Censorship may gain Facebook entry into China and hand Merkel a fourth term
Facebook has reportedly built a software tool for China to censor users as a first step to re-enter the Chinese market. The report also stated that it would be outsourcing censorship duties to a third-party company.
Published: November 23, 2016, 5:45 pm
According to a report in the New York Times, Facebook developed software which erases unwanted posts geographically after Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, met with China’s propaganda chief Liu Yunshan in March to discuss a re-entry of his company in China where it has been banned since 2009.
China kicked out the website following the Urumqi riots in July 2009 under efforts to limit the flow of information about ethnic unrest.
The new tool would prevent posts from ever being included in the News Feed, the newspaper added. Facebook is eyeing China, with its 1.3 billion residents as a source of enormously lucrative potential growth.
Earlier this month, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company was building new tools to censor “fake news” also called “hyper-partisan propaganda” in order to promote “a diversity of information”.
But the new censorship tool would essentially allow for the manipulation of public opinion, preventing users from posting offending articles while towing the party line – hardly a contribution to “diverse” viewpoints.
According to the Times report, several employees have already walked out in protest. Google, Twitter and YouTube are also banned in China.
Meanwhile the country in the EU “with the least populism” as a result of vigorously legislating free speech, on Wednesday vowed to fight “hate speech” on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Google’s YouTube.
Under a program that runs until March, German authorities are monitoring how many anti-migrant posts are deleted within 24 hours. Justice Minister Heiko Maas has pledged to take legislative measures if the results are “unsatisfactory” by then. Designated “victims”, immigrants, must be protected from ideas that would hurt their feelings, according to German authorities.
“I support efforts by Justice Minister Heiko Maas and Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere to address hate speech, hate commentaries, devastating things that are incompatible with human dignity, and to do everything to prohibit it because it contradicts our values,” Angela Merkel said in a speech to the Bundestag lower house of parliament, clearly in the hope that heightened government censorship would save her bid for a fourth term.
In September 2015 Merkel was caught on an open mike, asking Facebook CEO Zuckerberg if he would help suppress “anti-immigration” postings… and he replied that he was already working on it.
All rights reserved. You have permission to quote freely from the articles provided that the source (www.freewestmedia.com) is given. Photos may not be used without our consent.
Consider donating to support our work
Help us to produce more articles like this. FreeWestMedia is depending on donations from our readers to keep going. With your help, we expose the mainstream fake news agenda.
Keep your language polite. Readers from many different countries visit and contribute to Free West Media and we must therefore obey the rules in, for example, Germany. Illegal content will be deleted.
If you have been approved to post comments without preview from FWM, you are responsible for violations of any law. This means that FWM may be forced to cooperate with authorities in a possible crime investigation.
If your comments are subject to preview by FWM, please be patient. We continually review comments but depending on the time of day it can take up to several hours before your comment is reviewed.
We reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, contain slander or foul language, or are irrelevant to the discussion.
Europe
London Imposes Entry Ban on Eva Vlaardingerbroek
Dutch activist and influencer Eva Vlaardingerbroek has been barred from entering the UK.
Twelve-year-old Becomes Youngest Professional Killer in Sweden
Sweden stands out internationally with an increasing number of murders and attempted murders carried out by young children who are used as child soldiers by criminal immigrant gangs.
Sweden-hating Islamist Living Large on Tax Money: ‘You can’t stop me’
Despite debts of over two million kronor, Islamist Tara Saleh lives a “life of luxury” at the taxpayers’ expense. This was revealed by journalist Christian Peterson in several articles about the well-known Sweden-hater.
Trump Heralds In New Era: No jus soli
With the stroke of a pen, US President Donald Trump has now made a fundamental decision regarding US citizenship
Digital IDs Coming Despite Previous Disasters
Digital IDs are on the rise. During the pandemic, health was the pretext used by those in power to introduce privacy-violating technology that could quickly exclude people from social functions.
Danish State TV: Ethnic Danish Children Are Undesirable
Eugenic advice from Denmark's TV: "One should probably choose something more exotic" to avoid inbreeding
UK Church Schism Looms with Female Archbishop
The Anglican Church in England has decided to elevate the Bishop of London, a woman, to the rank of archbishop.
Von der Leyen Plans Her Own EU Intelligence Service
Behind the scenes at the European Commission, a power struggle is apparently raging between Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU High Representative Kaja Kallas
Survey: National Sovereignty is Important to Most Europeans
The notion of an unelected Brussels-led 'empire' is not popular
No comments.
By submitting a comment you grant Free West Media a perpetual license to reproduce your words and name/web site in attribution. Inappropriate and irrelevant comments will be removed at an admin’s discretion. Your email is used for verification purposes only, it will never be shared.