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ArcticStones's avatar

ZUCKERBERG genuflects to “Alternative Facts”

Breaking: Zuckerberg ends fact-checking on Facebook and Instagram, calling election “a cultural tipping point” on free speech. Meta will instead adopt X-style “community notes”.

(Yup, fact-checking costs money and resources – and it offends Trump and other purveyors of false information. Can’t have that!

PS. Realizing on Day One what a brilliant data-mining operation Mark Zuckerberg had launched, I never signed up for Facebook. In hindsight, that decision just gets better and better.)

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Henrik's avatar

Facebook was fact checking?

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Marcus Graly's avatar

The corporate genuflecting continues apace.

I don't think Trump will try to turn the US into Putin's Russia, but trying to cow business and civic organizations, like in Hungary or PiS Poland seems a real possibility.

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Kildere53's avatar

If only corporate America was as afraid of Democrats as they are of Trump.

Next time Democrats take power, we should make sure that corporate America is afraid of us. Having corporations afraid of the government is, in general, a good thing.

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Anonymous's avatar

There really is no alternative to acting the way Trump does unfortunately. A party that is openly authoritarian and retributive of anyone who opposes them will always beat a party that is obsessed with norms and dignity. That doesn't necessarily mean we need to overturn elections, but in situations like North Carolina we should throw out votes that have minor discrepancies, our judges should block damaging information about democratic figures, and we should threaten corporations if they amplify conservative speech. Republicans had a chance to rein this in Trump's second impeachment trial, instead they've coalesced behind them. Oh well.

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Zero Cool's avatar

Does Zuckerberg have any clue what free speech is?

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ArcticStones's avatar

Zuckerberg’s business model is predicated on enhancing and protecting *paid speech* – as well as collecting and selling the data of all who dare to use his platforms for *free speech*.

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Zero Cool's avatar

In other words, Zuckerberg has no balls to have firmly held convictions on just about anything.

Unless it helps him with Facebook.

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Jonathan's avatar

He doesn't care; hoping you know that

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Zero Cool's avatar

Oh I know that.

However, being that Zuckerberg was socially awkward when he first started Facebook, I don't think he's ever truly learned anything other than to be more comfortable in his own skin.

I know free speech not just from the freedom of speaking it standpoint but also from the legal definition of it (i.e. knowing the different between private and public domain of free speech).

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