Facebook Now Censoring Political Posts As ‘Hate Speech’

Facebook is now apparently censoring political posts which violate its “Statement of Rights and Responsibilities” as hate speech, after the social networking giant threatened to close radio host Alex Jones’ account over an image of Osama Bin Laden with the words “Al-CIA-da” written underneath.

Attempting to login to Alex Jones’ Facebook account, which has over 321,000 subscribers, Infowars staff were met with a message from Facebook denying access to the account until it was acknowledged that Facebook’s terms had been violated.

“We removed content you posted,” stated the message, underneath which was a black and white image of Osama Bin Laden with the words “Al-CIA-da” emblazoned across it. Facebook removed the image because it “violates Facebook’s Statement of RIghts and Responsibilities.”

A secondary screen then warned that other infringing images should be removed if the account was to remain in good standing.

Since the image is not copyrighted, according to Facebook’s terms of agreement one can only assume that it was removed because it represented an example of “hate speech,” yet the picture was merely a commentary on the admitted fact that Osama Bin Laden was aided by the CIA during the cold war and that Al-Qaeda terrorists are now being supported by the Central Intelligence Agency in Syria and Libya.

Facebook advertises and poses as a public commons yet, much like Google-owned You Tube, routinely censors political content on flimsy pretexts.

Prison Planet.com

Facebook and Twitter are creating a vain generation of self-obsessed people with child like need for feedback

Facebook and Twitter have created a generation obsessed with themselves, who have short attention spans and a childlike desire for constant feedback on their lives, a top scientist believes. Repeated exposure to social networking sites leaves users with an 'identity crisis', wanting attention in the manner of a toddler saying: 'Look at me, Mummy, I've done this.'

Baroness Greenfield, professor of pharmacology at Oxford University, believes the growth of internet 'friendships' – as well as greater use of computer games – could effectively 'rewire' the brain. This can result in reduced concentration, a need for instant gratification and poor non-verbal skills, such as the ability to make eye contact during conversations.

Full story on Mail Online

Belarus cracks down on growing protests

Belarus security services detained at least 450 protesters in the wake of rallies across the country against the strong-armed measures of President Alexander Lukashenko.

Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko is making good on his promise to "strike hard" against any Belarussian citizens heeding social-network appeals to protest against growing economic hardships. By Thursday, more than 450 people who took part in flash-mob rallies in more than 30 towns around Belarus had been rounded up by the KGB security services, and accused of using Twitter, Facebook, and the Russian-language Vkontakte to facilitate illegal gatherings, according to the independent Belapan news agency. According to the agency, many face up to 15 days in prison for "hooliganism."

More on CSMonitor.com

Wikileaks Founder: Facebook is the most appalling spy machine that has ever been invented

Despite awaiting extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is still the subject of much media interest.

Russia Today (RT) interviewed Assange, getting his viewpoint on political unrest in Egypt and Libya, particularly probing what the Wikileaks founder makes of social media’s roles in the recent revolutions in both countries. In his interview, Assange focuses particularly on Facebook calling it the “most appalling spy machine that has ever been invented”.

Explaining in more detail, Assange affirms:

Here we have the world’s most comprehensive database about people, their relationships, their names, their addresses, their locations, their communications with each other, and their relatives, all sitting within the United States, all accessible to US Intelligence.”

According to Assange, it doesn’t stop with Facebook. He believes the social network is joined by Google, Yahoo and other major US organisations that have “built in interfaces for US Intelligence”:

It’s not a matter of serving a subpoena, they have an interface they have developed for US Intelligence to use. Now, is the case that Facebook is run by US Intelligence? No, it’s not like that. It’s simply that US Intelligence is able to bring to bear legal and political pressure to them.

It’s costly for them to hand out individual records, one by one, so they have automated the process.

The Wikileaks founder then warns Facebook users, stating that if a user adds their friend to Facebook, they are “doing free work for US Intelligence agencies, in building this electronic database for them”.

thenextweb.com