How FACEBOOK CENSORED Climate State This Week

[prokaryotes]

So I really, really don't understand why I get so much attention, now from the largest social network, dedicating resources to shut my page down. We had like 10-20 thousand post views EACH WEEK. Now like 20-50 people seeing our posts.

Check out this graph (I also emailed to some friends today), they don't even try to hide the decline.


See for yourself facebook.com/climatestate

Read the developing story before it is leaked to the mainstream media...

How Facebook and YouTube try to Silence Climate State!
http://climatestate.com/2019/07/21/how-facebook-and-youtube-attack-climate-science

[philopek]

I assume that they do that in collaboration with the government(s) and in return are further allowed to avoid tax and abuse user data without facing prosecution or shutdown.

We shall know once some big SM-Player is overdoing it and get's banned, until then they
continue ruling the world with the help of seeding misinformation and censoring, depending
what serves their respective agendas.

[prokaryotes]

I assume that they do that in collaboration with the government.

This idea may be not so far fetched, since

Facebook’s fact-checking effort announced last week that it was teaming up with CheckYourFact.com — an arm of the conservative, anti-science media site The Daily Caller.

The Daily Caller, which has published misinformation about climate science for years, was co-founded by the science-denying Fox News host Tucker Carlson and is backed by major conservative donors, including Charles and David Koch, the billionaire fossil fuel barons who are the single biggest funders of climate science misinformation.

https://thinkprogress.org/facebook-fact-checker-koch-climate-deniers-f5288be4c3f9

Trump and the Koch Brothers Are Working in Concert https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/06/opinion/trump-koch-brothers-alliance.html

The Koch Brothers Get Their Very Own Secretary of State https://www.thenation.com/article/the-koch-brothers-get-their-very-own-secretary-of-state
 

[Archimid]

This is not surprising and infuriating.

I think you are doing a fantastic job with Climate State, thank you.

[TerryM]

So sorry.
Is there any way that you could explain in detail how Facebook accomplished this, without getting yourself into a legal jam?
I haven't used Facebook for at least a decade, but I'm sure they're selling my stats around the world - probably to institutions that I've little sympathy with.
Terry

[prokaryotes]

I think you are doing a fantastic job with Climate State, thank you.

Thank you, Archimid.

Is there any way that you could explain in detail how Facebook accomplished this, without getting yourself into a legal jam?

Hello Terry, I am not in a legal jam, since I did not broke any Facebook policy, or any other guideline. We usually aggregate climate news items from mainstream media on our Facebook page. Sometimes, I post a link from climatestate.com, but those deal primarily with climate science, or are based on existing content.

There is still the chance that this is due to a bug, some sort of error, or glitch. Yet, the timing with a new oversight team, with ties to a well known climate denial network, and the form of alteration, how many people see our posts, is suspicious.

Facebook on it's own has no motive to shut our exposure down. With maybe one hundred thousand post views we are only a marginal entity on that site.

If this is not resolved, Facebook itself is entering a grey legal zone with this kind of alteration, without citing policy violations.

This kind of action looks like what you would expect from someone who wants to reduce climate change coverage, again hinting at this new team assigned to counter misinformation.

If Facebook's actions now randomly punish page owners, it may result in fines for the company.

The FTC launched an investigation into Facebook’s privacy practices in March 2018 in response to the Cambridge Analytica revelations. The inquiry has focused on whether the data practices that allowed Cambridge Analytica to obtain Facebook user data violated the company’s 2011 agreement with the FTC.

Facebook was dogged during the quarter by another string of revelations of improper data practices, the departure of a key executive, intensifying scrutiny by regulators and lawmakers in the US and UK..

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/apr/24/facebook-ftc-fine-first-quarter-financial

Ex-Facebook Executive Chamath Palihapitiya: Social Media Is 'Ripping Apart' Society


YT Video Transcript

What I said was I think the tools that have been created today are starting to erode the social fabric of how society works and what I meant by that is the following thing.

Today we live in a world now where it is easy to confuse truth and popularity and you can use money to amplify whatever you believe and get people to believe that what is popular is now truthful and what is not popular may not be truthful.

You know Joe and I for example we've been on the raw other side of climate for a long time right and the reality is now I can take money and I can use that through all of these social media systems that exist to hundreds of millions of people and I can convince all of Joe's friends and everybody like him of my opinion and very subtle in small ways..

So following this, I can understand how it would be tempting to use power to reduce popularity for a climate change page. So this is the next step, to just censor popularity based on agenda/opinion, at least for some. 

The problem is, we are all together on this planet, and climate change will not go away if you censor reporting, give out gag orders, cut funding, or claim it is cold outside where you are.

[petm]

No FB, no Trump. No Trump, we'd at least have a chance to avoid catastrophe. FB is disgusting.

[Laurent]

Hello Prokaryotes,

I have seen information stating precisely that facebook did pass some agreement with deniers groups and a lot more infos, I did not pay too much attention because I don't have any control over it. If I find some again, I will report.

something else but... https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jul/12/facebook-fine-ftc-privacy-violations?CMP=fb_gu&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR3yD6ZYwapqJEFuyTbD4wbZZWKYZymkyojOuJCPWOu5nNHoU_InxxFtsDE#Echobox=1562965650

[prokaryotes]

UPDATE Friday 26th 2019 - It appears that after approx. 8 days with almost no traffic, for the moment now, posts views are back to regular levels.

[philopek]

UPDATE Friday 26th 2019 - It appears that after approx. 8 days with almost no traffic, for the moment now, posts views are back to regular levels.

So not all is lost then, only once they give a sh... what people say, or in other words they became part of the system so deeply that they see themselves as untouchable, then we are close to doom and should prepare.

I rely more to historic happenings that will repeat than daring to predict the future just like this.

[prokaryotes]

So not all is lost then, only once they give a sh... what people say, or in other words they became part of the system so deeply that they see themselves as untouchable, then we are close to doom and should prepare.

I rely more to historic happenings that will repeat than daring to predict the future just like this.

There is a new rather boring Netflix film on the Cambridge Analytica controversy, they were fined 5 billion or something I think this week... so I am just left with speculating why the traffic declined so much, since they did not communicate with us, did not answer our messages. Maybe they felt this was a bad timing, or maybe this was indeed due to an error, or mistake, we may never know

[oren]

UPDATE Friday 26th 2019 - It appears that after approx. 8 days with almost no traffic, for the moment now, posts views are back to regular levels.

Good to hear prokaryotes.

[TerryM]

So not all is lost then, only once they give a sh... what people say, or in other words they became part of the system so deeply that they see themselves as untouchable, then we are close to doom and should prepare.

I rely more to historic happenings that will repeat than daring to predict the future just like this.

There is a new rather boring Netflix film on the Cambridge Analytica controversy, they were fined 5 billion or something I think this week... so I am just left with speculating why the traffic declined so much, since they did not communicate with us, did not answer our messages. Maybe they felt this was a bad timing, or maybe this was indeed due to an error, or mistake, we may never know

Is there any way to "mirror" your site, and disperse the promotion of your site so that it might not be quite as fragile to the unseen, unresponsive, opaque manipulation of others?
I know that the Saker moved much of his operations to Iceland in the belief that it was more difficult for others to mess with servers in that local.


Very relieved to learn that things are ~back to normal, but I can't help wondering if there isn't some way to guard against further problems.
Terry