Corinne Weaver
Latest from Corinne Weaver
A scathing New York Times article sent Facebook into a frenzy to fix its public image. The resulting plan has the company vowing to restrict content, even when it doesn’t violate the firm’s guidelines.
If a social media platform starts working with conservatives, the liberal media will wage war against them. Facebook was the subject of a critical piece on Wednesday, November 14, from the New York Times.
A bombshell story released by the New York Times attacks the platform for allowing conservatives to have a voice.
In a critical piece headlined, “Delay, Deny and Deflect: How Facebook’s Leaders Fought Through Crisis,” reporters Sheera Frenkel, Nicholas Confessore, Cecilia Kang, Matthew Rosenberg and Jack Nicas wrote of Facebook’s perceived power moves against its liberal critics.
Censoring political opinions as “hate speech” has made its way to Instagram. Mimi Hecht, a business owner on Instagram, posted several statements on her Instagram story after the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pennsylvania.
Facebook seems very selective about disciplining users that violate its policies. Fox News is boycotting Twitter for allowing a violent antifa group to dox and threaten host Tucker Carlson
That Silicon Valley refuses to support conservative ideas is well known, but some firms won’t countenance their employees donating to conservative causes and candidates. Just ask Facebook. In a congressional hearing in April, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg referenced an employee who was fired, calling it “inappropriate to address.” He denied that the termination was politically motivated.
Twitter has let its favoritism of the left go too far -- and Fox News is striking back. Smash Racism DC, a branch of antifa, attacked Tucker Carlson’s house, reportedly threatened his wife, and doxed Carlson and his family on Twitter on Thursday, November 8.
There seems to be no limit to the offenses allowed certain antifa groups on Twitter and Facebook. SmashRacism DC, an antifa group in the Washington D.C. area, threatened Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson and his wife and 4 children on November 7, 2018.
Facebook seems to be fine with human rights violations in South Sudan occuring on its platform. In South Sudan, according to Voice of America News, an online auction was being held for marriage rights to a 16 year old girl.
Silicon Valley and the tech world are decidedly left-wing. But the echo chamber they’ve created carries over into tech journalism.The executive editor of popular tech magazine The Verge is no different.
In the midterm cycle, Facebook is used as a platform for political ads paid for by different candidates. But while Democrats flourish on Facebook, Republican ads are blocked for “sensational content.” On November 5, a day before the midterm election, Facebook refused to continue to promote an ad paid for by President Trump. In an announcement to the Daily Beast, Facebook wrote, “This ad violates Facebook’s advertising policy against sensational content so we are rejecting it. While the video is allowed to be posted on Facebook, it cannot receive paid distribution.”
Twitter has proven that it stands by anti-Semitic figures, such as Rev. Louis Farrakhan, by allowing them to stay while suspending other accounts. So it should come as no surprise that the trending algorithms marked the phrase “kill all Jews” as a rising topic on November 2.
Twitter is abuzz with political ads for the midterms. Just the right, er left, kind of ads though. Bloomberg released a study on November 2 that found the top spenders on Twitter ads in the midterm campaign. Bloomberg released a study on November 2 that found the top spenders on Twitter ads in the midterm campaign. Only three out of the top 12 were Republican, while the top three spenders were all Democrats — Texas Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). The three Democrats spent $1.5 million all together, which was 77.7 percent of the spending by the top 12 listed.
Even though 56 percent of America is pro-life, Facebook still deems pro-life ads as unacceptable for its platform. The pro-life Susan B. Anthony List has had ads deleted from its Facebook page a total of six times, according to the Daily Caller
Google does not seem to want to change for the sake of its users. According to an October 31 Bloomberg article, Google filed a statement with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in response to a lawsuit challenge by conservative outlet PragerU. According to an October 31 Bloomberg article, Google filed a statement with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in response to a lawsuit challenge by conservative outlet PragerU. In the filing, Google argued that government regulation would have “disastrous practical consequences.”
Outlets censoring the right’s political ads and then saying that they are neutral is the definition of hypocrisy. This, however, seems to be at least part of Google’s approach to the midterms.
The battle between PragerU and YouTube just escalated — big time. YouTube initially marked PragerU’s new video, featuring Fox News host Tucker Carlson, as “dangerous or derogatory content.”
Pro-life media is under attack by another tech company. LifeSiteNews, a pro-life news outlet, has been attacked by left-wing activists so much that its web-hosting company is threatening to take it down.
It’s getting more and more difficult to provide competition to social media companies, especially if they want to provide free speech, too. Just ask Gab.ai, a social media site that was founded as a response to Twitter banned prominent pro-Trump voices.
President Donald Trump took on the social media outlet that he dominates, slamming Twitter Friday. His regular tweeting has been a huge boost to the site, but he accused it of removing followers and limiting the growth of his account.