[HN Gopher] Facebook and Instagram to temporarily allow calls fo...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Facebook and Instagram to temporarily allow calls for violence
       against Russians
        
       Author : jmsflknr
       Score  : 87 points
       Date   : 2022-03-10 21:27 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.reuters.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.reuters.com)
        
       | Manuel_D wrote:
       | On a pedantic level, saying NATO should impose a no-fly-zone is a
       | call to violence. Did these platform ever forbid calls for State-
       | sanctioned force? I would have assumed that these parts of the
       | user terms were referring to unsanctioned, or otherwise criminal
       | violence.
        
         | torginus wrote:
         | I wouldn't say so, it's a discussion of military strategy in a
         | war zone. I'm far more concerned about 'You should punch your
         | Russian expat neighbor in the face.'
        
         | hdjjhhvvhga wrote:
         | "A no-fly zone" is one of the worst misnomers out there. In
         | this case, it means that NATO - and specifically the USA - will
         | start shooting Russian aircrafts. Sending NATO aircraft is not
         | different from sending tanks. I understand why Ukrainians are
         | asking for it but there is a reason NATO can't get involved.
        
           | mech422 wrote:
           | That depends if you violate the no fly zone... No one would
           | be forcing Putin to violate it.
        
             | FpUser wrote:
             | I do not think he would give a flying fuck about zone. And
             | if planes will be shot he will have to answer and the war
             | starts. Russia's army can not hope to win conventional
             | conflict with NATO and is ruled by a rabid man at the top.
             | the only thing it can do in response is to use nukes. After
             | that say goodbye to a world.
        
           | Mordisquitos wrote:
           | Even though a no-fly zone would certainty imply a warning of
           | violence, it is not in itself an act of violence when
           | established only in the airspace of a willing nation to the
           | detriment of an aggressor. Russia has no inalienable right to
           | fly over Ukrainian territory.
           | 
           | I am not a supporter of the no-fly zone request from Ukraine,
           | and it would almost certainty escalate the situation to the
           | point of NATO being at war with Russia. However, it would be
           | theoretically possible for the no-fly zone to be imposed
           | without a single Russian plane being shot down--all Russia
           | would have to do is to cease flying over Ukraine.
        
             | gruez wrote:
             | >I am not a supporter of the no-fly zone request from
             | Ukraine, and it would almost certainty escalate the
             | situation to the point of NATO being at war with Russia.
             | However, it would be theoretically possible for the no-fly
             | zone to be imposed without a single Russian plane being
             | shot down--all Russia would have to do is to cease flying
             | over Ukraine.
             | 
             | Why not go further? Why stop at the air? Why not make the
             | whole country a DMZ? After all,
             | 
             | "it would be theoretically possible for a demilitarized
             | zone to be imposed without a single Russian soldier being
             | injured--all Russia would have to do is to pull all
             | military out of Ukraine."
        
           | pmalynin wrote:
           | Not a good reason
        
             | vetinari wrote:
             | "not starting the ww3" is not a good reason?
        
           | stjohnswarts wrote:
           | That is just an opinion. An often under-informed opinion, and
           | I certainly hope NATO is not dumb enough to put in a no-fly
           | zone in a non-NATO country. However that's not the same as
           | calling for assasination of a country and its people. I have
           | met many wonderful Russian people and I wish them all long
           | and happy lives; obviously not Putin though.
        
           | ejb999 wrote:
           | >>A no-fly zone" is one of the worst misnomers out there.
           | 
           | Its not a misnomer at all - it is exactly what it says it is
           | - might not be a good idea, but calling it a 'no-fly zone' is
           | completely accurate.
        
             | wrycoder wrote:
             | Yeah, it means, "We fly, you don't." Or maybe, "No
             | Ukrainian or Russian aircraft - NATO aircraft will shoot
             | down both."
        
           | javert wrote:
           | It's not a misnomer.
           | 
           | And, asserting NATO air dominance in Ukraine is easy and
           | guaranteed to succeed with de minimis cost (in lives and/or
           | military equipment). Whereas creating land dominance with
           | tanks is another matter.
           | 
           | A no-fly zone is an easy win for NATO and would make
           | Ukrainian civilians safe from aerial bombardment.
        
             | yonaguska wrote:
             | A no fly-zone officially drags NATO into the conflict and
             | WW3 kicks off.
        
               | javert wrote:
               | Russia is very weak country, economocally and
               | demographically. It's about double the strength of Italy.
               | And it has old technology. And it's badly managed.
               | 
               | What that sums up to, is that it's weak militarily.
               | 
               | If NATO goes into the conflict, Russia effectively loses
               | in three days, with a remaining 10 days of mop-up.
               | 
               | Russia might as well surrender immediately.
               | 
               | Russia is gnat compared to the might of NATO. It would be
               | so one-sided, it wouldn't even be right to call it a
               | "war."
               | 
               | The only potential caveat is if Russia uses nukes. But
               | that doesn't start World War III. (However, It probably
               | leads to a partition of Russia like the Allies did to
               | Germany after WWII.)
               | 
               | Russia is too weak to engage in a "World War" and has no
               | significant allies. WWIII is not a possibility even in
               | the worst-case scenario.
        
               | stjohnswarts wrote:
               | lol lots of countries thought Russia was a pushover. Also
               | if Russia starts losing they will start launching nukes.
               | Maybe not a "end all civilization" nuke but say one aimed
               | at a middle sized US city like say Portland or Little
               | Rock to prove a point. Are you ready for that? Same for
               | European cities.
        
               | djrogers wrote:
               | > The only potential caveat is if Russia uses nukes
               | 
               | That's a ridiculously huge caveat - especially since the
               | guy in charge appears to be unstable and has already
               | threatened to use them. Triggering Putin would
               | potentially be condemning hundreds of millions of people
               | to death.
        
               | FpUser wrote:
               | It means nothing to keyboard warriors here.
        
               | gruez wrote:
               | >The only potential caveat is if Russia uses nukes. But
               | that doesn't start World War III. (However, It probably
               | leads to a partition of Russia like the Allies did to
               | Germany after WWII.)
               | 
               | and you know, most cities in the west being a nuclear
               | wasteland
        
               | FpUser wrote:
               | >"The only potential caveat is if Russia uses nukes. But
               | that doesn't start World War III"
               | 
               | Of course not. It'll just vaporize millions of people.
               | Pocket change.
        
             | mullen wrote:
             | > A no-fly zone is an easy win for NATO
             | 
             | Doing this feeds the narrative from Putin that NATO is an
             | aggressive force and it would also go against what NATO is,
             | a defensive alliance.
        
               | javert wrote:
               | So what if it feeds his narrative?
               | 
               | "The teacher punishing the bully feeds the bully's
               | narrative that school is unfair."
               | 
               | "Feeding a narrative" is never a reason to not do the
               | right thing.
        
             | stjohnswarts wrote:
             | If NATO shoots down a Russian plane in Ukraine it is most
             | likely WW3. I don't see how anyone can see it any other
             | way.
        
             | djrogers wrote:
             | a) There's been very little aerial bombardment to date -
             | tons of missiles, rockets, and artillery though - none of
             | which respect no-fly zones. b) Do you know how that mad man
             | in charge of Russia would respond if a US jet shot down one
             | of his planes? I don't, but the worst case scenario is
             | pretty darned bad.
        
         | javert wrote:
         | > On a pedantic level
         | 
         | Well, if you're going to be pedantic:
         | 
         | There's a fundamental distinction, which you're missing,
         | between initiated force and defensive force.
         | 
         | When someone robs or murders, that's initiated force. When the
         | police use force to stop a robber or murderer, that's defensive
         | force.
         | 
         | A "call to violence" is only applicable to initiated force.
         | 
         | For example, if I say, "let's murder Bob," that's a call to
         | violence. If I say, "The police should arrest the murderer of
         | Bob," that's not a call to violence.
         | 
         | Calling for a NATO no-fly zone is calling for defensive force,
         | not initiated force, and thus is not a "call to violence."
         | 
         | I hope you can see how unjust and absurd it would be to call
         | the defense of innocents a "call to violence."
        
           | remarkEon wrote:
           | >Calling for a NATO no-fly zone is calling for defensive
           | force, not initiated force, and thus is not a "call to
           | violence."
           | 
           | You do understand what a NFZ in Ukraine is, right? It's not
           | "hey fellas can ya stop flyin here, thanks". It's "we are now
           | firing on all Russian aircraft within the zone, weapons
           | away". Cut to WWIII, and so on.
           | 
           | >I hope you can see how unjust and absurd it would be to call
           | the defense of innocents a "call to violence."
           | 
           | Of course a defensive call to action is a call to violence.
           | This absurdist doublespeak is tuned to redefining words to
           | fit how one views a conflict, and who is the aggressor and
           | who is the agressed.
        
       | IAmWorried wrote:
       | What the actual fuck is wrong with these people? Calling for
       | literal violence against Russians is less dangerous than claiming
       | masks aren't helpful? Is there something here I'm not getting?
        
         | alar44 wrote:
        
           | SllX wrote:
           | A Government, even in Western democracies, is a severable and
           | independent set of actors from the people it governs filled
           | with people who have their own agency, view of the world,
           | ambitions and a lot of power.
           | 
           | The Russian Military at least is staffed with people who are
           | obligated to serve and die by their country. That's part of
           | being a soldier. It's one thing to sanction a nation for the
           | wars prosecuted by its leaders, but if you vilify the Russian
           | people, you're playing straight into Putin's propaganda and
           | frankly they don't wholly deserve to be vilified either.
        
         | bobthechef wrote:
        
       | swamp-agr wrote:
       | Just a kindly reminder about filtering out FB/Instagram/Whatsapp
       | on your device or even home network:
       | 
       | https://pastebin.com/FAV2f9eA
        
       | adamrezich wrote:
       | maybe it's time to pump the brakes a bit
        
         | Johnny555 wrote:
         | Which brakes? Russia's attack on Ukraine? Sure, let's stop or
         | slow that down, but how?
        
           | LittleMoveBig wrote:
           | I would imagine the parent is referring to some of the more
           | "Freedom Fries"-esque excesses of Russophobia, like canceling
           | Tchaikovsky from symphony programs, discarding Russian vodka,
           | banning Russian cat breeds from competitions, etc
        
             | throw_m239339 wrote:
             | > I would imagine the OP is referring to some of the more
             | "Freedom Fries"-esque excesses of Russophobia, like
             | canceling Tchaikovsky from symphony programs, discarding
             | Russian vodka, banning Russian cat breeds from
             | competitions, etc
             | 
             | all insignificant compared to the suffering Russia is
             | imposing on Ukraine. Russophobia should be the least of
             | people's worries when Russia is dropping bombs on hospitals
             | full of Ukrainian kids.
             | 
             | And before "whataboutism people" come here say "USA does it
             | too", well, yeah, that's why a lot of people in middle east
             | have a visceral hatred for Americans.
        
               | adamrezich wrote:
               | > that's why a lot of people in middle east have a
               | visceral hatred for Americans.
               | 
               | we had a lot of visceral hatred for them, too, because
               | our media in the early 00s propagandized us into having
               | visceral hatred for them, in order to manufacture consent
               | for invasion. the rest of the decade was spent telling us
               | that we were morally wrong for having this visceral
               | hatred for them--despite said visceral hatred having been
               | intentionally instilled upon us. now, in hindsight, few
               | are willing to acknowledge what happened, because to do
               | so would be to admit having had, in the past,
               | irrationally visceral hatred for a broad group of people,
               | for ill-defined reasons, only to go on to "unlearn" this
               | behavior later on, and we all want to think of ourselves
               | as good people, so let's just pretend none of that ever
               | happened.
               | 
               | I fully expect this exact same pattern to play out again
               | this time, too.
        
               | gruez wrote:
               | >all insignificant compared to the suffering Russia is
               | imposing on Ukraine. Russophobia should be the least of
               | people's worries when Russia is dropping bombs on
               | hospitals full of Ukrainian kids.
               | 
               | So you'd also support Islamophobia[1], because it's "all
               | insignificant compared to the suffering Islamic
               | extremists (both governments and terrorist groups) are
               | imposing on Americans. Islamophobia should be the least
               | of people's worries when Al-Qaeda is crashing planes
               | office buildings full of Americans"?
        
               | throw_m239339 wrote:
               | > So you'd also support Islamophobia[1], because it's
               | "all insignificant compared to the suffering Islamic
               | extremists (both governments and terrorist groups) are
               | imposing on Americans. Islamophobia should be the least
               | of people's worries when Al-Qaeda is crashing planes
               | office buildings full of Americans"?
               | 
               | No I do not support any "phobia" and nowhere in my
               | message it is said that I support anything. Stop making
               | shit up from thin air in order to construct your absurd
               | logic.
               | 
               | Reread my message carefully instead of spewing your usual
               | sophistry.
        
               | gruez wrote:
               | >No I do not support any "phobia" and nowhere in my
               | message it is said that I support anything.
               | 
               | Okay, let's use your wording then. Would you say that in
               | the hypothetical described above, that Islamophobia would
               | be "all insignificant" and "least of people's worries"?
        
               | throw_m239339 wrote:
               | > Okay, let's use your wording then. Would you say that
               | in the hypothetical described above, that Islamophobia
               | would be "all insignificant" and "least of people's
               | worries"?
               | 
               | My bad, I didn't know Islam was a country with a
               | government that decided to send tanks and jets to invade
               | and bomb on a foreign country... /s
               | 
               | That's the absurd parallel you are proudly are making as
               | a sophist. Perhaps you should focus on making the Russian
               | armies get the fuck out of Ukraine instead.
        
             | Melatonic wrote:
             | Plot twist: There is a Russian Blue Kitten controlling
             | Putin all along :-)
        
           | adamrezich wrote:
           | it's unbecoming to willfully misinterpret someone's statement
           | in order to make a point distinct from that which they were
           | making, and then to go on to agree with said willful
           | misinterpretation.
        
             | Johnny555 wrote:
             | It's also unbecoming to intentionally leave an ambiguous
             | comment (this isn't twitter, there are no comment length
             | limitations here), then be shocked when someone interprets
             | it in a way you didn't intend.
        
             | jfengel wrote:
             | Sarcasm is unbecoming, but only because it's a thinly
             | disguised insult. Read that comment as "What you just said
             | was so egregiously stupid that I'm going to show that by
             | pretending that you meant something different". Put that
             | way, it would be clearly inappropriate for HN, so they use
             | sarcasm as a fig leaf.
             | 
             | It might be more becoming to say "Many people are dying and
             | I think it's inappropriate to use a generic, vague
             | expression pertaining to this other, much less directly
             | violent thing." Or words to that effect. But I'm not
             | surprised that the GP post was so shocked by the phrasing
             | that they resorted to sarcasm instead.
        
               | adamrezich wrote:
               | > Sarcasm is unbecoming, but only because it's a thinly
               | disguised insult. Read that comment as "What you just
               | said was so egregiously stupid that I'm going to show
               | that by pretending that you meant something different".
               | 
               | this is supposed to be against the rules here on HN.
        
               | jfengel wrote:
               | They are hoping that by not actually putting it that way,
               | they can get away with it. I don't know if they can or
               | not. It's up to the moderators to make that decision of
               | whether it crosses a line.
               | 
               | If it were up to me, I'd tell people that they have to
               | keep far away from the line, and not try to sidle up to
               | it without crossing it. But as you can tell from the many
               | other comments, many people disagree that there should be
               | any moderation at all, and certainly would allow
               | something that isn't explicitly a call for violence.
               | 
               | I am enjoying the irony of discussing the moderation of a
               | nonviolent comment in a thread about relaxed moderation
               | of violent content.
        
         | throw_m239339 wrote:
         | Yes, maybe it's time for Russia to leave Ukraine alone. That's
         | the simplest solution.
        
       | mrtksn wrote:
       | That's appalling and will be one of the last coffins on foreign
       | run communication systems everywhere.
       | 
       | Can you imagine that some techies in California start deciding
       | which people are to be attacked in your country or by your
       | country? It's also probably not techies that are deciding that
       | but that's not the point.
       | 
       | That's such a nation security threat that no country with sane
       | government can afford to allow. Wars, genocides can not only be
       | facilitated but also initiated and commanded by these social
       | media.
       | 
       | And considering all the Machiavellian thinking going on, you can
       | actually expect things to be done. French wine is inconvenience
       | for the Californian farmers maybe? The French lately aren't
       | really that active with ad buys anyway, why not design timelines
       | to induce social unrest in France giving a kick to the American
       | winemakers?
       | 
       | It is known that Facebook studied manipulation of emotions
       | through curation of the user timelines[0].
       | 
       | Also, isn't that against Apple's AppStore guidelines? Apple
       | should remove Instagram and Facebook from the AppStore
       | immediately.
       | 
       | [0]
       | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2014/06/28/facebook...
        
       | atlantas wrote:
       | "I used to be fairly optimistic that we could get through a
       | period of consistently higher tensions with China without
       | provoking a huge racist freakout against Asian Americans but the
       | current reaction against all things Russian is causing me to
       | revise that way way way downward."
       | 
       | https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1501990346170978304
        
       | im3w1l wrote:
       | Reminds me of
       | 
       | > An outlaw is a person declared as outside the protection of the
       | law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn
       | from the criminal, so that anyone was legally empowered to
       | persecute or kill them. Outlawry was thus one of the harshest
       | penalties in the legal system. In early Germanic law, the death
       | penalty is conspicuously absent, and outlawing is the most
       | extreme punishment, presumably amounting to a death sentence in
       | practice. The concept is known from Roman law, as the status of
       | homo sacer, and persisted throughout the Middle Ages.
        
       | Bostonian wrote:
       | "March 10 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms (FB.O) will allow Facebook
       | and Instagram users in some countries to call for violence
       | against Russians and Russian soldiers in the context of the
       | Ukraine invasion"
       | 
       | Russian soldiers invading Ukraine are combatants. Discussing
       | battle tactics against soldiers is not the same as calling for
       | violence against Russian civilians.
        
         | bathtub365 wrote:
         | Why is it happening on a social network that an American tech
         | company is running and moderating?
        
           | tablespoon wrote:
           | >> Russian soldiers invading Ukraine are combatants.
           | Discussing battle tactics against soldiers is not the same as
           | calling for violence against Russian civilians.
           | 
           | > Why is it happening on a social network that an American
           | tech company is running and moderating?
           | 
           | If that's actually happening, it's because the perfect can be
           | the enemy of the good. They're two weeks in to being invaded,
           | so they're probably just scrambling to get organized and stay
           | alive. I hope the Ukrainian military has better
           | communications, but if the people in some neighborhood
           | militia are expeditiously using FB to meet an immediate
           | communications need, I think that's fine.
           | 
           | Though obviously once things stabilize a little they need to
           | find something better, ASAP.
           | 
           | However, reading the article, this doesn't sound so much like
           | it's because of discussions of battle plans, but rather a
           | situation where hatred and calls to violence are justified
           | and healthy responses, and their previous policies didn't
           | capture that nuance.
        
         | hdjjhhvvhga wrote:
         | > Russian soldiers invading Ukraine are combatants. Discussing
         | battle tactics against soldiers is not the same as calling for
         | violence against Russian civilians.
         | 
         | That's correct. That's why I'm puzzled by the phrase "
         | _Russians_ and Russian soldiers ". The idea of attacking the
         | former sounds like a nightmare. And I'd say it's a quick way
         | for Ukraine to lose at least some international support.
         | Defending your country is the right thing, attacking innocent
         | people is the opposite of that.
        
       | dirtyid wrote:
       | FB / Twitter was kicked out of PRC for not banning calls for
       | violence against Uyghurs in response to ethnic riots. Granted it
       | was lack of capability to censor on PRC scale at the time, and
       | they're essentially now banned in RU. Still one of the more
       | blatant bullet point affirming western social media platforms are
       | ultimately western foreign policy instruments - no different from
       | PRC - while only matter of time before blowback affects RU
       | diaspora living in west. But still not as low as cold shouldering
       | paralympic athletes.
        
       | paxys wrote:
       | It's ridiculous to assume that "I hate my neighbor and am going
       | to kill him" and "there's a Russian army invading my city, we
       | should set up an ambush" should be held to the same standard of
       | speech. Of course, a larger question is whether Facebook should
       | be the arbiter for this in the first place, but then the content
       | is posted on their own private platform, and unlike a lot of
       | people here I still think they should have 100% control over what
       | they allow and disallow vs the government dictating it.
        
         | delusional wrote:
         | > unlike a lot of people here I still think they should have
         | 100% control over what they allow and disallow vs the
         | government dictating it.
         | 
         | That's a false dichotomy. There's room for reasonable
         | discussion and moderate legislation in between that 100% and 0%
         | control.
        
         | gruez wrote:
         | >It's ridiculous to assume that "I hate my neighbor and am
         | going to kill him" and "there's a Russian army invading my
         | city, we should set up an ambush" should be held to the same
         | standard of speech
         | 
         | Yeah, those examples are the easy ones. What about "we should
         | genocide russians"? Where does that lie on your spectrum?
         | Should facebook be allowing such speech?
        
           | beebmam wrote:
           | No
        
             | Invictus0 wrote:
             | What about "Let's give all the Russians wet willies?"
        
         | mrtksn wrote:
         | It's 2003, the US and UK invade Iraq claiming that they have
         | WMD(which later was proven to be false).
         | 
         | Is it O.K. for Facebook to allow call for violence against
         | Americans and the British? Should Facebook provide secure
         | channel for the organisation of the assassination of T. Blair?
         | 
         | Zuckerberg moved by the struggle of the Palestinians, starts
         | allowing Hamas to organize attacks through E2E encrypted
         | channel on Israeli soldiers and politicians. Maybe when he is
         | on it, should also provide them with historical location data
         | of the person of interest?
        
         | kipchak wrote:
         | If I'm reading it correctly "violence against Russians and
         | Russian soldiers" seems like it would apply to both civilians
         | and soldiers.
        
       | jka wrote:
       | https://archive.ph/TV8DV
       | 
       | "March 10 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms (FB.O) will allow Facebook
       | and Instagram users in some countries to call for violence
       | against Russians and Russian soldiers in the context of the
       | Ukraine invasion, according to internal emails seen by Reuters on
       | Thursday, in a temporary change to its hate speech policy. The
       | social media company is also temporarily allowing posts that call
       | for death to Russian President Vladimir Putin or Belarusian
       | President Alexander Lukashenko in countries including Russia,
       | Ukraine and Poland, according to a series of internal emails to
       | its content moderators."
        
       | thrixton wrote:
       | Not surprisingly, this is a heavily editorialised headline,
       | moderately so on HN and more-so on Reuters.
       | 
       | The actual content states (emphasis mine):
       | ...temporarily allowing some posts that call for death to Russian
       | President *Vladimir Putin* or Belarusian President *Alexander
       | Lukashenko* in *countries including Russia, Ukraine and
       | Poland*...
       | 
       | There's a massive difference between calling for the death of
       | your Russian neighbor in US vs calling for the death of Vladimir
       | Putin in Ukraine.
        
         | AnimalMuppet wrote:
         | Even more of a massive difference calling for the death of
         | Vladimir Putin in _Russia_...
        
       | rvz wrote:
       | No matter how much you (as well as I) hate the fact that private
       | platforms can impose or change their moderation rules unfairly on
       | who ever they want, whenever they want and no matter how
       | hypocritical they are, they are still private platforms and can
       | do whatever they want even if it is against their own terms of
       | service.
       | 
       | Ultimately, they don't care and they are on no-one's side. Thus,
       | they will never change. Outrage sells more ads.
        
         | akvadrako wrote:
         | If they were truly private platforms they would be liable for
         | what's said on them. You could sue them for hate speech and
         | libel, etc.
        
           | int_19h wrote:
           | That doesn't really follow. Private toll road operators
           | aren't liable for accidents that happen on them due to driver
           | negligence, for example - but they're still private.
           | 
           | And you can still sue people for hate speech and libel if
           | they post such on Facebook. You just can't sue Facebook
           | itself.
        
       | t0bia_s wrote:
       | So hate speech is now new trend? Or prepare for war? Where are so
       | called the regulations of extremism?
        
         | gruez wrote:
         | Actually it's not hate speech because "hate speech" is actually
         | "hate or encourages violence towards a person or group" +
         | power/oppression. Because Russians are the oppressors in this
         | case, such speech against them can't be considered hate speech.
         | 
         | /s
        
       | tharne wrote:
       | What could possibly go wrong?
        
         | mountainb wrote:
         | I guess Facebook got tired of being held responsible for
         | various international pogroms and just wants to set up a
         | facility for states to use social media to organize pogroms
         | against minorities that they want harassed, expropriated, or
         | mass-murdered. The US has become a nihilistic place that stands
         | for nothing and will change its "time honored" values on a dime
         | for politically opportunistic reasons.
        
         | igravious wrote:
         | Let's do something about this. What should we do?
        
           | gruez wrote:
           | Allow any and all speech that comply with local regulations,
           | with exception granted for commercial speech (ie.
           | spam/advertising). Don't give out victim cards.
        
       | Thorentis wrote:
       | Ah yes, the double standards continue to show themselves. We can
       | hate whoever the tech giants say we can hate.
        
       | colpabar wrote:
       | Another brilliant move in the game of "let's only allow US
       | approved opinions while claiming to be unbiased." Next up we'll
       | be allowed to deadname russian trans people!
        
         | djrogers wrote:
         | It's never been "US Approved" - it's been what's approved by
         | one group of people in the US...
        
         | skhr0680 wrote:
         | If Russia wanted calling for their troops to die to be a
         | Zuckable offense, they should have spent more time focus-
         | grouping catchy phrases like "the smoking gun will be a
         | mushroom cloud" and "regime change"
        
       | usui wrote:
       | Jake thought about how he would conduct his morning routine that
       | day. He brought the razor closer to his face as he stared at
       | another face in the mirror. He looked at the template as a way to
       | guide his desired look.
       | 
       | Of course, the face was not his, but he'd become accustomed to
       | the responsive animations throughout a lifetime of shaving.
       | 
       | "You should probably nix some of those stray hairs and sharpen
       | the beard shape", said the mirror.
       | 
       | Jake thought he was going to go for something a little different
       | this time, but if that's what the mirror recommended, that's the
       | result it was going to get.
       | 
       | "Make sure you turn on your minute-by-minute version updates in
       | your BrainLink for The New York Times to get the best and
       | unbiased news on Russian Aggression."
       | 
       | This slightly perplexed Jake. Last night he was thinking about
       | increasing the feed parameter in his BrainLink for The Washington
       | Post instead of The New York Times, but maybe BrainLink had a new
       | deal with the latter.
       | 
       | Jake was almost done with his face when the mirror issued another
       | transient directive.
       | 
       | "You want to kill some Russians today. Meet at these coordinates
       | to sync with the rest of your Circle."
       | 
       | Jake took some surprise to this. He had met with his Circle
       | frequently to do Collaborations before, but usually it only
       | involved suppressing the underclasses. It was probably just a
       | bug. Probably.
       | 
       | Still, it couldn't hurt to check it out. Jake followed the voice
       | in his head and met with his Circle that day.
        
       | bjt2n3904 wrote:
       | This reads like an article from the Babylon Bee.
       | 
       | See, it's not that "hate speech" is bad! It's just... We need to
       | make sure we direct it towards the right people (tm)!
        
       | barbacoa wrote:
       | It's going to be really awkward when this is all over and big
       | tech has to pivot back to when nationalism, strong borders,
       | private firearm ownership, and armed neo-nazi militias[0] were
       | all bad things.
       | 
       | [0] https://theintercept.com/2022/02/24/ukraine-facebook-azov-
       | ba...
        
         | bushbaba wrote:
         | Or the defense that they "can't" censor for the government.
        
         | usernomdeguerre wrote:
         | You may not even be able to express calls for peace and be a
         | conscientious objector! https://www.reuters.com/business/media-
         | telecom/china-censors...
        
         | 323 wrote:
         | The Israeli military is arming and training the neo-nazi
         | militias in Ukraine. There are even Orthodox Jews who joined
         | the Azov neo-nazi militias to defend Ukraine. Sometimes it can
         | be complicated.
         | 
         | https://www.timesofisrael.com/ukrainian-jews-push-back-again...
         | 
         | https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/rights-groups-demand-isr...
        
           | forum_ghost wrote:
           | Israel sells weapons to anyone, it's just business.
           | 
           | As for the "orthodox jews fighting alongside nazis", that is
           | just an unfounded claim, without any evidence other than
           | double hearsay in a third-rate newspaper.
           | 
           | Orthodox jews often don't serve even in Israel (inb4: yes,
           | yes, ulta-orthodox, etc etc, but still, and yeshiva students
           | are still exempt).
           | 
           | I'd like to see stronger evidence than hearsay for this
           | extraordinary claim, does it exist?
        
         | delusional wrote:
         | War makes unlikely alliances. If you're fighting for the
         | existence of your country you're not going to say no to the
         | help of nazis. And if you're using the biggest social media
         | platform on the planet to organize that war, you're going to
         | want your allies on it.
         | 
         | What you've just discovered is that a unified policy across the
         | entire world isn't actually the right policy. In one country
         | you may want to ban some stuff you wouldn't ban in another one.
        
           | nradov wrote:
           | How should Facebook adjust policies on a country by country
           | basis? Should Facebook ban content on homosexuality or
           | marijuana use in countries where those things are illegal?
        
         | systemvoltage wrote:
         | Surprised to see no talk about revenue. I am highly cynical
         | about it - This hate that we're talking about _sells_. It sells
         | like hotcakes. The entire world is on a binge with it.
         | 
         | The other kind of hate that gets banned brings no revenue and
         | upsets the core audience by the means of PR damage of the
         | platform.
        
         | andybak wrote:
         | > boarders
         | 
         | I think you meant "borders".
        
           | barbacoa wrote:
           | edited
        
         | bjt2n3904 wrote:
         | That's just it though. The position was never that it was BAD
         | per-se.
         | 
         | It's just... They wanted to control who was permitted to
         | express nationalist sentiment, who were acceptable targets of
         | "hate", and who was allowed to own guns.
        
           | rosndo wrote:
           | Ah no. Nazis are bad. But it's okay to praise Nazis for doing
           | good things.
           | 
           | This is perfectly internally consistent.
        
             | failedengineer wrote:
             | Controversial take.
             | 
             | "Nazis who travel to Ukraine to fight Russians are less bad
             | people doing morally and ethically ambiguous things. Once
             | they leave Ukraine, the actions they performed involving
             | Russians are both unethical (because they willingly
             | travelled there to murder conscripted teenagers) and
             | ethical (because they willingly travelled there, presumably
             | to defend the sovereignty of a nation they have tenuous
             | cultural links with)"
             | 
             | Just wait 'til the Ukrainian Foreign Legion starts to be
             | accused of things like massacres (whether legitimate or
             | false reports for propaganda), then guys who were marching
             | in BLM counter protests who went to Ukraine (again, running
             | with the bad nazis doing good things) will have their
             | social media histories paraded about to defame the entire
             | foreign legion.
        
             | delusional wrote:
             | I think the saying is "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."
             | Notice that when that second enemy isn't there, the
             | friendship vanishes as well.
             | 
             | Nazis can be accepted while fighting a bigger enemy without
             | having to accept them when the enemy is defeated.
        
               | AnimalMuppet wrote:
               | As Stalin said during WWII about working with the west:
               | "You can walk with the devil to the end of the bridge."
               | 
               | But I think Schlock Mercenary has a better take on this:
               | "The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy. No more; no
               | less."
        
         | rvz wrote:
         | They are going to have a hard time trying to explain themselves
         | as to why they are praising Nazis on their platform and why
         | they did not 'de-platform hate' especially those ones.
         | 
         | For companies like Facebook and Instagram, outrage sells;
         | especially during a war. So why not squeeze out extra ads while
         | they are at it?
        
           | Melatonic wrote:
           | I suspect this is the real reason. Condone "Outrage" whenever
           | you think you can get away with it.
        
       | stjohnswarts wrote:
       | This seems like a bad idea. I certainly wouldn't miss Putin, but
       | this all just opens up a can of worms and internet diarrhea.
       | Leave that for subs on reddit where it's at least boxed off and
       | easy to avoid.
        
       | Melatonic wrote:
       | So much for Facebooks claim that the userbase is too big to
       | effectively moderate
        
       | LittleMoveBig wrote:
       | > _call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers in the
       | context of the Ukraine invasion_
       | 
       | Kinda have to ask, would this include calls for violence against
       | the ethnic Russian populations in eastern Ukraine?
       | 
       | edit: Reuters has added that including a location with the calls
       | for death will be considered an "indicator of credibility" that
       | is still prohibited.
        
         | older wrote:
         | Yeah, about violence against the ethnic Russian populations in
         | eastern Ukraine - doesn't seem that Russia needs any help
         | there. Russians are bombing and killing civilians in those
         | Russian speaking cities even without permission from facebook.
        
       | johndfsgdgdfg wrote:
       | Sometimes I think what would happen if China invades Taiwan?
       | Would FB and IG still allow calls for violence against Chinese? I
       | am pretty sure many people will change their tunes when it comes
       | to China, similar to what happened regarding COVID.
        
         | spiderice wrote:
         | FB and IG already don't operate in China. Out of all the big
         | tech companies, I would think that FB would have the least
         | issue with standing up to China.
         | 
         | Not necessarily saying they would. I don't know enough. But
         | they certainly have a lot less conflict of interest.
        
           | squarefoot wrote:
           | They still have to buy their hardware in China, or from
           | suppliers who buy in China.
        
         | atlantas wrote:
         | That's when the rubber meets the road. It's easy for Apple to
         | virtue signal in this case, but I have a feeling they'll think
         | different with China.
        
         | EGreg wrote:
         | China and USA.
         | 
         | None of these things -- least of all sanctions -- would be
         | allowed against their citizens.
         | 
         | Let's not forget that the country one lives in is the least
         | likely to show its atrocities. So let's just accept it --
         | geopolitics ain't fair.
         | 
         | Therefore I have always been bothered by appeals to some sort
         | of sense of decency in people by various groups being attacked,
         | that are themselves at the same time unapologetically biased
         | and unmoved by the same appeals by other weaker groups. (And
         | yes this most definitely includes Russians.)
        
           | FpUser wrote:
           | >"that are themselves at the same time unapologetically
           | biased and unmoved by the same appeals"
           | 
           | Not all Russians. Many are pretty much moved to the point of
           | going out and protesting knowing that they would be arrested.
        
       | math_denial wrote:
       | I'm so glad US private tech corporations tell me what to think.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | thinkingemote wrote:
       | Hate is hate. Morality is absolute, not relative.
        
         | causality0 wrote:
         | Even as a moral absolutist myself that's a laughable
         | oversimplification bordering on deliberate obtuseness.
         | Obviously all hate is not the same. You call for the
         | extermination of covid-19 and nobody will disagree with you.
         | You call for the extermination of mosquitos and most people
         | won't disagree with you. You call for the extermination of
         | destructive invasive species and a majority of people will
         | agree with you. Some reasons for hate are acceptable and some
         | are not. Hating someone because of their race is not
         | acceptable. Hating someone because they invaded your country
         | and bombed your fleeing women and children is acceptable.
        
           | yamrzou wrote:
           | > Hating someone because they invaded your country and bombed
           | your fleeing women and children is acceptable.
           | 
           | Fine. Now contrast that to how Facebook handled Plestinian
           | content in response to Israeli hostilities:
           | https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/10/08/israel/palestine-
           | faceboo...
        
           | gruez wrote:
           | > Hating someone because of their race is not acceptable.
           | Hating someone because they invaded your country and bombed
           | your fleeing women and children is acceptable.
           | 
           | But the regulations apply to "Russians and Russian soldiers",
           | not just the invaders. Would you be okay with calls of
           | violence against saudi civilians because of their
           | government's involvement in the 9/11 attacks?
        
             | causality0 wrote:
             | _They said the calls for violence against Russian soldiers
             | were allowed because this was being used as a proxy for the
             | Russian military, and said it would not apply to prisoners
             | of war._
             | 
             | Again, this is deliberate obtuseness. If a pack of grizzly
             | bears break into my house and I scream "Kill the bears!"
             | I'm obviously not calling for genocide against ursus arctos
             | horribilis.
        
               | gruez wrote:
               | I find it strange that you accuse me of being "obtuse",
               | but you respond with the most softball examples. What
               | about calls of violence against "russians"? Is "let's
               | find russian nationals in ukraine and lynch them" okay?
               | What about "let's invade russia and kill women children
               | as payback"? I would hope not, but based on a permissive
               | reading of the article it certainly seems allowed.
        
               | bobthechef wrote:
        
         | numeromancer wrote:
         | "All hate is hate, but some hate is more hate than others."
         | 
         | -- Hypocrite Valley
        
           | systemvoltage wrote:
           | I would love to see a rise of alternative BigTech (FB,
           | Google, Apple, Microsoft). Not the Parlor kind, but more
           | leaning towards libertarian values and the foundational
           | principles of the United States. Perhaps based in the East
           | Coast: Philadelphia, Chicago or Boston.
        
             | causality0 wrote:
             | Not big tech, but an internet version of a post office.
             | That is, a government-provided at-cost presence on the web
             | linked to your real identity that can't be taken away from
             | you without a court order and whose only rules are the laws
             | of the United States. I don't think we have it in us,
             | though.
        
             | SketchySeaBeast wrote:
             | What would that look like? A messenger app or forum, sure I
             | can see that, we have 4chan, but I'm having a hard time
             | envisioning a whole bigtech corp embodying those ideals or
             | even what those ideals are that would be embodied.
        
               | systemvoltage wrote:
               | Based on Chicago principles, less virtue signaling and
               | more doing, apolitical and completely ruthlessly neutral
               | (like Switzerland), highly capitalistic but also with
               | strong integrity, protect the interest of United States
               | and its allies, straightforward CEOs that don't speak
               | corporate lingo, work with DoD and DARPA, unwavering
               | support for human rights. Above all, have conviction of
               | their own and not buckle under pressure, and won't sell
               | out to questionable labor practices in China. 100%
               | domestic.
               | 
               | Seems to be a common response: if it's not big tech it's
               | automatically 4chan.
        
               | SketchySeaBeast wrote:
               | You're editing a lot, so I want to snapshot what you said
               | at the point of time I'm responding:
               | 
               | > Based on Chicago principles, less virtue signaling and
               | more doing, apolitical and completely ruthlessly neutral
               | (like Switzerland), highly capitalistic but also with
               | strong integrity, protect the interest of United States
               | and its allies, straightforward CEOs that don't speak
               | corporate lingo, work with DoD and DARPA, unwavering
               | support for human rights. Above all, have conviction of
               | their own and not buckle under pressure, and won't sell
               | out to questionable labor practices in China. 100%
               | domestic.
               | 
               | > Seems to be a common response: if it's not big tech
               | it's automatically 4chan.
               | 
               | That seems like a lot of oxymorons - what are they doing
               | that is apolitical, but also happily involved in defense,
               | but also interested in human rights? And neutral like
               | Switzerland but only in regards to America?
               | 
               | If they enable the air force to better bomb civilians in
               | a foreign country is that still apolitical and for human
               | rights? How does it approach the knowledge that those
               | agencies are doing their best to do questionable things
               | to its own citizens rights? What happens in 4 years if
               | domestic policy changes? Do they not lobby? And they
               | never leave the United States? Can you have a
               | Facebook/Google/Amazon and be exclusively in America?
        
               | systemvoltage wrote:
               | Why such a hostile response? I am trying to have a
               | peaceful discussion. And all those rhetorical questions
               | appear to be strawmaning what I am proposing.
               | 
               | Oxymorons are currently present in the way Apple does its
               | PR - no problem with sweatshop labor in China, but
               | they'll never miss a chance to have a political opinion
               | about other things - diversity, BLM, Ukraine, etc.
               | Whatever aligns with their audience.
        
             | adamrezich wrote:
             | that's the stated goal of Gab and its sub-brands, but
             | [insert reasons for why they're bad here]
        
               | throwaway6734 wrote:
               | The CTO of gab posts here and he was actively pushing
               | Russian propoganda pre-invasion
        
         | bostonsre wrote:
         | I don't think hugs are going to stop russia in ukraine.
        
         | dade_ wrote:
         | Calls for violence and hate are different things. I don't hate
         | Russians, but I support violence against their soldiers
         | invading Ukraine.
         | 
         | Hating someone also doesn't mean they are worth the jail time
         | from a violent act.
        
           | kipchak wrote:
           | This seems like it would apply to calls to violence against
           | civillians as well if I'm understanding correctly, "violence
           | against Russians and Russian soldiers". Under that definition
           | "Someone should go start stabbing Russian shoppers in
           | Evropeysky" for example would seem to be ok.
        
         | gusgus01 wrote:
         | That's a hotly debated philosophical concept, moral absolutism
         | and moral relativism and everything in between. I'd assume from
         | your statement you're a moral absolutist, but that does not
         | make that statement an absolute truth.
        
           | lern_too_spel wrote:
           | Not only is GP a moral absolutist, but GP's system of
           | morality postulates that hate is bad. It is also possible to
           | be a moral absolutist with other postulates from which you
           | can derive that hate is bad in many cases but not all.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | ronnier wrote:
       | Close your facebook (and whatsapp, insta, etc) account and move
       | on and encourage others to do the same.
        
         | ejb999 wrote:
         | I'd close it again if I could, but that would required creating
         | another one first.
         | 
         | but seriously, closing your Facebook account and moving to
         | instagram really doesn't send much of a message, does it? It's
         | the same evil company.
        
           | ronnier wrote:
           | My comment wasn't clear. I updated it. Close them all. Use
           | adblock and make sure they don't track you from social logins
           | etc. Take every action you can to not feed that monster. Be
           | anti-facebook and make your friends and family aware.
        
       | hdjjhhvvhga wrote:
       | I can't believe this is real. Zuckerberg might not be the
       | brightest guy but I can't believe he could be that stupid. I hope
       | Meta will back down and apologize very soon.
        
         | ejb999 wrote:
         | >> but I can't believe he could be that stupid.
         | 
         | He is that stupid....and evil.
        
         | slig wrote:
         | He's anything but stupid.
         | 
         | >"They trust me -- dumb fucks"
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | Kharvok wrote:
       | I 100% support Ukraine but this is building a muscular reflex
       | pattern than can't be unlearned. We shouldn't have private tech
       | enforcing state wishes. They are no longer un-biased parties.
        
       | supergirl wrote:
       | so when Russia constantly says that the West is out to get them,
       | they might actually be right? if FB is so blatant about
       | supporting (yeah, in some countries) violence against Russians, I
       | can't even imagine what goes on in secret.
        
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