Age of Censorship

Welcome to 2020. We just left the last decade of lies marketed as it’s prettier narrative “false news”. We start the new decade by media giants censorship under the guise of fact checking.

Censorship under the guise of fact checking.

If haven’t seen this censorship yet, here is an example post where Facebook blurs out the photo (like they do with flagged violent posts), where you can click to go to an alternate explanation of the photo or in small print you can reveal the labeled-false photo:

The site Africa Check site claims they have partnered with Facebook to combat fake news and false information on the social platform.

The site continues on that content rated as “false” by fact-checkers will be downgraded in news feeds meaning fewer people will see it.

I should lead with I am not against fact checking.

I would prefer instead of hiding the meme like it’s some violent crime that the fact check hyperlink was just present at the bottom of the image (where the ‘show picture ‘ icon is listed).

I also do not think Facebook should suppress the viral nature of a meme.

Whenever I am presented with information, I go to find articles about what’s being stated so it’s nice that one article is instantly available. I like having this option to think for myself, and not to have this false hope that people should trust Facebook all of a sudden for their “protection” *cough* censorship *cough* against false news

This is where I find the irony of Facebooks “third party fact checkers”. Facebook censors the viral posts of the general public, but are still okay with taking money for political ads forced into unsuspecting individuals news feeds that present false narratives to spin their own agenda.

To me it just feels like a false bravado of “oh look at me – I’m Facebook and I’m so socially responsible by flagging memes with lies in them…. just not the ones people pay me for”