Bambi is happy that her blog is not linked to social media. Indeed, she manages it herself and no third parties are able to impose their guidelines on it.
This being said, despite her shock, she is not surprised to read Ms. Natalie Elgrably’s thoughtful article in the Journal de Montréal about censorship by Meta (https://shorturl.at/wWm9b). Thanks to Ms. Elgrably for addressing the important topic to many users of social media platforms around the world, not just in North America.
As a reminder, Meta is the company that owns/operates Facebook as well as Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp (https://shorturl.at/vS39o). Below, Bambi will translate Ms. Elgrably’s article, from French to English, with the assistance of her online faithful friend, Mr. Google Translate:
“Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, publicly admitted what many already suspected, namely that he practiced censorship at the request of the US government. In this case, it censored certain content related to COVID-19, including humorous and satirical posts, as well as posts relating to a New York Post article on allegations of corruption involving the Biden family.
The motivations behind this admission remain unclear. Only Zuckerberg knows whether this is an act of sincere contrition or a strategic maneuver to regain the trust of disillusioned users in the face of algorithms clearly complicit in an imposed discourse.
QUESTIONS
One thing is certain, far from clarifying the situation, Zuckerberg’s confession opened a Pandora’s box, releasing a whirlwind of troubling questions.
If Washington asked Meta to censor, is this the tip of the iceberg of a larger and more systematic influence? To which other media, social or traditional, did it address the same request? Who submitted to the government yoke to transform a tool for freeing speech into a weapon of massive repression?
We can also wonder what is the value of a social media platform that agrees to be a vulgar transmission belt for state-sanctioned speech. What confidence should we place in a vector of government propaganda which stifles any dissenting voice in order to better impose the doxa?
And if the American government has taken such an initiative, what about the Canadian and Québec governments? Are they guilty of the same authoritarian excesses?
CRISIS
By confirming that censorship has infiltrated our democracies, Zuckerberg has legitimized the crisis of confidence from which several platforms are suffering.
Fixing this crisis will require more confessions and, ideally, an independent investigation into the extent of state interference. Above all, the platforms will need to understand that censorship, and therefore betraying user trust, is not a viable business model in the long term!”
Tres bien, Merci beaucoup Natalie! Indeed Big Tech’s unholy alliance with the far left is going to be ruinous. I hope his confession is the first step in realizing how lockstep he is with fascistic (I mean that technically) totalitarianism. This is why I’ve just marvelled at how Elon Musk opened up X. Elon has so many crazy amazing things on his plate, and yet he focused on X because he realized if free speech goes, then none of the other things matter. Sure there are dangers in free speech, but they pale in comparison to policed speech, which is what we have right now.
I wonder if Trudeau, Biden, Harris, Zuckerberg read Orwell? They probably did, but not for the reasons most others did!
That’s not at all surprising. Just last week, FB accused me of trying to gather sensistive information because helping organize a class reunion; they deleted my post and I had to start all over. Also, look what my contact Rex wrote about me last year:
Fred has emailed me to say he saw this photo on another group’s page. He decided to comment on it by providing Spock’s line that goes with it. He went away to cook an omelet, eat it and wash the dishes. When he returned, Facebook has removed the whole thing and are threatening to kick him off FB bcz his comment “is threatening or gives incitement to violence”. Furthermore, he’s suspended from certain activities for 2 days and cannot post to the group. “Careful what you say” I guess!
Wow, Bambi thanks for sharing these two stories, Fred. She is sorry you went through it. It is both frustrating/unfair and too funny given that you are one of the most peaceful persons on earth.
Mark Zuckerberg’s confession says a lot about the goals to ban free speech by the democratic party. What they did to suppress Kennedy was also just awful. Good article.
Thank you Bonnie for your comment (Bambi will go read about Mr. Kennedy’s saga).