Civil Freedom Overview

General: This is the home page of a channel. It is similar to someone's profile "wall" in a social network context. Posts created by the channel are displayed according to the observer's viewing permissions.
Create a Post: If you have permission to create posts on the channel page, then you will see the post editor at the top.

Help

Too late to stop the effects of the propaganda cooperation

Wed, 02 Mar 2022 08:17:56 -0500 last edited: Wed, 02 Mar 2022 08:24:20 -0500

Facebook has stopped recommending Russian state media globally (Mar 1, 2022, 12:31pm EST).

In a call with reporters on Tuesday, Meta executives said Russian media affiliated with the government had been demoted in the main Facebook Feed, and that it was no longer being recommended algorithmically anywhere on the social network. (...)

The moves come after the Russian government last week started throttling internet access to Facebook and Instagram in the country because Meta refused to stop labeling and fact-checking state-owned media. (...) On the call with reporters, Meta’s president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, said that Russia’s move to throttle its service through local internet service providers had particularly hampered the playback of videos on Facebook and Instagram.

A sharp escalation after Russia started throttling Facebook access.

democracy media manipulation propaganda

Civil Freedom Overview

Wed, 23 Feb 2022 17:11:56 -0500 last edited: Fri, 25 Feb 2022 11:32:48 -0500

Twitter suspends some accounts reporting on Russian military (2022-02-23T16:42:00.000Z).

Twitter has suspended or locked the accounts of at least 15 users who were tracking Russian military movements on the platform.

The accounts are part of a relatively new form of journalism that uses the internet to gather images and video (also known as open-source intelligence, or OSINT) in an effort to track and report on violent conflicts. Many of these accounts have been tracking Russian military movements — information that the Russian military might have found problematic if they launched an attack.

Many tech companies use automated systems to moderate their platforms, which can be tricked into banning legitimate accounts through a coordinated flood of false claims.

A spokesperson for Twitter said the company has reinstated some accounts that were mistakenly suspended.

"We’ve been proactively monitoring for emerging narratives that are violative of our policies, and, in this instance, we took enforcement action on a number of accounts in error," the spokesperson said in an email. "We’re expeditiously reviewing these actions and have already proactively reinstated access to a number of affected accounts."

The spokesperson added that the suspensions were not the result of a "coordinated bot campaign" or "mass reporting."

The United States and its allies have stepped up sanctions on Russia after President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into eastern Ukraine.

democracy media

Limiting public discussion

Civil Freedom Overview

Wed, 29 Dec 2021 15:14:42 -0500 last edited: Thu, 30 Dec 2021 03:40:31 -0500

The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum --- even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.

Noam Chomsky (2013). "How the World Works", p. 234, Soft Skull Press. https://www.azquotes.com/quote/473912.

democracy media

Civil Freedom Overview

Sun, 26 Dec 2021 21:34:33 -0500 last edited: Wed, 29 Dec 2021 18:07:10 -0500

The announcement comes amid heightened legislative and regulatory scrutiny of Facebook in many parts of the world because of the Facebook Papers. A corporate rebranding isn’t likely to solve the myriad problems revealed by the internal documents or quiet the alarms that critics have been raising for years about the harm the company’s products are causing to society. https://apnews.com/5ad543ab7780caae435935f0aca9fac6 (October 28, 2021 GMT).

democracy manipulation media