Tech

Censorship: Facebook Flags Favorable Trump Article as Spam

Published

2 years ago

Aug 23, 2018

An article written by a mainstream press outlet was censored as “spam” by Facebook Wednesday night.

“So this is interesting…@facebook took down my post of my reporting for the @nypost — I’ve received nine separate messages from readers telling me the same thing has happened to them. ‘sup @facebook ?” said Salena Zito, author of the piece.

So this is interesting…@facebook took down my post of my reporting for the @nypost — I’ve received nine separate messages from readers telling me the same thing has happened to them. ‘sup @facebook ?https://t.co/dCwG9HQiJI

— SalenaZito (@SalenaZito) August 23, 2018

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The article published in the New York Post, which is politically right-of-center but mainstream, detailed how the white collar crimes of President Donald J. Trump associates Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort will not have an impact on support for the President.

Zito shared the following photo evidence of the censorship with The Daily Caller.

“We removed this post because it looks like spam and doesn’t follow our Community Standards,” said an automated message from Facebook.

The post was restored shortly after Facebook was contacted for comment on the situation. According to Zito, no explanation was provided for flagging the post in the first place.

“Update original post restored with no response to any of my questions,” Zito said on Twitter on Thursday morning.

Update original post restored with no response to any of my questions. https://t.co/47bHRblWUb

— SalenaZito (@SalenaZito) August 23, 2018

The embattled tech giant has been under scrutiny for censorship of conservatives for years, but the level of concern reached new heights when talk show host Alex Jones was banned from the platform recently. Jones was also banned from Apple, YouTube and Spotify.

Similarly, British free speech activist Tommy Robinson was banned from Instagram, and VICE Media co-founder Gavin McInnes was banned from Twitter.

Big League Politics contributor Laura Loomer was temporarily suspended from Facebook for publishing a video wherein she asked Sharia-Law compliant Congressional candidates simple questions about how they would serve certain constituencies given their religious disposition.

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Tech

Twitter Suspending Bloomberg Bots for Coordinated Fake Engagement

The Bloomberg campaign is taking a page from the strategy of supposed Russian bots.

Published

1 day ago

Feb 22, 2020

Richard Moorhead

Twitter began suspending more than 70 pro-Michael Bloomberg accounts from its platform on Friday, citing supposed inauthentic and coordinated behavior.

The platform was alerted to the suspicious behavior by the Los Angeles Times, and shortly after began suspending the accounts.

The reports of the Bloomberg bots are reminiscent of the claims of Russian bots waging influence campaigns in U.S elections. Both operations apparently involve scripted messaging, fake political engagement, and platform manipulation.

Evidence of identical messaging being spread by dubious pro-Bloomberg accounts was published by the Los Angeles Times in their report on the matter Friday.

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A statement from Twitter on the suspensions confirmed the Bloomberg shill accounts violated the platform’s rules by “creating multiple accounts to post duplicative content” and “coordinating with or compensating others to engage in artificial engagement or amplification, even if the people involved use only one account.”

The accounts avoid direct connections to the Bloomberg campaign, in an attempt to avoid being identified as coordinated shill accounts.

Bloomberg is paying a considerable cohort of “deputy field organizers” $2,500 a month to shill for the New York oligarch on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. The messaging strategy is relatively unprecedented in American politics, offering cash directly for a constant stream of political messaging on personal social media accounts.

The Bloomberg campaign claims that paid deputy field organizers are required to identify their affiliation with the campaign in a statement regarding the suspensions. As Bloomberg’s online social media strategy copies a page from the book of supposed malicious Russian bots, high-ranking U.S intelligence community personnel are claiming that the Russian bots are active once again in attempts to promote the campaigns of both Bernie Sanders and President Donald Trump.