Consortium News is appealing the decisions taken by the two social media giants.
X has suspended the account of the executive producer of Consortium News‘ webcast CN Live! without indicating which X rules were allegedly violated.
Cathy Vogan’s account was restricted three weeks ago for what X told her was a “technical issue” after she fulfilled a requirement to prove that she was not a bot. To the public, her account appeared saying it was “restricted” because of “unusual activity.” All of the accounts she followed were stripped to zero.
Each time she contacted X, Vogan was told her “case” had been closed and to open a new one. After doing that several times, on Tuesday last week she discovered the account had been suspended, because “X suspends accounts which violate the X rules.”
Those rules include prohibitions on violent content, abuse or harassment, hateful content and doxxing. The decision was made without producing any evidence of the violation of X’s rules. Vogan is appealing the decision and continues her work with Consortium News.
Meanwhile, Facebook last Tuesday blocked the posting of a Consortium News article, “A History of Humiliation,” because it allegedly violated Facebook’s “community standards.”
The article argues that U.S. administrations since 1991 have ignored the warning of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 not to put an adversary into a position of choosing between a “humiliating retreat or nuclear war.” The article contends the Biden administration is dangerously in the midst of doing just that with Russia.
Facebook says it was removed because it was “spam,” adding, “The post may use misleading links or content to trick people to visit, or stay on, a website.” Facebook further explains:
“We do not allow content that is designed to deceive, mislead, or overwhelm users in order to artificially increase viewership. This content detracts from people’s ability to engage authentically on our platforms and can threaten the security, stability and usability of our services. We also seek to prevent abusive tactics, such as spreading deceptive links to draw unsuspecting users in through misleading functionality or code, or impersonating a trusted domain.”
Consortium News contends that an article that seeks to avoid nuclear war by highlighting a warning of a past U.S. president and explaining how it has been ignored by subsequent presidents is not “designed to deceive, mislead, or overwhelm users in order to artificially increase viewership.”
Nor does it “detract from people’s ability to engage authentically on [Facebook’s] platforms and can threaten the security, stability and usability of [Facebook’s] services.” Later last Wednesday it became impossible to post a Chris Hedges video and text, “To Kill a People,” on Facebook for the same sham spam reason.
CN is awaiting answers on its appeals.
Pls let us know the outcome of your appeal. If they relent, I’ll try again to post the article, as exactly the same happened to me. (And it’s a great article, by the way :)
There is a reason I do not use either F/B or X – Thanks CN for explaining it!
Their AI might be confused by links to CN articles from within CN articles.
It is bullshit, but software developers code easy cases first and often fail to deal with exceptions that result in bizarre behaviour.
Facebook has been shadow banning and outright censoring CN for a while. I was posting articles in comments under a bland post which worked for a while. Even that is becoming impossible now. This practice should be illegal. This is why privatizing the commons doesn’t work.
Billionaires who came by their fortunes through stealing the real work of others have far too much power over our lives. Make social media a public utility.
“Make social media a public utility”. I don’t see how that would make any difference.
If it was a ‘public utility’ then the state would control/censor it, which is exactly what is happening now. The billionaires may own social media but they all censor based on what the state demands.
If you want true free speech then you have to go fully independent of state and big money.
However, don’t make the mistake of assuming the independents don’t censor – they do – everyone has an agenda.
No. You got it backwards: the oligarchy controls the govt. not the other way around. Let’s not be naive. (Inverted Totalitarianism)
It would make a huge difference if the public airwaves (electromagnetic spectrum) had REAL public oversight and monopolies were not allowed to exist. So-called capitalism is supposed to be about “free markets” and competition, not monopolies. But what we think is irrelevant, there is no way to “vote” against the oligarchy. It will only get worse, as it has done for decades now.
1984
I learned in the newspaper biz that one thing publishers/editors like least is to have a public demonstration outside their offices during which organizations who wish to expose their censorship and other unethical journalistic practices distribute evidence of their accusations to the public passing by. So do this CN: Demonstrate at the At the headquarters of X and hold a press conference while also picketing. Distribute leaflets containing short, clear evidence of their censorship to the public and to any news media you have alerted that may show up. Invite journalism students and your local readers to join you. And keep doing this at regular intervals till they decide they don’t want to be exposed any longer.
This is why you need to publish on as many different platforms as possible to minimize attempts to censor you!!
The X censorship is extremely troubling and hypocritical since Musk goes on endlessly about free speech and the sanctity of the First Amendment. I think you should contact him personally. Perhaps he’d like to know who’s censoring on his behalf. It seems he’s not reluctant to fire interlopers.
Musk makes all the right noises, but he still censors. He has many government contracts so will have to dance to their tune to maintain his income, same with his relationship with Trump.
The true face of Musk finally revealed. Facebook’s Zuckerberg comes as no surprise.
I really wonder why anyone would believe this “free speech absolutist” nonsense from Musk, a power mad mental child. Ask advocates for Palestine about his “free speech absolutism”.
I think we are all now understand what it’s like to live in a dystopian nightmare. A system that’s designed to gradually drive you mad. Shrieking into the air at 24 year old faceless technicians making arbitrary decisions about what is and what isn’t Wrongthink.
I hate “social media”. Far too much power to censor is put in the hands of too few minds, and too often, nefarious ones.
Social Media is a cess pool, if you swim in it you will not smell of roses.
They (all of them) are out to destroy you. They are trying to destroy any free and honest speech. The first amendment is becoming an old idea of history. You must continue the fight.
Cannot judge X… But… Facebook?
This commenter never has seen value in distributing personal information publicly.
Of course a business as CN must engage all media for economic purpose… even those with track record some might characterize as Fascistic!
Private industry in service of murder for monetary gain… little surprise censorship among it’s tools!
Thats exactly what I encountered when I posted it. It is clear now that FB anX moderation is a deliberately opaque nonsense designed to eliminate independent media that fail to follow the imperialist Russophobic ans Zionist narratives.
The way to get round it that their evil algorithms cant stop it is to post an excerpt from the article and direct readers to the link in the first comment. However even that is just a matter of time before the censors stop that too.. WW3 is upon us and the censors are at work.
The amount of cancelling, deplatforming and outright suppression is reprehensible. It’s happening in every outlet imaginable.
The FBI just raided Alison Weir’s house for crying out loud!
I can’ believe that I am the first to Comment on this.
Hell, on “X” (formerly “Twitter”) I have had a LABEL put on my account 3 times since last Spring.
I have received very few if any Impressions, Likes, or Replies to Posts I make or Replies to the Posts of others that I Repost(the Reposts get a few likes, but nothing about my replies)
Over the past couple of months I claim that “X” has a “BLACK HOLE” and my Posts, Replies to other’s posts go into “X’s” “BLACK HOLE” never to get out or be seen.
Elon Musk’s idea of “Free Speech,” to purloin the title of a 1992 book by the late Free Speech advocate Nat Hentoff “Free Speech For Me — Not For Thee” is Musk’s idea of Free Speech.
I keep seeing Posts by people against Israel’s Genocide claiming to be Shadow Banned and losing followers (when they have tens of thousands of followers – I had 520 something which is now headed toward 500).
I did a Post that Donald Trump was using the Epstein Client List to determine who to hire for his Administration and got virtually no impressions, likes, replies.
Clearly Musk must not like Saint George of Carlin type humor.
I have not been told why my account is Labeled or any way to challenge it being Labeled.
I have never been on Facebook as a decade or so I had seen something about Facebook using family photos people put on Facebook without the permission of those who posted them in ads on Facebook.
However on “X” I have many times in attacking Hillary Clinton’s “Russia, Russia, Russia” Bull Shit asked people to go to Youtube,
Pull up Mitch Ryder’s “Good Golly Miss Molly, Devil With The Blue Dress On” and listen
THEN
Go to the URL below and watch “MOLLY, in a BLUE DRESS” explain (about 25 minutes in) how Cambridge Analytica used Facebook Data to target ads to elect Trump in 2016.
hxxps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bB2BJjMNXpA
Russia didn’t elect Trump in 2016, the Brits (Cambridge Analytica) using Facebook Data (American) to elect Trump.
While I still go to “X” to comment and push demanding Biden order the Archivist put the Equal Rights Amendment (which has met ALL ARTICLE 5 REQUIREMENTS) be put into the Constitution as the 28th Amendment and saying that if Biden does not do this that no woman should ever vote for another Democrat ever.
Hell, on “X” I see where Republicans want to take the vote away from women, but women are silent?
People on “X” are complaining about the “Far Left” (including those claiming to be on the Left), but as Jeff Cohen wrote, on Consortiumnews back in 2011 (and on Huffington Post) “Will Obama Move the Court to the Right” and in it quotes outgoing Justice Stevens that Stevens came to the Court as a Conservative and stayed that way but the Court Moved Drastically to the Right – Hell, in the Landes / Posner 2008 Study on the Court Stevens was the 12th Most Liberal to serve since 1938
I would venture that the So Called Left of 2024 would be seen as a moderate Right Republican during the Administration of Eisenhower.
Hell, go to Robert F. Kennedy SENIOR’s book “13 Days” about the Cuban Missile Crisis and he wrote that the FINAL LESSON was to put yourself in the OTHER COUNTRY’S SHOES, something which is quite SANE
BUT
With Clinton, Obama, Biden none put themselves in the “other country’s shoes,” instead they step as hard as they can on the other country’s foot.
Be it “X,” “Facebook,” or your local newspaper’s “letter to the editor” it is THE EDITOR that decides what others can read.
Sue these sons of bitches. For a lot. :^[[[[
But Elon the Oligarch owns twitterX, and says he is for “free speech” and all that BS. The faux libertarians like Judge Nap have praised him and the oligarchy for allowing the little people to have “free speech”. What a load of transparent BS and sickening hypocrisy.
As a take on Yanis Varoufakis’ concept of “Techno Feudalism” I call this Techno-Totalitarian-neoFeudalism. The privatization, de-regulation and consolidation of BigMedia/BigTech has resulted in a Ministry of Truth Media. Yet few seem to notice or care that their rights are being taken away.
These mega corps are allowed to control huge chunks of the public electromagnetic spectrum, and they can do pretty much whatever they want. Instead of doing something about the dystopian nightmare, people are conditioned into worshiping the oligarchy like medieval peasants. Collective Stockholm Syndrome has become entrenched among a large section of the population.
CN is one of the last bastions of real journalism left and the Oligarchy is busy trying to destroy what is left.