Was there really a ‘glitch’ in Facebook – or were independent media sites deliberately targeted?
[Image: Another Angry Voice.]
Presented with an instance in which Facebook had removed a link to one of my articles, claiming to be acting on concerns raised by a reader, I thought I had been the victim of a single, opportunistic political attack.
In fact, I was already the victim of multiple attacks.
When I posted my new piece about the incident, I received reports from readers who said a series of posts had been removed from the Vox Political Facebook page without explanation. I quickly discovered that this was true.
Further investigation showed that I was not the only victim.
Fellow left-wing website Another Angry Voice carries a detailed report on what happened, with speculation as to the reasons.
The concerns raised – about shutting down the independent media during a general election and about this having happened on the day Jeremy Corbyn announced new policies to democratise the media – are shared by This Writer.
And they should be shared by you. If Facebook is determined to interfere in our political discourse, we must find a way around it.
Facebook has initiated a massive purge of independent media content. This blackout includes barring multiple independent media sites from posting links to their own site on their Facebook page, deleting independent media posts without warning or reason, marking independent media posts as spam so ordinary members of the public can’t share them, and deleting ordinary people’s posts without reason.
This issue has impacted multiple left-leaning independent media sites like Another Angry Voice, Evolve Politics, Vox Political, People’s Campaign for Corbyn, EU Citizens for an Independent Scotland, and many others. With pages left unable to post links to their own articles.
Facebook have tried to dismiss the independent media blackout as a “glitch” but interestingly the Facebook pages of mainstream media outlets were unaffected by the “glitch”. Mainstream media outlets that have been able to continue posting articles throughout the blackout include the Daily Mail, The S*n, Evening Standard, The Times and Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Spectator, Daily Mirror, Daily Express, Sky News, BBC News, and BBC Politics.
Additionally the hard-right Guido Fawkes blog was also allowed to continue posting links to their vile echo chamber of hate throughout the Facebook blackout.
The fact that a select few pages were allowed to continue posting throughout the Facebook blackout suggests that there’s some kind of Facebook ‘whitelist’ protecting them from whatever measures they’ve been taking against independent media sources.
So a range of left-wing, pro-independence, anti-Tory, pro-Corbyn, anti-fracking independent media pages were barred from sharing links, while mainstream media outlets and hard-right blogs were completely unaffected.
Source: The Facebook blackout ‘glitch’ censored independent media, but left the mainstream media untouched
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I have suggested before that you dump Facebook and try something like diaspora (https://diasporafoundation.org). diaspora is based on three key philosophies: Freedom, Decentralisation and Privacy.
Moving away from Facebook will encourage many others to do the same and that will hurt them where they feel it most – in the wallet. In case you are concerned that you will lose a large audience, please note that diaspora posts can be fed back into Facebook by your subscribers.
Good luck.
Facebook is corrupt they claim they are not but they are I know people who are given a months ban for expressing their views, I think facebook leaves some articles or posts on so they can ban those that agree, but Media sources can put just about whatever they like. Corruption is a common thing with facebook they are just a tool for the media to use against those with a differing opinion to government.
I was effected by this – I tried to post ‘Where’s Guy Fawkes when you need him?’ as a comment about TMay and it was deleted as offensive. If they’re removing a mild joke as offensive, what are they doing about real, fact-based political attacks on the Right?
Guido Fawkes(!) The man would be s[inning in his grave, if he had one.
Are they also trialing for the election – when it should pop up?