Here’s another cartoon about all the university students complaining about the terrible injustices (“micro aggressions,” “hurtful speech,” etc.) they’ve endured on campus. Thought I’d get it in while I’m still contemplating the issue. The interesting thing about this cartoon, however, is that it was deemed so politically incorrect — or something — that Facebook removed it from cartoonist Ben Garrison’s page. They said it violated Facebook’s Community Standards (which apparently are extremely arbitrary and don’t include certain types of political commentary).
Facebook is even worse than I’ve always thought. Not only do they spy on users and steal and circulate their personal information (very bad) and censor photos (probably necessary at times), but now they also censor free speech. I see nothing so evil in this cartoon that it needed to be removed. True, it’s very political in nature and sharply critical of the disruptive students on our campuses. But since when do we not have the right to publicly disagree with the views of others? Apparently, depending on who’s being criticized, it’s not allowed on Facebook.
Cartoonist Garrison thinks the campus agitators somehow influenced Facebook to remove the cartoon. I’ve no way of knowing if that’s true or even possible. My only dealings with Facebook have been the automatically generated listings of my Pied Type posts — and I’ve decided to end those after today. Facebook won’t miss me, and I certainly won’t miss it.
Yes, I happen to agree with this cartoon. But even if I didn’t, I’d be outraged that Facebook took it down. Free speech either is, or it isn’t. And obviously on Facebook, it isn’t.
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Note, May 12, 2016: The truth will out: Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News
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Some of my previous posts about Facebook:
This reminds me of the current attempts of Climate Change alarmists to squash anyone who challenges their predictions.
We can’t allow dissent. It’s disruptive, and worse, it might even open or change minds.
I dial into Facebook to follow activities of family and a few close friends. Facebook always has left much to be desired, but lately its producers seem hell bent on continual changes that invade privacy on one hand and invoke censorship on the other. Soon the time needed to deal with the atrocities will outweigh the value of keeping in touch with people I want to stay in touch with. Goodbye Facebook is fast approaching for me.
I have plenty of other ways to stay in touch with people I care about. FB was in trouble with their privacy policies as long ago as 2011, when they got penalized by the FTC for their transgressions. They just can’t seem to keep their noses out of their users’ business. But apparently their 1.5 billion users don’t care. Guess that makes me eccentric or something.
I like blogging, where I have total control over content. I do not hesitate to censor anyone who wants to give me, or anyone who comments, a hard time. But dissent doesn’t bother me. I don’t care that much about Facebook, although I do have an account. Most of what people post on it is drivel.
Yep, I certainly prefer blogging. I’m the boss here. I never did figure out all those settings on FB. There’s no way of knowing for sure if you’ve made your stuff private or not. And even if you have, FB still has access to everything.