[HN Gopher] Facebook is removing stories about pornographic ads
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       Facebook is removing stories about pornographic ads
        
       Author : consumer451
       Score  : 167 points
       Date   : 2025-01-08 18:55 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.404media.co)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.404media.co)
        
       | 23B1 wrote:
       | https://archive.is/kdPJB
        
         | kristopolous wrote:
         | Also, consider paying 404media the $100 for a year. It's just 4
         | people and I don't think they have many people actually paying.
         | They're doing really good work. I paid.
         | 
         | They also have a podcast - basically the top stories they
         | publish in a conversational format:
         | https://www.404media.co/the-404-media-podcast/
        
           | warkdarrior wrote:
           | $100/year is too much for an article on their complaints
           | about Facebook.
        
       | djyaz1200 wrote:
       | How meta
        
       | Tostino wrote:
       | Good ole 'free speech' capitalism for ya.
       | 
       | None of these people want free speech on their platforms. They
       | will still censor anything they actually want censored.
        
       | thinkingkong wrote:
       | Now immediately flagged off the front page.
        
         | freitasm wrote:
         | That's why following HN from a RSS feed is invaluable. You get
         | to see everything, even the things groupthink filters out.
        
           | kergonath wrote:
           | There's quite a lot of trash flagged for very good reasons,
           | though. I cannot keep up with the full feed.
        
             | sundaeofshock wrote:
             | I can usually power through the RSS feed pretty quickly. My
             | reader shows only titles, so I swipe on a lot of stuff that
             | doesn't seem relevant. I can then take my time with the
             | good stuff.
        
           | freedomben wrote:
           | Indeed. Some of the most interesting stories on HN never make
           | it past the initial filter. I've seen great posts slip by in
           | obscurity only to get hundreds of votes and hit the front
           | page weeks or months later. There's a lot indeterminism in
           | what makes it to the front page(s) and what doesn't.
        
           | PeterHolzwarth wrote:
           | Keep in mind this wonderful alternate HN front-send site -
           | it's pretty much taken over vs hitting HN's main page:
           | https://hckrnews.com/
           | 
           | This site displays the posted links in chronological order,
           | front, which means stuff that suddenly got booted off the
           | front page still shows up.
        
         | anotherhue wrote:
         | https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/21810-it-is-difficult-to-ge...
        
           | dang wrote:
           | Whose salary in this case?
        
             | anotherhue wrote:
             | I was cheekily implying that the well paid Facebook
             | developers flagged this article as it forces them to
             | confront the issue that their employer is generally a bad
             | actor, and their employment contributes to that.
             | 
             | Hardly a new take but I think this being flagged so quickly
             | is a concerning problem.
        
         | consumer451 wrote:
         | Sometimes things I post get flagged by users and I get it, fair
         | enough. This time I can only think of malicious reasons.
         | 
         | The only people who I can imagine flagging this post are Meta
         | PR, or users who are bringing their politics into a non-
         | political post. If anyone has any other reasonable
         | explanations, I would love to hear them.
         | 
         | Looks like the title was edited, original title: Facebook Is
         | Censoring 404 Media Stories About Facebook's Censorship
        
           | dang wrote:
           | I didn't see any such pattern in the data. It was flagged by
           | quite a few users, none of whom showed any obvious pattern
           | like affiliation with a company or a political slant.
           | 
           | We can only guess why users flag things. In this case, I
           | don't have a good guess, other than that the article title is
           | baity, so I replaced it with more neutral language from the
           | subtitle, and (partly) rolled back the flags.
           | 
           | The flaggers may be correct, in any case, because this thread
           | is noticeably terrible.
        
             | consumer451 wrote:
             | Thanks for looking into it.
             | 
             | And yeah, I thought that this topic would have garnered a
             | better discussion.
        
               | spencerflem wrote:
               | I'm surprised you'd think that - Facebook moderation
               | changes and the same tired back and forth about 'free
               | speech' have been some of the worst threads for me.
        
             | mixmax wrote:
             | my guess would be that it's because you have to sign up to
             | read the article.
        
               | consumer451 wrote:
               | That's actually a fair point. The good thing is that
               | archive.is works on their site now.
        
         | jorts wrote:
         | It's on the front page for me.
        
       | cynicalsecurity wrote:
       | I do agree that Facebook are assholes, but then I'm not sure I
       | want to support journalists who are bashing sex, pornography and
       | prostitution. There is nothing wrong with those things. We are
       | not living in the Medieval times any more, maybe it's finally
       | time to stop being puritans and stop believing that sex is
       | somehow fundamentally sinful or wrong. Those beliefs don't make
       | any sense and they look absolutely ridiculous.
       | 
       | I would totally support journalism targetted at exposing
       | hypocrisy and authoritarian practices of big tech.
       | 
       | It's finally time to liberate society and to stop demonise sex
       | and sex-related topics. Healthy views on sex would make the
       | society a better place, and sex ads on Facebook would stop
       | containing only scam.
        
         | theWreckluse wrote:
         | I'm not sure if your comment is targeted towards the article.
         | In any case, the article itself specifically says that it's not
         | against the sex, but against Meta's hypocrisy most likely
         | driven by ad revenue.
        
         | daseiner1 wrote:
         | Commoditization of sex is not equivalent to its liberation, and
         | in fact sex has been cheapened and corrupted, resulting in a
         | more poisonous vice than it's ever been.
         | 
         | Pornography is about as good for society as alcohol.
        
           | beepbopboopp wrote:
           | That sure reads like a personal opinion and not a fact. I
           | think the passion of your response is the problem pointed out
           | in the article as well as the general problem of freedom of
           | speech. Everyone thinks they know where the "obvious" line
           | is.
        
         | ajsnigrutin wrote:
         | I have instagram to watch meals my friends eat and places they
         | go, i don't need porn there.
         | 
         | If I want porn, i visit porhub.
         | 
         | You don't have to be a puritan to have those things separated,
         | especially if scrolling in public.
        
           | prophesi wrote:
           | Social media sites might be the easier option for some
           | people!
           | 
           | Map of porn restrictions in the US:
           | https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/sx8Ji/2/
        
         | maronato wrote:
         | > I would totally support journalism targetted at exposing
         | hypocrisy and authoritarian practices of big tech.
         | 
         | I'm not sure if you are referring to the original article, but
         | that's exactly what it's about.
        
         | amyames wrote:
         | I'm on social media to talk to my grandkids and former co
         | workers.
         | 
         | I don't want to see your hoo-ha on Meta while I'm eating my
         | pancakes.
        
           | Der_Einzige wrote:
           | Okay boomer
        
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       (page generated 2025-01-08 23:00 UTC)