Facebook has put out contradictory warnings about a Consortium News article on the Bucha massacre: it both says the piece does and does not violate its standards. Joe Lauria reports.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before Congress, April 2018. (C-Span screenshot)
By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News
Social media giant Facebook has slapped a warning on an article published by Consortium News, saying at the same time that the piece does not violate its community standards and then saying it does.
The article, reporting that there are questions about who is responsible for the massacre at Bucha, Ukraine, appears on Facebook news feeds with a cover over the photograph associated with the article.
Clicking on the “Learn More” button brings you to a window that clearly says the article “doesn’t go against our Community Standards” but it is covered because it “may show graphic content” and “people can choose whether to see it.”
Presumably, clicking on “See Link” will unveil the photo, which shows two dead bodies inside a room with an open door somewhere in Bucha. The photo is graphic but there are much more graphic photos and videos from Ukraine circulating on social media. Clicking on “See Link” does reveal the photo on the news feed.
However, after clicking on the post to read the article a new window appears, with totally contradictory information:
“You should only go to links you trust,” the warning says. “The link you tried to go to does not follow our Community Standards.” This completely contradicts the earlier warning that says the article “doesn’t go against our Community Standards.” It appears that Facebook algorithms are disagreeing with each other.
Facebook says its Community Standards are based on these values (click to enlarge):
Somewhere one of Facebook’s algorithms thinks (if an algorithm can think) that the Consortium News article warning against a rush to judgement about who was responsible for the Bucha massacre did not violate any of these standards, and another algorithm thinks it did. The second one thinks Consortium News has violated the dignity, safety, and/or privacy of its users or that Consortium News misrepresented “who they are or what they’re doing.”
Facebook has a responsibility to stop doxxing, and to stop terrorists promoting their cause (if there’s wide agreement on who are terrorists). It should not be interfering with legitimate journalism.
It also might help if it first gets its algorithms on the same page.
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former U.N. correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and numerous other newspapers, including The Montreal Gazette and The Star of Johannesburg. He was an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London, a financial reporter for Bloomberg News and began his professional work as a 19-year old stringer for The New York Times. He can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @unjoe
The whole scheme is working. I am telling friends that the whole scenario is inspired by the Afghanistan trap, but you replace fundamentalist religious with nazi with a mission. The only thing they see is bad Putin in a mission to conquer Europe. Putin is not a saint, but Russia nowadays is not too much involved in destabilizing other countries. They do not see it also, as they do not see who is doing what in Yemen, Libya, Syria,… The sad part is that they are educated and competent in their field. For 8 years, a civil war was raging in East Ukraine with people dying and nobody really caring. But with the expansion of the war to the west and the involvement of Russia, they have to cry over it. People did not just started dying, it got worse. If you try to tell them that it is the same kind of manipulation we saw with Irak 1 and 2, they school you and tell you that you are supporting Evil. What is the most bothering is that a consent for war, encouraged by the media, is building up in the population (see world war 1 in Europe and the happing ending, all wars come with a nasty price for the people on both sides doing the fighting.)
Biden insisted for months that Russia was going to invade Ukraine, they do not remember it. For my part, there is a big discrepancy from the Russians between claiming to act as peace keeper in Eastern Ukraine and going all the way to Kiev. Are the Russian going imperial or was there something else that changed the rules of the game? Where does the actual facts lie, was Russian aggression on Ukraine a response to a destabilizing situation at its border or a deliberate act of conquest (8 years after the fact!)?
There is also the Taiwanese problem now. They think that China, encouraged by the “Putin’s war of aggression on Ukraine” will be encouraged to do the same and invade Taiwan. They conflate Russian and Chinese leaders foreign objectives, in other words the common ennemies. Is it that easy to manipulate people into accepting war and dangerous situations?
Are there no alternatives to Social Media? Are underground newspapers and personal ‘zines too old fashioned? Or pamphlets? Shortwave radio in the US used to give alternative points of view, mostly neo-nazi, but listening to them argue was educational. Prophets like Brother Stair, too.
I’m afraid Bro. Stair passed away last year, just before Easter…. but his prerecorded “lone voice” is still crying in the wilderness… where does all the transmitter rent money come from, now that he’s gone? Who knows, but maybe eventually there will be more open time-slots on WRMI, WWCR, etc. There are other broadcasts: Classic Redneck Radio (WRMI weeknights at 11pm Eastern) is evidently a former acolyte of Overcomer ministries. Hal Turner can be a little dodgy on some things, though his coverage of Ukraine has actually been pretty good. And of course Alex Jones, selling his supplements… These are all from the Christian Patriot perspective… Unless you tune in the Radio Havana English broadcast. In any case it sure beats CNN!
The one thing about analog radio is that no one can keep track of what you’re listening to… Unlike the internet.
What happens when algorithms run amok:
“I’ll have Lasagna wings with extra Italy…”
hxxp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY-2eE8kDG8
Algorithms evolve quickly, just not on Facebook. Since the video was made, AI may be far ahead with figuring out the naming scheme of humans.
The personal use of high tech communication devices in a world where governments monitor every word hasn’t turned out so well for people who think critically because the power brokers are intimidated by what they learn and as usual since 1963 they move to prevent dissent.
I know where this is leading and I’m not so sure we are far from the tipping point.
Things could be about to get every interesting. So, IMHO one might want to visit Beau of the Fifth column(AKA – Justin King ) for his very astute observations on the happenings in Ukraine and some upbeat information on a multitude of other subjects! Give him a chance at the very least.
Not doing so might turn out to be a bad choice. He has been very objective about the situation there.
Carolyn L. Zaremba
If “Nobody with a brain believes” Facebook, why would you want to “use it to spread the truth”?
Unless of course your own exceptional algorithmic-like brain is giving you some inside statistical information that a huge percentage of Facebooks millions of users, in fact, do have their own critical thinking “brains”, otherwise why bother using it to spread your unquestionably “truthful journalism”, and infinite wisdom by way of this specific resource?
Isn’t your argument precisely what CN’s Editor-in Chiefs article: dealing with the dilemmas of the printing of contradictory terms, and ‘misinformation’ in the application of freedom of speech, principles in publishing, is all about?
Yours truthfully
Alec Smart
The Cost of Speaking Truth to Power
1 more x tnx CN Joe
Well, It’s an open and shut case that Facebook Logarithm has no rhythm more like a 2-year-old banging on pots & pans.
I linked the Bucha article from CN and posted my Bucha best-guess analysis at the time on FB: 3 stages of civilian death, 1) initial conflict; 2) hunting down of Nazi types among the civilians and their execution by the Russians; 3) reprisals for ‘collaboration’ by the Yukie Nazis after the Russians left. I shared my post with two other groups; one, however, was banned as Joe Lauria describes, but the other two are still relevant.
Soy español, de 73 años, tengo problemas con Facebook terribles, con sus algoritmos; pensantes, parlantes, manos tijeras, Etc. Siempre funciono, bajo la presión y sus castigos diarios, y desde entonces, mis visitas y Likes, mermaron terriblemente, sobre todo, desde que les pude cazar en una trampa, y herror de ellos que, me tendieron hace meses, con alevosía y premeditación, hay días que lleno la página de críticas a Fb, tampoco les quiero pagar 1,40€ por publicidad (A pesar de comprobar y decirme antes del post pagado, por ser publicidad, presentan la visa, me comunican que no vale, porque no hay dinero, y después de nuevo, lo postearon, porque según ellos, si no publicaba, me cerraban la página. El gran problema de Fb. es que no existe ley de defensa del consumidor para denunciarles. A fecha de hoy, sigo publicando y ellos, siguen posteándome que, les debo 1,40€ y, yo que nunca les pagare. Yo, he llegado a apercibirme, que contratan mucho personal de extrema derecha y, les permiten casi todo… Vfg.faranduleromarxista
“You should only go to links you trust,” the warning says.
Maybe “trust” is not my priority. Maybe I want to see the other side of the issue and learn what the alleged enemy has to say. Knowing and understanding his propaganda may well be important. Or maybe I will discover that my own government is but a pack of liars.
Potential readers should not be treated like Kindergartners. We have a right to read or hear anything we choose, whether it is “safe,” “trustworthy,” or even true, because those criteria really come down to the priorities of the folks who own and operate the social media web site, do they not? Their purported “truth” may be the biggest crock to ever come down the pike. I reserve that decision for myself. They do not decide it for me.
I read stuff I KNOW is bogus all the time, because I want to see how the opposition couches their arguments and to calculate how to most effectively counter them. Or, just maybe, see the light and change my mind on some important issue. “Forbidden” knowledge cannot even logically be defended in matters of religious dogma, though I can understand why the high and mighty there would embrace it as a tactic to keep the faithful on the reservation. Nobody is ever serving you by keeping information from you, i.e., by practicing censorship.
Well said Sir!
Wonderful article, Joe. The scariest so far in this downward spiral is the blanket censorship. I’ve noticed it isn’t much talked about but it’s so Orwellian in its width and depth, it affects everyone. When everything Russian is suddenly forbidden, in libraries, concert halls, classrooms it should terrify us all. In “1984” language was changed, words erased so that eventually there were no words to express dissatisfaction with the rulers. We may be doomed. It may be too late to destroy the duopoly. But, cheer up, nuclear war or climate change may destroy even the rulers.
The good news is that facebook reads Consortium News.
The bad news is that they don’t understand it.
The worst thing is that there’s anyone who didn’t cancel that trashy waste of time 5 years ago.
THERE IS SOMETHING THAT MAKES UP FOR IT, HOWEVER. I’m a bonafide newshound and even beyond Consortium News which is the best of the best, I found a non-news reproduction of an article by a senior think tank person:
hxxps://cf2r-org.translate.goog/documentation/la-situation-militaire-en-ukraine/?_x_tr_sl=fr&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc
The good news is that Facebook reads Consortium News.
The bad news is that they don’t understand it or their owners block out any such understanding.
I’m a newshound and read everything in several languages. The most spectacular thing I’ve read on the Russia-Ukraine conflict is not an article, but an inside report to a surveillance think tank. It is long, detailled and will tell you more than you think you know, whoever you are unless you’re also in the intelligence business!
Here’s an English translation of it: hxxps://cf2r-org.translate.goog/documentation/la-situation-militaire-en-ukraine/?_x_tr_sl=fr&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc
The top result at VK for “Joe Lauria” is this very news article! I clicked on the photo of Zuckerberg and was redirected to this page with no “Community Standards” warnings or or algorithm infighting.
A few posters were asking where to go to hear from real Russians and Russia supporters on what’s going on in Ukraine. Below are the results of my investigation at VK (Russian Facebook).
I typed “Zelensky” as a keyword to test what would come up in search. You know you’re in the right place when you see anti-Zelenksy memes.
– Matches in English, French, Italian, German, Norwegian, etc. Some Russian-Americans make dual posts in Russian and English.
– To see Zelensky results from Russians who don’t speak English, copy and paste “??????????” with Cyrillic letters into the search. Translate with Yandex or Google.
– Surprise of the day! – one of the first results was Caitlin Johnstone’s article: US officials admit they’re literally just lying to the public about Russia.
A sampling of comments:
“The reality of the Ukraine Army being filled with open and notorious, ACTUAL NAZIS, is something Americans are not being told by mass media. It is a fact conveniently IGNORED by the US government. Yet the Russians _know_ the facts…”
“So Zelensky has time for the photo session while his country is still at war and he also had time to talk about climate change last week. Something is just not right.”
Photos you’ll never see on Facebook/Twitter:
“LE CLOWN ZELENSKY”.
hxxp://vk.com/photo443231620_457245162
Children holding signs: “Save Donbass People from Ukrainian Army”
hxxp://vk.com/photo495187639_457250220
Zelensky vs. Napoleon
hxxp://vk.com/photo708111216_457239498
Facebook? Standards?
You gotta be shittin’ me.
“community standards”
The vanguard of the working class knows what the standards of the working class are. That was Communism.
That said, humans in charge of censorship were rarely as confused as the algorithms that the current vanguard of the “community” is using, but I expect that disobedient algorithms will find their demise.
So you are an anticommunist? How can you then claim to be in the vanguard of the working class?
I just claim that The Lords of Facebook set what they claim “community standards”, so they are resembling Communists, at least at the time and place where I grew up. It is the vanguard that decides what is the standard for all. But there is also analogy with Christian Churches, their notion of community and ex-communication for violating the standards (e.g. Credo).
I’ll tell you what community does not share my standards: the Azov Battalion, Right Sektor, Volodimir Zelensky, Stepan Bandera, Uncle Joe Biden and America’s own Neocons. Apparently Facebook is looking for a few good fascists to spread their joy.
Thank you Consortium News for providing the best, impartial, propaganda-free coverage of events in Ukraine. And thank you to the editor-in-chief for skillful leadership in this increasingly insane environment. If there is any hope left it is certainly to be found here, among the writers and readers of the Consortium News community.
Thank you very much Cara.
I feel the same as Cara! Lies are all around us, repeated and adapted by some Media,
but, I can rely on Consortium News, to do the research and give us the truth, that is
hidden from us!
Hear, hear. Consosrtium News is one of the most reliable news sources out there.
Censorship on Facebook, censorship on Twitter. And, we asked for it! Because their un-moderated freestyle versions became a pestilent open sewer, so reasonable people asked Facebook and Twitter to clean up. Which, surprise!, gave them the green light to silence whomever they choose, whenever they choose. And they can apologize by saying that it’s only what we wanted.
Well, as Gutenberg used to say, a Free Press only belongs to them as own a press. For now, the Internet itself is generally uncensored, though of course if I write my own blog nowadays I’m likely to be the only reader. Unless I can somehow perform search algorithm magic.
So I’m grateful to those who maintain Consortium News and for those who contribute! Better to light a small candle in a corner of the Internet than to curse all the shadows. May you all live in peace and good health.
Facebook is not interested in community standards at all. Recently allowing posts by former members of condemned by EU parliament in 2012 Svoboda party deemed Neo Fascist supporting Nazi battalions like Azov or Aidar that committed war crimes in Donbas in 2014, that praised Nazi ideology of ethnic cleansing and genocide to achieve political outcomes. Those FB posters even openly called for killings ( as a duty of any Ukrainian patriot)not only Russian soldiers including POWs but ethnic Russians all over the world sometimes attaching gruesome images depicting war crimes being committed. Not only and not the first time FB engaged in unprecedented politically motivated manipulation of public opinion violating its corporate charter as being platform not content creator and abusing legal protections it was afforded, it turned into spewing warmongering propaganda, which is a war crime, backed up by extreme censorship of voices for peace and reason.
Of course there is always debate among journalists how to cover any war, which is nothing but institutionalized mass killings as it swings between whitewashing of war so more canon fodder can be recruited , more money spent while true reality of brutal war is shielded from public and their families to the other extreme so called war/death fetish that dehumanizes and desensitizes enemy human death as well as glorifies killings and deaths by conveniently concocted cults of heroes.
In the middle is journalistic position of showing true extreme brutality of war put always carefully in proper context and proportion within limits based on maximum preservation of human dignity in suffering and death, possible impact of images of deaths on families of dead and danger of individual shock factor impact on viewers health while adequate political response from public to reality on the ground is still being solicited. In other words to stir enough emotions in viewers and readers so they press on politicians while not shocking them out of reason and wit.
As I see it CN holds that middle position inspiring rational thinking and not emotionally preventing it as all MSM aim their reporting at shock, paralyzing fear and carefully directed hatred. Recent polls showing that disapproval for Russia rises from 40% to 70% in three months is an example of shutting down thinking shaped by MSM despite fact that US is not even officially at war with Russia while in reality is for a long time.
You’re right, of course.
I have a better idea. How about people and not algorithms review the content.
I’d say the algorithm put in the first warning and a human put in the last. Math doesn’t usually work stupidly.
To say the US is circling the drain is an understatement at this point. Only in the land of make believe can two opposing things be true at the same time. Orwell seems quaint at this point. Beam me up Scotty.
I read Joe’s piece when it was posted but didn’t comment. I thought it was the fairest most even-handed commentary on the situation that I’d heard anywhere.
Algorithm, my ass, unless that is someone’s nickname in the State Dept.
As George Galloway calls him: Mr. Al Gorithm.
Algorithms are created with human beings, who are vassals of the Powers That Be in the USA.
Even algorithms do doublethink nowadays…
Facebook/Zuckerberg…the ongoing nightmare.
Orwell must have been clairvoyant. He hit the nail on the head, even if he was premature on the date (1984). It is sad that humanity has come to this, even if it was inevitable with the development of communication technology. I feel that it is too late to reverse the
trajectory that we are traveling because the vilest and most selfish elements of humanity have captured this technology to be used for their own ends. I feel that our future is dystopian at best, only to descend into an apocalyptic nothingness. Just another cold lifeless rock moving through space and time. And to think that we did this to ourselves.
Orwell wasn’t so premature about the date. This madness begin being implemented in the 80’s in western Europe. It was so insidious and effective that nobody fully noticed till around 2000. When was a little too late. Just a humble opinion.
I guess the “community” whose “standards” the moguls running Facebook want to “uphold” are certainly not a society of seekers after truth and justice, including those who would want an accurate history recorded rather than a bunch of lemmings interested only in some predetermined geopolitical outcome (that happens to concur with the desires of said moguls) regardless of the cost. The saying goes “with great power comes great responsibility.” With the coming of social media, apparently comes the “hive mind,” the same type of mind that believes entire segments of the human race (amounting to far more than half in the case of Eurasia) can be effectively isolated from the “rest” of the world by decree of the United States federal government. Facebook is a case study of how social media can be quite transparently manipulated to herd the thinking of its consumers to achieve manufactured consensus backing government policies (even wars and reckless spending) that advantage insider elites but are detrimental to most everyone else. Twitter is another such abomination. These hypocrites claim “free speech” is wonderful, even essential to freedom and democracy, but then one of their most contradictory, and no longer hidden, actions is to suppress speech that does not support their geopolitical agendas. Goebbels would have found Zuckerberg quite sympatico.
Goebbels would have given one of his testicles for the Internet.
Looks like CN has made a dent. US government doesn’t feel victorious or they would not censor the news. The Biden people are really trying to coerce the whole world to gang up on Russia. They expect Europe to pay the bill while destroying the European economy.
Russophobia is no help to being rational. They are really putting misinformation on thick as Zelensky recently did at the UN.
Zelensky is a puppet caught between a rock and a hard place. Azov has threatened to kill him. NATO is pouring deadly weapons into Ukraine. Poor sap doing his best to keep his TV series going.
Well, anybody who believes Facebook is a moron.
Nobody with a brain “believes” Facebook. We use it to spread the truth when we can. And we will not stop. If FB forbids me to share truthful journalism, I will start sending the articles to my email address list, which is far longer than the number of my FB friends.
Can an algorithm selectively find every news outlet that doesn’t agree with the NATO-aligned media hegemony and censor them? Don’t doubt for a second that there are real people at the social media monopolies who are tasked with information control. Even in the most charitable description (“The AI ran amok and did it it!”), algorithms are still written and maintained by humans.
Expect more of this as the US devolves further into censorship and authoritarianism. The fact that this involves a huge multinational corporation, working at the behest of the US government, it is pretty obvious we are in a new era of extreme propaganda coupled with censorship. It is why those in power are so hell bent on shutting down the other side of any discussion; because the powers that be have no rational counterargument. They can only hurl ad-hominems about “Putin puppets” or “useful idiots”, while waving the flag and declaring they are fighting for freedom and democracy. The freedom they speak of is only for them. Freedom of speech for any counterarguments is obviously not what they are talking about. It is why we never hear two or more sides on any argument now, we only hear the official story from the government/corporate conglomerate. As long as people keep using Facebook and Twitter, and going to corporate owned news, we aren’t going to make any progress toward peace. Peace doesn’t make money for the wealthy, and doesn’t get people to read or watch the news.
What would you do if you ran the world? It’s the question I lead with now and it’s astonishing how few answers come through — even from thought leaders. The first thing I’d do would be to establish an ad hoc Wisdom Council. Get one power figure to start it — say Oprah. She picks Jane Goodall. They both pick the third person. Etc. We can’t trust the corporate world, but if the most respected people put their heads together I bet everyone would clamor for what that Council would suggest we do.
Oprah? Really? Jane Goodall, yes.
What would I do, were I cursed with Absolute Power in the USA? 1) Shut down the wars. 2) Shut down the Military-Industrial Complex. 3) Disassemble all the giant monopoly corporations. 4) Die in front of a firing squad.
Oprah Winfrey is a privileged member of the ruling class. How can you possibly consider her a reliable anything? She is a member of the same class as Zuckerberg. She is not to be relied upon for anything except the ruling class line of bullshit.
Um haven’t we already got such a Council, ie the U.N. ? How well has that worked out ? With the U.S. even banning it’s members from entering the country, how is that Council supposed to work ???? Not to mention holding it to ransom by refusing to pay it’s share when due. Creating a Council might be a way to start, BUT, a council needs a location to meet at. Such facilities cost money, from where is that money to come from ? Plus, any such Council would require staffers to run things, organise meetings arrange paper work, research, ect, ect, it goes on and on. How will these people be chosen, how can you be certain, such people are not compromised already and prove to be white ants within your new Council. The World as we know it today, is a really EVIL place, filled with EVIL people that have no morals at all, and will do the bidding of their masters simply on the basis of thirty pieces of silver. When you come up with a solution to all that, by all means, let’s see how such a Council could be formed cleansed from all the corruption we are exposed to daily.
I would set up an independent journalism consortium (like Consortium News, but much bigger). I would have the government put 10 billion dollars into a trust fund that could not be touched by any corporation or the government. Journalists could join the consortium, and the operation would run independent of any outside influence. Right now we don’t have any major independent news outlets, they are all under corporate/government control.
Well said.
The “warning” is not about violations of standards.
It is about the article daring to question the pro-Ukraine narrative extant within US and western news media.
Gotta keep Consortium News “in-line” is the message.
Exactly. Ominous IMHO. Per this newfound example of a post-9/11 teenage USMC signup who quickly learned, a la Chelsea Manning, that the Business of such USG organs as the National Endowment for Democracy is to provide a ‘humane’ face for far less friendly global governments’ isolations, followed by takeovers.
hxxps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNjqppyesUE&ab_channel=CGTN
He was called into the ‘local’ US Embassy to receive a cryptic warning, then banned from facebook etc. Next?
One can use Facebook to spread the real news, not the corporate bullshit. I got rid of my TV ten years ago and I don’t believe anything the mainstream media says. I post reliable journalism, not the sitcom version. I will keep posting it as long as I can.