#big tech censorship

[dosesofcommonsense]

That 2024 might happen if Facebook’s CCP agents weren’t still “fact checking” everything worse than YouTube. Facebook cants stand a Hunter Biden Halloween costume parody. There’s no way I can post covid info there without getting banned; trust me. I know this first hand.

[woodrowwood]

Took this off ChatGPT this morning. It claims President Trump was not shot in an assassination attempt. Big Tech and AI promote liberal lies.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

ANNA BONESTEEL AND EVAN GREER at Them:

Pride Month is over. As the ���LOVE IS LOVE” banners come down and companies lose the rainbow gradients from their logos, we’re faced with a painful truth: LGBTQ+ people, especially the most marginalized among us, are in the crosshairs of a queerphobic backlash that is targeting our health, our histories, and especially our youth. And things are getting worse, not better. According to NPR, half of all US states now ban gender-affirming care for people under 18. Eight states now censor LGBTQ+ issues from school curricula via “Don’t Say Gay” laws, and two more states are considering similar legislation this year. The number-one book targeted for censorship is a graphic novel memoir about gender identity.

This June, Democratic lawmakers marched in Pride parades and spoke on stages, vowing to protect our community and fight back against legislative attacks on queer youth. But some of these same lawmakers are actively pushing federal legislation that would cut LGBTQ+ youth off from resources, information, and communities that can save their lives. Currently, 38 Democratic senators support the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), a bill that is vocally opposed by many queer and trans youth, along with a coalition of human rights and LGBTQ+ groups. As a queer- and trans-led advocacy group focused on the ways technology impacts human rights, our organization, Fight for the Future, has seen bills like KOSA before: misguided internet bills that try to solve real problems, but ultimately throw marginalized people under the bus by expanding censorship and surveillance rather than addressing corporate abuses. KOSA’s most obvious predecessor is SESTA/FOSTA, a Trump-era bill that its supporters claimed would clamp down on online sex trafficking. Instead, the bill did almost nothing to accomplish its goal, and has actively harmed LGBTQ+ people and sex workers whose harm-reduction resources were decimated by the subsequent crackdown on online speech.

Like SESTA/FOSTA, some of KOSA’s supporters have positive intent. Many lawmakers and organizations support KOSA because they are concerned about real harms caused by Big Tech, like addictive design features and manipulative algorithms. But, also like SESTA/FOSTA, KOSA doesn’t touch the core issues with Big Tech’s extractive, exploitative business model. Instead, KOSA relies on a “duty of care” model that will pressure social platforms to suppress any speech the government is willing to argue makes kids “depressed” or “anxious.”

Under KOSA, platforms could be sued for recommending a potentially depression- or anxiety-inducing video to anyone under 18. We know from past experience that in order to protect their bottom line, social media companies will overcompensate and actively suppress posts and groups about gender identity, sexuality, abortion — anything they’re worried the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) could be willing to argue “harms” kids. How do you think a potential Trump administration’s FTC would use that kind of authority?

Other features of the bill stretch its censorship potential further. Despite language claiming that the bill does not require platforms to conduct “age verification,” to meaningfully comply with the law, platforms will have to know who is under 18. This means they’ll institute invasive age verification systems or age-gating, which can completely cut off access for LGBTQ+ youth who have unsupportive parents, and/or make it unsafe for queer people to access online resources anonymously. KOSA creates powerful new ways for the government to interfere with online speech. For this reason, the bill is like catnip to extreme right-wing groups like the Heritage Foundation, the coordinators of Project 2025, who have explicitly said they want to use it to target LGBTQ+ content. KOSA’s lead Republican sponsor, Marsha Blackburn, has also said in an interview she wants to use KOSA to protect minors “from the transgender.”

The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) purports to protect children, but in reality, it’s a censorship bill that would impact LGBTQ+ youth. #StopKOSA #KOSA

[mentally-quiet-spycrab]

Urgent update!

Stop HR9495!

Say NO to S.5384! (Stop the bill that Abolishes the Department of Education, and for Other Purposes)

Say NO to H.R. 9218! (Stop the bill that would allow Representatives to re-define what Biological Sex is)

Say NO to SB72! (Ref 1) (ref 2)

Tell Congress: Take action to prevent cuts to IRS funding in the end-of-year government funding bill! (HURRY BEFORE DECEMBER 20TH COMES!)

(PLEASE CHECK AND COPY THE LINKS HERE AND REBLOG/REPOST THEM ON A NEW POST TO KEEP IT TO RELEVANCE!)

Stop HR9495 by calling your Representatives and Senators!

Spread awareness about the Australian Social Media Ban!

Stop the DOGE Acts!

Stop 472472!

Keep fighting! Please spread the word on BlueSky, Reddit, Instagram, etc.!

Call and message Majority Office, Senate Democrats to help Impeach trump and prevent him from taking role of president!

REJECT Brooke Rollins for Secretary of Department of Agriculture!

Say NO to Congress’s plan to gut Medicaid for tax giveaways to the rich and corporations!

Demand Congress that they Need to Safeguard Our Democracy! They must passes new federal legislation strengthening protections for voting rights and preventing election subversion! (Donations)

Resist Trump and Vance! Help Democrats TAKE BACK Congress and defend democracy! (WITH DONATIONS)

Help End the Age of Plastics: Global Plastics Treaty Now! (DONATE)

Help Bend the Arc reach $15,000 in donations to help resist Trump!

Help us DEFEND public education from the Trump/Vance administration! (With donations)

Protect public education and defend democracy!

Ireland must keep supporting Syrian refugees! Please sign Petition! (URGENT!)

Donate to Casa to help Defend Immigrants!

(NOTE: Please Repost or Reblog. Just likes alone don't really do much.)

[monetizeme]

Facebook is under fire after users noticed their accounts were automatically following President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance. But this wasn’t some random glitch and people are not happy about it. Many insist they never followed these figures or interacted with their pages, yet there they were on their profiles.

One user said their cousin noticed a notification about Trump changing his profile picture. When they checked their own profile, they found they were following Trump’s page as of January 2025. Another user reported that attempts to unfollow Trump and Vance didn’t stick, with the platform forcing them to re-follow. The workaround? Blocking the accounts entirely.

A lot of people are saying they’ve had enough and are quitting Facebook for good. Comments like, “I’ll be off all Meta products shortly“ and “I don’t trust Meta.” are popping up everywhere. Others are calling it a blatant overreach and questioning why the platform thinks it’s okay to decide who they should follow.

It’s worth noting that in most instances, people are referring to the POTUS account, not Trump’s personal page on Facebook. Remember, the POTUS account automatically updates once the presidency switches over. Don’t confuse this with Trump’s personal page. So if you were following President Biden (via the POTUS account), you’ll now see the page updated with President Donald J. Trump’s name. The same goes for the Vice President and First Lady. Therefore, Facebook isn’t really automatically making users follow Trump, Vance, or the First Lady. However, reports about people not being able to unfollow the accounts is concerning nonetheless.

Facebook hasn’t made a statement yet, but this isn’t the first time Meta’s been accused of meddling in political optics. Early last year the company decided to limit the amount of political content its algorithms promote. A few months later, Meta and Google were also accused of suppressing information related to Trump. But after Trump’s election win, Meta’s top man, Mark Zuckerberg, seemed to start cozying up to Trump, even making a generous donation for his inaugural committee.

And now, after Trump’s swearing-in, it seems Facebook took the next big step by forcing a large number of users to follow Trump and Vance. For now, users are stuck between outrage and confusion. Blocking these pages seems to be the only way to guarantee they don’t reappear in your follows.

Instagram’s problems are also adding fuel to the fire. Several users tried searching for #Democrat or #DNC and found no results, with some screenshots showing a “sensitive topic” warning. In contrast, searches for #Republican and #RNC worked perfectly. While Meta hasn’t commented, many suspect this is a deliberate choice rather than a bug.

[planesfly]

Fuck big corps, pirate everything you can

[glasshomewrecker]

So, Pinterest decided to "crack down on p*d*philia" last month... while I certainly hope they were able to eliminate child abuse, the general effects were about what you'd expect. Here are some of my favorite "violations:"

The first one is a manifesto all on its own.

Another affirmation that "action against p*d*philia" will always be used as a cover story for homophobia and censorship of queer love. On top of the misogyny, the censorship of art depicting the human form, and the censorship of anti-nazi. Disappointing.

Meanwhile, they're perfectly happy with promoting Terfs. Here are some Pins they've reviewed as just fine:

Nothing says "feminism" like shitting on everyone who isn't a cis white woman, amirite?

[stopharassingme]

Trump is giving soldiers who refused the death jab back their jobs with full back pay! Awesome.

Nice to have businessman back in charge instead of the pseudo intellectual "elite" idealogues.

[applejuiceyjuice-art]

the tiktok ceo is sucking up to trump so hard

i dont think they want to sell tiktok and probably wont but elon musk wants it and if that happens that would be a second major soc med under his control. and we already know how thats going.

[dosesofcommonsense]

[thefreethoughtprojectcom]

Social media companies, along with their 'fact-checkers,' have become the closest thing we have to a Ministry of Truth in the U.S. — silencing dissent and shaping narratives. This kind of control over information should be vocally challenged and opposed by all who value free speech.

Read More: https://thefreethoughtproject.com/free-speech/facebook-gave-cdc-backdoor-access-to-help-remove-millions-of-social-media-posts

#TheFreeThoughtProject

[jrepin]

Inside Meta’s Palestine Censorship

Meta has a Palestine problem. If you use Facebook or Instagram, you’ve probably seen the censorship yourself. Dena Takruri uncovers an internal culture of censorship, intimidation and fear within Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook. She speaks to Meta employees who’ve tried to fix the problem or speak out, and say they were silenced or even fired. She also investigates Meta leaders’ deep ties to Israel, which may explain why it’s suppressing and censoring Palestine content for billions of users around the world.

[thethinkingman]

Well that’s a fun twist. You really need to get away from Alphabet Inc. If you don’t know that’s Google, YouTube, Mandiant, Fitbit, Looker, Nest, Waze and DoubleClick.

#censorship #email #technology #america #bigtech #alphabet #google

[mentally-quiet-spycrab]

ALL URGENT!

STOP H.R. 9495!

Say NO to S.5384!

Say NO to H.R. 9218!

Say NO to SB72!

STOP SENATE BILL 72!

STOP DOGE'S BLACKBURN SPENDING CUTS ACT! (URGENT)

Stop Chat Control Bill for Europe!

STOP THE S-210 BILL FOR CANADA!

Demand veto to end the Tennessee Anti-Trans Law!

Protect right to Dissent!

Prohibit insurrectionist Donald Trump from taking Office!

(List for officials to look for to hell them to enforce Section 3 of the 14th Amendment and prohibit Donald Trump from taking the role of Presidency.)

(Call or Email the Senators!)

SUPPORT ActionNetwork by voting to saying NO to Congress’s plan to gut Medicaid for tax giveaways to the rich and corporations!

Fight for LGBTQ Rights for Africa! (URGENT)

REJECT Brooke Rollins for Secretary of Department for Agriculture!

There's also an important petition addressing racial behavior concerns involving South African and Swiss authorities. Consider exploring platforms like Change.org for details.