Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

People are weird.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?

It’s a doggy dog world.

“That’s what the insurrection act is for!”

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickel?”

“But what about the lurkers?”

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Second rate reporter says what?

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

‘Museums aren’t America’s attic for its racist shit.’

Come on, man.

You are here: Home / Politics / Media / Small Maybe Victory

Small Maybe Victory

by | 53 Comments

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I guess this is how you get Zuckerberg’s attention:

Facebook is changing a number of policies relating to hate speech and voter suppression on the platform, the chief executive officer, Mark Zuckerberg, said in a surprise live video on Friday.

The announcements were made in a hurried appearance by the executive on his personal Facebook page shortly after Unilever announced that it was pulling advertisements for the next six months – which sent Facebook stock tumbling more than 7%.

More than 100 brands have joined a boycott of advertising on Facebook due to its failure to address hate speech and violence on the platform – most recently the major advertisers Verizon and Unilever.

Facebook will now take on an approach similar to that of Twitter, labeling posts that may violate its policies but are allowed to remain on the platform because they are deemed newsworthy.

The platform will also include a link to its voting information center on any post with information about voting, including by politicians: “This is not a judgement of whether the posts themselves are accurate,” Zuckerberg said.

I’m sure they’ll backslide, and it’s a pathetic little concession, but it ain’t nothing. I’m also enjoying the pants pissing atmospherics of the rushed announcement — it sure looks like Zuck thought he could ride this one out, until he couldn’t.

Reader Interactions

53Comments

  1. 1.

    JPL

    NYTimes has a new article stating that trump has done nothing although he’s known for months.
    Russia Secretly Offered Afghan Militants Bounties to Kill U.S. Troops, Intelligence Says

  3. 3.

    BruceFromOhio

    Money talks, suckers walk.

    Its the ONLY way to get the capitalists to move in any direction – dangle the big bag o’ cash, or threaten to take it away.

  4. 4.

    dmsilev

    This morning, after Verizon announced that it was temporarily pulling its ads from Facebook, I read one comment which was “When Verizon thinks you’re being too evil…”.

  5. 5.

    Alison Rose

    I hope this also involves a reassessing of what constitutes hate speech, considering I got flagged for commenting “Men are annoying” on a friend’s post. Literally just that. The warning read: “Your comment goes against our Community Standards on hate speech. No one else can see your comment. We have these standards because we want discussions on Facebook to be respectful.”

    ELL OH FUCKING ELL.

  6. 6.

    Mike in NC

    Deleting my Facebook page last year was one of the most satisfying things ever.

  7. 7.

    different-church-lady

    I mean, fuckin’ christ, Zuck and his useless nicotine-for-the-brain device have brought GINORMOUS CORPORATE BORG CREATURES over to the right side of things, that’s just how fuckin’ evil the little sociopath is.

  10. 10.

    scav

    Cue the racists and Trumpets strident howls of OPPRESSION!!! & SECOND AMENDMENT!!!! and HOW DARE COMPANIES FORCE THEIR MORALS DOWN OUR THROATS!!! My apologies for the lack of proper misspellings.

  11. 11.

    FlyingToaster (Tablet)

    Still not getting an account..

    I may have to do some online shopping this weekend.  New not-stinky Keens from REI. Heh.

  12. 12.

    Another Scott

    Reuters:

    […]

    Zuckerberg’s address fell short, said Rashad Robinson, president of civil rights group Color Of Change, which is one of the groups behind the boycott campaign.

    “What we’ve seen in today’s address from Mark Zuckerberg is a failure to wrestle with the harms FB has caused on our democracy & civil rights,” Robinson tweeted. “If this is the response he’s giving to major advertisers withdrawing millions of dollars from the company, we can’t trust his leadership.”

    Shares of Facebook closed 8.3% lower, and Twitter’s fell 7.3% after Unilever PLC said it would stop its U.S. ads on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for the rest of the year, citing “divisiveness and hate speech during this polarized election period in the U.S.”

    More than 90 advertisers including Japanese carmaker Honda Motor Co Ltd’s U.S. subsidiary, Unilever’s Ben & Jerry’s, Verizon Communications Inc and The North Face, a unit of VF Corp, have joined the campaign, according to a list by ad activism group Sleeping Giants.

    The campaign specifically asks businesses not to advertise on Facebook’s platforms in July, though Twitter has also long been urged to clean up alleged abuses and misinformation on its platform.

    […]

    It’s good that decent companies are finally voting with their dollars. It’s essential that they not support other companies that are destroying our society. And we people need to continue to speak up and speak with our dollars as well.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  13. 13.

    cain

    @scav:
    Sounds good to me. They either have to cater to the racists or to their bottom line/stockholders.

    ETA: the desired outcome is if htey canceled facebook and left.

  14. 14.

    different-church-lady

    Finally, a good excuse to buy a pint of Ben & Jerry’s.

    (Please, nobody explain to me why this is bad until tomorrow…)

  15. 15.

    Soprano2

    @Alison Rose:  Sure, but people calling me an idiot for my opinions is a-ok with them. I have to wonder how they make these decisions, there doesn’t seem to be any consistency at all.

  16. 16.

    Anya

    I don’t say this lightly but Facebook is evil. I don’t care how it makes grandmas the world over happy because it enables them to share cute pictures of their grand kids. Facebook has made our world much worse. There is a UN report about how Facebook was used to incite genocide against the Rohingya minority group in Myanmar.

    Facebook is a place where hate is spread and hate groups use it to incite hate and devision. It makes me so sad that there is nothing we can do about it. The politicians don’t have the willpower to do anything. And Zuckerberg basically allied himself with Trump and the GOP.

  17. 17.

    different-church-lady

    @Anya:

    I don’t say this lightly but Facebook is evil.

    One should say it with the most weight possible. They’re every bit as evil as cigarette companies.

  20. 20.

    Ruckus

    @Mike in NC:

    I used to be on FB several times a day. The last 2-3 yrs I’ve been on maybe once or twice a year, just to see what’s what. I just didn’t bother to delete until today. Seemed like a good day to add on to add onto zuck’s woes of not making bazillions. He now gives you 30 days till it’s deleted and if you go back during that time you are reinstated. I’ve read that nothing is actually deleted, possibly forever but after 30 days no access the account is permanently closed.

  21. 21.

    C Stars

    After reading the other day somewhere (maybe here on BJ) that Zuck is personal friends with Ben Shapiro I realized that there is no possible way FB can be salvaged. It’s just an awful, evil enterprise. I mean, that’s the case with or without Ben Shapiro, but Ben Shapiro is the straw that broke the camel’s back. It’s tough because while many people don’t use FB as individuals anymore, EVERY business or organization is expected to have a FB and/or IG page. Unfortunately, the worst option has become the default option (in so many ways in this country).

    I am hoping desperately that an altruistic tech person will come along and create a somewhat universal public online forum that we can all migrate to PDQ. Craig Newmark, are you reading this?

  22. 22.

    Calouste

    @Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.): There’s a reason Unilever pulled its ads until the end of the year, i.e. after the elections. They talked to Facebook, and considering the amount of money they spend on advertising the person they talked to is at least the VP for North America, if not higher, and didn’t like the answers they got. They don’t trust FB, and Unilever knows racism doesn’t sell very well these days.

  24. 24.

    different-church-lady

    @C Stars:

    It’s tough because while many people don’t use FB as individuals anymore, EVERY business or organization is expected to have a FB and/or IG page.

    When those “f” tiles start disappearing off corporate websites, that’s when we’ll know the Frodo tossed the ring into Mt. Doom.

  29. 29.

    MattF

    I’d bet that the secret C-level memorandum determining these changes includes details on how they will be evaded. Facebook’s business plan is to promote social polarization and exploit the consequences. That’s by far the most profitable thing to do, and Facebook is not going to stop doing it.

  30. 30.

    Doug R

    Nice to see Unilever backing up the brand they bought-Ben & Jerry’s.

    I bought 5 pints yesterday, for some reason the 5 pints I bought last week had disappeared between my wife, my daughter and myself.

  32. 32.

    C Stars

    @different-church-lady:  The spell can’t be broken soon enough.

    Although I just finished reading The Hobbit to my kids and, man, sometimes it’s a long auld trudge… Not sure I can make it through the trilogy. Forgot how self-indulgent Tolkien can be.

  34. 34.

    Shalimar

    @JPL: There is a Republican party office a mile from me, in a strip mall next to a Domino’s.  Obviously opened by the campaign since it was not there in March.  I have never seen anyone in it.

  36. 36.

    Anya

    @JPL: Wut? Does that mean he is going to defend Georgia? It would be great to win Georgia and we would win it if it wasn’t for the most outrageous and criminal voter suppression actions. But if the Trump campaign is spending money in a supposedly red state then we win.  Biden can’t beat him in campaign cash so hopefully this and Trump’s tendency to take his hate rallies to friendly places will drain his resources.

  40. 40.

    Another Scott

    5 years ago today. It still chokes me up.

    In the afternoon of June 26, 2015, @BarackObama traveled to Charleston to eulogize Reverend Pinckney after a racist shooting at Mother Emanuel AME church. President Obama began to speak of grace. Then he sang. Go behind the scenes of this moment in part two of our series. pic.twitter.com/VV0RTrmVzv

    — The Obama Foundation (@ObamaFoundation) June 26, 2020

    He’s a good man.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  43. 43.

    Brachiator

    I’m also enjoying the pants pissing atmospherics of the rushed announcement — it sure looks like Zuck thought he could ride this one out, until he couldn’t.

    Zuckerberg may be cagier than people think. Trump and his right wing enablers have been pushing Facebook and Twitter to allow more right wing extremist speech, claiming that social media platforms are biased against conservatives. Zuck is pitting plutocrat against plutocrat.

    ETA. Yeah, hate speech is a huge issue, but it’s funny how many people want to limit someone else’s speech, but not their own.

  44. 44.

    JPL

    @MattF: Our president rewards them and Sen Johnson is starting another investigation into Hunter Biden.   I would think that killing our troops would be non-stop 24/7 news though.

  46. 46.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @JPL: The orange shit streak knew about this for 3 fucking months and so far has done nothing.

    And McTurtle just chuckles and slips another nickel judge into the slot.

  47. 47.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @JPL: Where? Maybe next time I drive through, I’ll leave a steaming bag of shit on the doorstep, lit on fire, to remind the asshole staffers just what they’re working for.

  49. 49.

    Brachiator

    @MattF:

    Facebook’s business plan hasn’t changed. Promote ‘engagement’ and sell ‘engaged’ users to advertisers.

    Not really relevant to Trump and right wingers wanting to make sure they get prominent position in Facebook and any future social media platforms.

  50. 50.

    Subsole

    @C Stars: 
    You’d still have to break Facebook up, first. Otherwise the bug-eyed little voigt-kampf flunkee would just buy it out.

  52. 52.

    Martin

    Unilever is not a small victory. They are a huge CPG (consumer package goods) company that invests massively in brand advertising ($8B per year). Even to Facebook, that’s not pocket change.

  53. 53.

    Skippy-san

    All Facebook has done is taken to penalizing regular users. I’ve had two comments tagged for “hate speech” in two days and put in 24 hour Facebook jail. For the life of me, I do not know what was the offensive phrase, and Facebook will not tell you. Meanwhile, Trump Humpers go after you all the time with impunity.

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