The news just keeps getting worse and worse for Facebook.
Their latest publicity stunt is the taking down of Alex Jones' Inforwars and suspending him. At least that was the plan until he found away around it.
Jones along with his supporters scream 1st Amendment without, presumably, reading it. The First Amendment specifically applies to Congress, not a private institution enforcing the Terms of Service set out by the company itself.
What is a slippery slope is the power that Facebook wields. Along with Google, they are responsible for most of the news people consume. This puts them in a position different from most. It also is the reason why there is so much speculation about government involvement with these two entities.
Mark Zuckerberg appeared before Congress to testify about the data breach at his company. Instead of presenting an image that they wanted to clean up Facebook, the impression given off by the politicians is they wanted to use Facebook. This is not surprising since it is one of the most evolved spying apparatus we have.
The entire Russian interfering in elections is getting a lot of play. Facebook took down a number of accounts, one of the reasons being is their ties to Russian accounts during the 2016 election cycle.
Of course, there is little chance that Facebook knows the origin of these accounts. This is a case of the company deciding what it will allow.
That is within the rights of a private company. With politics, however, little is as it appears. Facebook is not exactly clear of governmental influence.
In their efforts to cleanse the platform, Facebook received some help from the Atlantic Council.
Facebook was “helped” in its efforts to wipe out these dangerous memes by the Atlantic Council, on whose board you’ll find confidence-inspiring names like Henry Kissinger, former CIA chief Michael Hayden, former acting CIA head Michael Morell and former Bush-era Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff. (The latter is the guy who used to bring you the insane color-coded terror threat level system.)
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/facebook-censor-alex-jones-705766/
No exactly a bunch of distant observers. This is a list of the who's who of political influence. It makes one wonder how "free" a company can be when it is turning to the likes of these individuals. Certainly, this smells like an agenda.
Alex Jones is a bomb-thrower. There is no doubt about his approach. He is brash, opinionated, and lacks any compassion at all. He is also widely despised by most of America, if not the world. Of course, after the action by Facebook along with some other companies, he was screaming about the First Amendment.
Obviously, he has no leg to stand on here. He also does not have the right to sue Facebook for libel since they are not responsible for the content on their site. Nor are they libel for enforcing their own Terms of Service.
While they are clear of litigation, we all need to be asking how much power are we willing to give an entity that is free from repercussions yet can be influenced by the political elite? Since so many get their news from this platform, how can we sit back and let the information be dictated to us?
This is something that everyone should be asking.
Facebook is taking America down a slippery slope. Since it is not free and clear of government's direct political influence, it cannot be considered an objective platform.
Sadly, any attempt to fix this entity is only going to make things worse. Fortunately, this article is being posted on a platform where it cannot be taken down. As soon as the post button is hit, within three seconds it is on the blockchain for good.
A very dangerous can of worms is being opened up by Faceook. This is something that people need to take a look at.