humans follow without question when being lead by carrots.
Crikey
How long until someone gets the bright idea to completely wall off all unapproved news media, to and from every Nation?
the plan is far more simple and efficient:
you censor wrong speech.
and you “inform” a society of what is acceptable and what is not.
behold the recent shampeachment that argued precisely that…how DARE a sitting president call out an election fraud and promote a dangerous movement to resist a corrupt state?
how dare them.
challenge ACCEPTED!
And here I thought that dystopian novels like 1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451, etc. were only just fiction and admonitions against certain trends, not how-to manuals.
Reminds me tangentially for some reason of that work from C.S. Lewis about empty chested men, Abolition of Man.
RF,
Well, as we Treepers know, humans are humans. It does not matter if the year is 2021 or 1755 B.C. As time progressed, humans “enlightened” themselves. Studied, grew technology. But, guess what? We are still humans, and human nature will never change. It just won’t unless our DNA changes, and we evolve into a completely different species….but, even then, world history has shown that animals will be animals no matter how sophisticated they become.
These old novelists just understood human nature and understood what humans would do when technology allowed them to do it. These novels take past human actions and show what happens when technology is used to grow power as humans have done in the past.
Now that these “stories” are playing out in real life, people ignore them. They ignore it because they can’t believe it; they are told it’s a conspiracy based on these old stories or gas lit. Either way, it’s dangerous and no different than what happened in Rome. In the Greek Empire. The old English empire, the French, the Germans, the Russians, etc.
It’s the same thing we see coming from movies we all thought were cool and futuristic. Look at Total Recall (I referenced it above): devices that look like iPads used for video calls, interactive TVs, “plugging in” and enjoying others in a virtual world, and injections coupled with technology to change how a person looks and more so, logging in to escape and “recall” experiences but change them to be better….not to mention the government observing what everyone who was logged in was doing (which is how they caught up to Arnold).
Nothing here is new, just the technology used to manipulate and humans IMO for the first time in two centuries, taking a step back in overall intelligence.
Skynet is becoming real, and people say oh well.
I’m glad I’ve never been on Farcebook, Twitter, Instagram or a lot of others. YouTube blocked me about a week before the so called election. That was a first. They didn’t say why. Oh well.
They will create a shortage of ham radios just like their ammunition shortage.
“…..just like their ammunition shortage.”
It’s O/T or at best tangential to the Farcebook problem… but since you made the analogy, you may be interested in this:
The Truth Behind The Great Ammo Crisis
They helped steal the US election. Leaders around the world KNOW they will come after them too. You upset jack, fack and pandip and they’ll shut you up too.
And interfered in the Israeli elections under Buck Ofama
They interfere world wide
I am glad that Australia is standing up to them
Australians are a tough bunch and wont take any crap from anyone
Probably hard for FB to believe, but there are some of us in the world who have NEVER had a FB acct and we are doing quite well, thank you.
We actually get information elsewhere, and communicate with people via text, email, snail mail, phone.
Same here .. ????
#Metoo
Ditto for me and some of my closest friends.
Yes we do.
Same here
Never signed up and glad I didnt
I’m jealous. Australia now has a social media app where they can go and share funny cat videos and what they had for lunch and escape all propaganda and fake news. I would love it if fakebook did that here.
I had one when it first rolled out.
and to be honest it was mind blowing..In literally less than one week, I was able to re-establish relations to people I had lost touch over decades earlier…friends and associates…It was absolutely wonderful.
but not sooner than around month three when it had performed that function..I honestly had no use for it. I’m old school. I talk to people, mail letters, send email…text messages….and bookface was a time suck for me. I also noticed people were sending out in the public WAY WAY TOO MUCH information that they would never have even thought of doing prior. Do I really need the world to know how much I hate my siblings, neighbors, friends?
I killed it off after it served its purpose. For the most simple of reasons…Beyond connecting to people, some forgotten or circumstances that meant hard to locate…why after that?
I also had some deep suspicions about social media, given I literally grew up on the internet just as it went from compuserve and prodigy/aol and navigator all the way to present….early in, there were MANY experts and pioneers who had the intelligence to predict how crappy and manipulative such technologies would ultimately become…and they were all correct about those dangers.
ps: the same kind of people are making black flag warnings with AI…particularly with social policy..and scientific “models”….so bookface is just a example of what we can expect these other technologies to become…that too.
ghosts in the machine.
I was on it for 10 years, early on before ol Zuckerberg started to feel his oats. It was nice to reestablish old friendships, (I live overseas) & easy to keep in touch with Family & friends & see photos. I was careful about privacy. I kept up with news, so was really concerned when Zuckerberg allowed a couple of Universities to perform Psychological experiments on users.
Somebody hacked my page & FB let me know – it was the friend of a friend, then FB shadow banned me in the lead up to the 2016 election, because I supported President Trump, so I called it quits & got off there.
Oh I had an account…under a pseudonym with nothing that was real about me and did not invite friends or make any. Used it to access certain accounts for legitimate purposes. FB gave me a hard time once a few years ago demanding that I submit to them a photo of myself to prove I wasn’t a bot or some nefarious individual, else they’d lock my account. Don’t know what prompted their challenge..
Anyway, I dug up, scanned, and sent them a photo of my grandfather from an earlier time…but he was in a sport shirt and the background had nothing to indicate it was from the mid-20th century. It passed their test. ?
Well good…Australians won’t going to that snake pit for their news anymore.
People who use fakebook, or any other social media app, as their news source need an intervention.
it isnt their news source. the see msm and other news on facebook, because their friends send it to them. CTH IS SENT VIA FACEBOOK.. Dont get confused facebook is not currating news. facebook isin the right here. slam them for what they do wrong, but australia is wrong.
Not exactly..oldumb. Facebook users get to set their preferred news sources in FB for their “customized” news feed. The trick is that the choices they get from which to choose do not include conservative or alternative news sources. Only MSM and their sycophant off-shoots.
This same “sneaky” form of censorship is implemented in Apple News. It’s why I delete Apple News app from all of my devices and refuse to use it. Unfortunately the Stocks app on the Apple mobile devices is also limited to MSM feeds so I only look at that for the charts; ignoring their news feeds.
many people are finding that bookface isn’t that good at news actually.
when you experience a good news aggregator…one you can tune, it’s rather pleasant and efficient. bookface is a general purpose telecommunications PROVIDER that is crappy at the news desk..but of course they will fight forever to admit they are a provider…to avoid the obvious reality they be regulated as such.
on that note: hey congress, are we getting anywhere with S230 these days?
I guess Facebook hopes PO’d Australian FB users will demand that their government stop “harassing” Facebook – so that they’ll be able to post their cat pictures again. More likely, Australians will get pissed at an arrogant American company and spurn Facebook.
Farcebook is about as American for a corporation, as Biden is the real President of the United States.
Nominally, at best.
Pretty strong American roots since it was created by the Defense Dept.
#Lifelog
The military industrial complex, shadow government, deep state, secret societies. All implicit references to those who would deign to rule over us all and do as they will, regardless of the will of God, or that of free people.
American, in name only. Their values are clearly not ours.
I’ve got news…most of the big corporations have no allegiance to anything but their stock price and their resulting bonuses. I know. I worked at Nike. There are a lot of feet in China.
Indeed.
This is not a new development when it comes to business. Thomas Jefferson noted such behavior himself.
“Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains.”
— Thomas Jefferson
Wasn’t it Farcebook that hired some censors from China to help cover for Hunter Biden?
https://www.mediaite.com/news/new-york-post-hits-facebook-for-hiring-censors-from-china-after-social-media-companies-block-report-on-hunter-biden/
How did we survive without these entities? Get off of them, I’m getting tired of the whining. Get off of these platforms and quit posting their links that give them traffic.
I have never been on these entities. I quit watching mainstream media, don’t buy magazines etc.
Not enough people are doing this..
It’s a double edged sword.
We “survived”. without social media, but until we heard information that cam from. sources other than MSM or a few conservative talk radio sources, let’s admit that we were pretty naive and ignorant of what the ruling elite and the MSM were really doing to us. It all came on gradually….”warming the pot of water” with us (the frog) inside and largely unaware….
First the internet arose with alternate sources of news. Drudge came along about the same time. Social media came along and provided a way for people to communicate directly with huge numbers of other people, there by getting information unfiltered by the ruling class or even Matt Drudge ….something never before possible without going through a highly controlled filter – the MSM.
And so the “Established” social media giants’ ideological censorship has caused the rise of alternative social media that is NOT under the control of Big Tech Globalists. So mass communication is again possible with little filtering. This blog is one of many that exists without social media but Sundance has previously found a lot of information through Twitter from other trusted sources.
So, yes it’s a double edged sword. We need to be smarter users of social media, knowing when to ignore and when real news happens there.
Nuke ’em. It’s time.
That’s a LOT of power that FB (thinks it?) has.
Be interesting to see where this goes.
I would say, it’s an extreme move…But also one gets a keen insight into how FB deals with business conflict.
It will also expose how AUS handles conflict too.
because there is no way, that either FB or AUS are going to leave all that money off the table.
that’s the reality.
kind of like, why we aren’t hearing much from the debacle behind the recent conflict between apple and FB…
We read about it in another month or so, that they have smoothed things out..
expect the same with AUS-FB conflict.
A lot of small businesses – especially restaurants – skimped on cost by avoiding having a proper website and just having a Facebook page. First, there are some people – like me – who don’t have Facebook. Second, I hope they’re seeing how vulnerable they are to Facebook’s whims.
^^^ THIS! ^^^
I live in a small town. Every business has a farcebook page. They all say….go on farcebook and like us!!! I never have.
They use farcebook to update customers, put up reviews, all types of information regarding the business.
For example, the vet put out information about one of the employees being in the hospital. The vet uses it to put out information if there is a problem with animal food, etc, and one year a new virus was going around the country and was killing dogs and a warning was put out….two of my dogs got it and almost died.
Other businesses do the same to keep customers informed. I appreciate they do this, I really do…..but it’s all on farcebook.
I find out after the fact from others.
Facebook must seriously think that they are the only platform for Australian news. Arrogance!!!
Just like when people in the US got annoyed with Fox News, they found alternative news sources and I doubt they feel they are now behind with the news; now the Australians will go to or rely on alternative sources for news. Heaven forbid, maybe they will go to the actual news organization website and read the news directly.
So Facebook, get the message, you are just platform for news, among many better ones.
Australia strikes a blow for liberty.
And the world will be better for it
This could motivate some creative Australians to come up with a truly Free Speech alternative to FB.
If Free Speech is actually a thing in Australia.
Im sorry, but who gets their snews from fakebook?
Not I
Facebook: “News makes up less than 4% of the content people see in their News Feed.” Huh?
Ok, so let me get this straight: We have a US-based mega-corporation that has essentially declared war against a close ally of the US government.
The righteous denunciations of politicians–left and right–are deafening…or is that their silence?
Do I have that about right?
Australis is closer to China today – economically – than the US. Most of their new economy came from the China trade.
Not any more…
yup….
and to add, AUS has another interest in shutting FB down too, that “our” news is not reporting.
AUS and china are not especially in good relations…AT ALL.
with FB deeply compromised to a china agenda, why would AUS make them the number one provider of news content?
AUS may very well be one of the few five eyes that are breaking ranks! Imagine that.!?
and rumor has it, New Zealand is likely to follow the same actions!
and for those not understanding the significance of New Zealand in this arena…I recommend you do a bit of research wrt to global surveillance and high capacity under sea and very capable satellite communications infrastructure, all very critical to the five eyes.
These elitist billionaires are hubris-filled and riding for a big fall. As the Good Book says “pride goeth before a fall”.
https://www.collective-evolution.com/2019/07/01/did-mark-zuckerberg-really-create-facebook/
“Mark Zuckerberg could not code his way out of a paper bag”
H/T to a treeper about two years ago for that comment.
Yes
He screwed the Winkelman twins who did invent it
Bastard
FU Fakebook. No one needs you. You’re done; you just don’t know it yet.
Facebook and Twitter seem determined to go the way of the dodo bird.
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2021/02/no_author/at-first-i-thought-it-was-a-joke-academic-media-censorship-conference-censored-by-youtube/
“…Whatever decisions big tech companies make reverberate throughout society. 35, 24, and 17% of Americans get their news from Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, respectively, with similar numbers worldwide. This enormous user base makes them by far the greatest and most influential news platforms on the planet, with the ability to highlight stories, bury others, and even swing elections. Huff was extremely worried about the power of these new media monopolies.
“We can’t get away from the fact that Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, the whole corporate Alphabet soup of this big tech dystopia have gobbled up the public sphere. This is where people can go to congregate and share their information and it is also where invisible forces decide which voices get heard and which do not. Let’s also not forget that all of this tech was initially funded with taxpayer money.”
Worse still, although we now live in an online world, the public is hopelessly ill-equipped to navigate its waters, displaying a shocking lack of awareness and understanding of how they can be manipulated.
A 2016 study from Stanford University found that two-thirds of college-aged “digital natives” — people who grew up using the Internet — mistook native advertising for a genuine news story, even with the words “sponsored content” displayed prominently. “Overall, young people’s ability to reason about the information on the Internet can be summed up in one word: bleak,” the study concluded, leading to calls for more critical media literacy education in schools. “Since we are not teaching people how to use these technologies, or how these technologies use them, they are more susceptible to propaganda and to disinformation. And ironically our conference was designed to combat exactly that problem,” Huff added.
Perhaps more worrying of all is the increasingly close connections between Silicon Valley and the National Security State. “What Lockheed Martin was to the twentieth century…technology and cyber-security companies will be to the twenty-first,” wrote Google executives Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen. Late last year, the CIA signed a partnership deal worth tens of billions of dollars with Microsoft, Google, Oracle, IBM, and Amazon Web Services. Meanwhile, Facebook has partnered with the NATO cutout organization the Atlantic Council to help them curate the world’s news feeds. Reddit has also hired Atlantic Council official Jessica Ashooh as its director of policy.
The Atlantic Council’s board of directors includes eight former CIA chiefs, multiple U.S. Army Generals, and high statespeople like Henry Kissinger and Condoleezza Rice, meaning that any decisions big tech companies make are only one step removed from the U.S. government. “This is actually [state] censorship by proxy,” Higdon warned….”
AT&T was the big tech company of the 20th century. They had monopoly power and a very close relationship to intelligence organizations. The US government was violating the bill of rights a long time ago through AT&T.
Who cares that FB is having a tantrum. I cancelled FB long ago.
If FB is big enough to take on an entire country, they are too big and must be taken down. Good on Australia!
What is bad is that so many public police depts, fire depts, city websites, etc., use Facebook and Twitter and have links to them. If you are ever inside a building on fire – people can open up FB or Twitter and post their position to the firemen. If you are ever in a mall or WalMart and someone tries to shoot up the place, you can open up FB or Twitter, post your position and a policeman can tell you to stay put or direct you how to exit the building. It is used as an emergency utility all over the place, and that is why I think they should not have the right to arbitrarily kick people off their platforms.
Also, look at all our elected politicians websites – they all use FB and Twitter to post messages to their constituents and get feedback. They don’t use any other platforms. That needs to change!
They can still use Twatter
Or Gab
Or some bright spark can invent a new platform
Screw Farcebook
If Standard Oil and AT&T could be broken up, these Tech monopolies can and should be broken up. And quickly. Google, Facebook, Twitter. Now.
That isn’t going to happen. Those entities are very useful tools for the US Deep State. These days, the US uses those to cause MASSIVE disruptions around the world.
They’ve proven they can’t be trusted.
But they can be Anti-trusted.
When congress had a chance to do something, they chose not to because they get too much money from big tech and money means a hell of alot more to them than us or their own country….I don’t ever see Congress doing anything that takes $$$ from their pockets …
The darkness dwells there.
Those are the eyes of a man who thinks he can cancel free elections in America and now, cancel the entire nation of Australia. They refuse to sell out to him like the gutless, money-grubbing, power-worshipping politicians in America. He would never dream of doing such things to Iran or China.
Tis’ Madness.
Why Mark Zuckerberg is like Hitler (and Stalin, too!)
PRAVDA
Along with the NY Slimes, WaPoop and the Alphabet media
https://venturebeat.com/2010/12/15/mark-zuckerberg-hitler-time-2010/
And just like that the collective IQ of Australians went up.
I truly hope that we send the end of Facebook soon, like really soon.
Fakebook now applies Extortion, Intimidation, Racketeering, Censorship, Cartel behavior.
FB, Twatter and Gurgle, exemplify why the Sherman Anti Trust laws were passed.
Past time to declare them unlawful for election interference, racketeering, intimidation, extortion, and levy treble damages upon them for any losses incurred.
Zuck, Gates, Dorsey, Pichai, need to be investigated by FEC, DOJ, IRS, etc for their objectively provable interference in commerce, politics, and abuses of privileges granted by the FCC.
Those agenices will not investigate them for several reasons:
Zuckerburg sucks. I think my decision not to get a Facebook page in 2005 was a great one. What a damned fool that man is. He has more money than almost anyone and he decides to follow a bunch of Communists in China. Talk about having your head in the sand and deciding to be a pimp for Totalitarian Gubmint.
Like many Western men, he has Yellow Fever. And the ChiCom “ladies” play them like a fine violin.
Google practically had an office in the whitehouse while barry the fraud occupied the presidency.
The Trans-Formation is now at its open warfare stage.
The color revolution is hot, but not nearly over.
Sorry Australia, you violated our terms of service….
Pretty soon they will just sit around the echo chamber by themselves…
Trying to track the Great Toilet Paper Hoax origins that set off the covid-coivd-covid panic in the US to be fully exploited by Nancy Pelosi and the Dems after she tore up Trump’s SOTU address, I tracked it back to Australia where they said Yahoo or Facebook News pitched the panic to them bleating in on their airways.
A worthy journalistic pursuit – what started the toilet paper hoarding and by what medium did this infect the US, well before covid-covid-covid did Nancy Pelosi’s bidding.
As an Australian I’m glad to hear this!
I personally, boycotted facebook several years ago!
Never started
Remember Prodigy? … and AOL?
We all just lived through a virtual media blackout on our fraudulent election.
Do you really think it’s a stretch that FB (in cahoots with the CCP) would shut down news services?
If something happens and no one covers it, did it really happen?
If we had President Trump I would feel like it would be resolved.
With Dementia Joe in charge, defending the difference in cultures and the genocide of the Uyghur population, I fear that we will turn our backs on allies dealing with FB and China aggression.
Simple fix for the fakebook problem stop using the platform and poof it’s gone.
I don’t know why people are on facebook? Stop.! Simarily, with twitter, etc…just don’ partake. Stop. Why is CTH still on twit…r? Makes no sense, twit r stock is up because? Think game stop…rigged game.
Australia’s response: “You call that a knife? This is a knife.”
I think FB is about to find the Australians an independent lot regardless of their individual political leanings. Too bad we in the U.S. have lost that spirit. Otherwise FB and the other alphabet co’s would already be toast.
To the younger folks, there was a time when there was no fakebook…..and people lived very happily. ?