Posted on 04/12/2018 7:09:53 AM PDT by davikkm
“There are people who take liberal views here, but they are expected to defend their positions articulately, preferably with Constitutional, federal, or state law citations. Respectful disagreement is welcomed.
He does not ban people simply to suppress a point of view.”
Come now, you have to know that isn’t exactly true for every “point of view”.
How long do you think posters who are pro-abortion, for example, last on FR, if they are vocal about it? Or pro-gay marriage?
I’ve seen plenty of posters banned simply because their views were too far outside of what the mods judge to be the positions that this site is designed to promote, and that is perfectly legitimate for the owners of the site to do.
“By not ensuring fair play you are allowing them to regulate and shutdown conservative thought.”
“Fair play” is that all websites are subject to the same laws, not special laws just for websites that you don’t agree with.
Great conversation . . . keep it going!
Again google and fb control 80 percent of ad revenue. They are not only censoring but causing financial harm to those with incorrect views.
That puts them in a different category. What is so hard to understand about that?
The Government has the right and necessity to regulate monopolies.
Or do you disagree with that statement.
From the Free Republic home page:
Established in 1996, Free Republic is one of the earliest and largest online gathering places for independent, grass-roots conservatism on the web. We're working to roll back decades of governmental largesse, to root out political fraud and corruption, and to champion causes which further conservatism in America...Please enjoy our forum, but also please remember to use common courtesy when posting and refrain from posting personal attacks, profanity, vulgarity, threats, racial or religious bigotry, or any other materials offensive or otherwise inappropriate for a conservative family audience...
Free Republic is a site dedicated to the concerns of traditional grassroots conservative activists. We're here to discuss and advance our conservative causes in a more or less liberal-free environment. We're not here to debate liberals. We do not want our pages filled with their arrogant, obnoxious, repugnant bile. Liberals, usurpers, and other assorted malcontents are considered unwelcome trolls on FR and their accounts and or posts will be summarily dismissed at the convenience of the site administrators...
Free Republic does not advocate or condone racism, violence, rebellion, secession, or an overthrow of the government. Free Republic advocates a return to constitutionally limited government, reserving all government powers not expressly delegated by the constitution to the United States to the States respectively, or the people, emphasizing sovereign state governments, local government, self-government and self-rule, while restricting government powers to only those enumerated in the constitution and maximizing individual rights and liberty as originally envisioned and established by our Founding Fathers and secured and defended by the blood of patriots and statesmen for over two hundred years...
Note the two points I highlighted.
1) While we do not set out to debate liberals directly, we post and debate liberal arguments as laid out by liberals in MSM articles. Some of these issues include abortion and gay marriage, as well as legalizing certain drug use.
2) While we do not condone rebellion or secession, there are plenty of articles posted which discuss this, as well as some FReepers who openly advocate for it in discussion threads.
So sure, there are exceptions, and those exceptions go both ways, unlike FaceBook which only bans one way and excepts the other way.
-PJ
I’m not a Facebook user. Never have been.
But I also understand Facebook has an eBay like function called Marketplace.
I am interested in Diamond and Silk’s situation.
If their political speech gets curtailed or zotted by Facebook, does that affect their ability to sell merchandise on Marketplace ? Are they banned there too?
Does Facebook censor Marketplace too ?
I agree.
I had a blog taken down entitled “Impeach Trump” ( to attract interest ) in which I argued for Trump to fire Mueller and as many other deep-staters as he could and directly take on the impeachment threat. And to do so especially before the 2018 midterm election to rally his supporters to get out the vote to counter the deranged leftist loonies.
I argued that the republican party would become the Whigs if they did not support Trump.
But the post or thread was removed without it even being read.
Mods are too jumpy around here.
Or was that a Freeper algorithm ?
Dont go to his site then.
I guess in your mind then that when this site kicks someone out of here, that this site isnt allowing free speech right?
Now as for the monopoly issue? There is a good point there.
Be careful what you wish for. You’ll find it impossible to carry on a good conversation on here soon.
Unless Public Accommodation Laws (which are absolutely Unconstitutional like most Laws passed by Congress in the last 100 Years) apply to Fakebook, it is of no consequence.
Sure he can do it, in fact, he has been. A little candor about him doing it seems to me like not too much to ask.
“This site doesn’t advertise itself as an open town square, so yes, there are limits to sanctioned commentary here.”
Facebook doesn’t advertise itself as that either, it advertises itself as a social networking site and users agree to have content they post subject to moderation by the site owners when they sign the terms of service.
-PJ
To liberals, Diamond and Silk and Sarah Palin etc are terrorists.
So? Calling it a “community” doesn’t equate to calling it a public forum where all viewpoints are equally tolerated.
Facebook is either a Publisher or a Platform. They do not get to control content without responsibility.
What are we arguing about again?
-PJ
From Facebook's IPO Prospectus dated May 3, 2012 (emphasis mine):
Our mission is to make the world more open and connected.People use Facebook to stay connected with their friends and family, to discover what is going on in the world around them, and to share and express what matters to them to the people they care about.
Developers can use the Facebook Platform to build applications (apps) and websites that integrate with Facebook to reach our global network of users and to build products that are more personalized, social, and engaging.
Advertisers can engage with more than 900 million monthly active users (MAUs) on Facebook or subsets of our users based on information they have chosen to share with us such as their age, location, gender, or interests. We offer advertisers a unique combination of reach, relevance, social context, and engagement to enhance the value of their ads.
We believe that we are at the forefront of enabling faster, easier, and richer communication between people and that Facebook has become an integral part of many of our users’ daily lives. We have experienced rapid growth in the number of users and their engagement.
[snip -- the following emphasis is Facebook's from the prospectus]
How We Create Value for Users
Our top priority is to build useful and engaging products that enable you to:
- Connect with Your Friends. With more than 900 million MAUs worldwide, our users are increasingly able to find and stay connected with their friends, family, and colleagues on Facebook.
- Discover and Learn. We believe that users come to Facebook to discover and learn more about what is going on in the world around them, particularly in the lives of their friends and family and with public figures and organizations that interest them.
- Express Yourself. We enable our users to share and publish their opinions, ideas, photos, and activities to audiences ranging from their closest friends to our 900 million users, giving every user a voice within the Facebook community.
- Control What You Share. Through Facebook’s privacy and sharing settings, our users can control what they share and with whom they share it.
- Experience Facebook Across the Web. Through apps and websites built by developers using the Facebook Platform, our users can interact with their Facebook friends while playing games, listening to music, watching movies, reading news, and engaging in other activities.
- Stay Connected with Your Friends on Mobile Devices. Through the combination of our mobile sites, smartphone apps, and feature phone products, users can bring Facebook with them on mobile devices wherever they go.
Foundations of the Social Web
We believe that the web, including the mobile web, is evolving to become more social and personalized. This evolution is creating more rewarding experiences that are centered on people, their connections, and their interests. We believe that the following elements form the foundation of the social web:
- Authentic Identity. We believe that using your real name, connecting to your real friends, and sharing your genuine interests online create more engaging and meaningful experiences. Representing yourself with your authentic identity online encourages you to behave with the same norms that foster trust and respect in your daily life offline. Authentic identity is core to the Facebook experience, and we believe that it is central to the future of the web. Our terms of service require you to use your real name and we encourage you to be your true self online, enabling us and Platform developers to provide you with more personalized experiences.
- Social Graph. The Social Graph represents the connections between people and their friends and interests. Every person or entity is represented by a point within the graph, and the affiliations between people and their friends and interests form billions of connections between the points. Our mapping of the Social Graph enables Facebook and Platform developers to build more engaging user experiences that are based on these connections.
- Social Distribution. Over time, people are consuming and creating more kinds of information at a faster pace across a broader range of devices. The growing volume of information makes it challenging to find meaningful and trusted content and to effectively make your voice heard. Facebook organizes and prioritizes content and serves as a powerful social distribution tool delivering to users what we believe they will find most compelling based on their friends and interests.
Express what matters to them?
Richer communication between people?
Integral part of users' daily lives?
Discover and learn more about what is going on in the world around them, particularly in the lives of their friends and family and with public figures and organizations that interest them?
We enable our users to share and publish their opinions, ideas, photos, and activities to audiences ranging from their closest friends to our 900 million users, giving every user a voice within the Facebook community?
The growing volume of information makes it challenging to find meaningful and trusted content and to effectively make your voice heard. Facebook organizes and prioritizes content and serves as a powerful social distribution tool delivering to users what we believe they will find most compelling based on their friends and interests?
That is what Zuckerberg sold to investors when he went public with Facebook. Is that what is happening now? Doesn't the prospectus describe "a public forum where all viewpoints are equally tolerated?"
-PJ
“Doesn’t the prospectus describe “a public forum where all viewpoints are equally tolerated?””
Obviously not, or you could have just quoted that point instead of pasting the entire prospectus (which isn’t legally relevant... you really should be looking at the user agreement and terms of service).
You see trees, I see forests.
-PJ
Take a look at this on Syria. The strike already happened.
Executed by the Saudis and the Israelis:
https://twitter.com/ThomasWictor
Trump diverted the worlds attention and has left a sword of Damocles hanging over the head of Assad.Pretty cool few days work, wouldn’t you say.
The Russians, Iranians and Hezbollah have deserted Syria in droves and the Russian fleet got the hell out! And they will not be allowed to return either.
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