Facebook Censoring

(please move to appropriate forum if this is in the wrong place)

Okay, I don't like Facebook. I don't trust Facebook. But I have decided to participate in it, to use their own energy against them. I have been trying to use Facebook to disseminate information that people need to know.

What I have found is that there are millions and millions of meaningless, useless, trivial bits of information people convey to each other every minute, and as far as that goes, I have never heard anyone complain about any censorship or disappearing information. This includes plenty of links, pictures, news articles, etc.

However,

If I post something that has the effect of upsetting the apple-cart, or disrupting the status quo, it seems almost inevitable that it will disappear down a black hole within a minute. This happens to me over and over again.

Now, I ask ATSers, is there a deliberate censorship campaign going on within facebook? It seems many topics are simply off-limits to being communicated over this social networking site.

I can understand that some people don't want to hear or see this kind of information, but then... it is unlikely they would be in my friends list anyway. So the argument can't be made that they're making Facebook safe or palatable. The people who could read what I have to say are the types that would usually want to.

So why are my posts always disappearing? (Usually within a few seconds)

Difficult to tell without examples. Your descriptions can be anything really. Without breaking ATS rules try to describe what kind of posts you make and perhaps others can confirm.

I myself stay far away from facebook and have people monitoring it so that if my picture and name appears they alert me.
It's ok to have pictures showing me at parties or whatever if there's little context but I hate to see them get a file on me.

Yea I have noticed this as well. Only certain political comments are allowed to stay up while others are deleted right after you post. I was posting the other night after I found out about Osama saying we need to repeal the patriot act now since the boogey man is gone. Once I hit post I was met with "This post in not appropriate for posting" and it wouldn't let me post it. I used facebook for years and never once did it say that to me. Now all my post " Cannot post at this time."

Not 100% on this but I think the more people coment or click on whatever you say, the longer it stays up. There is a tab that says most popular that is on when you go to the site, and next to that is a tab that says most recent. So if nobody is looking at what you are saying it will go quickly to the bottom.

I really don't know where these kinds of stories come from. I'll post similar stuff all the time and there's no unusual disappearances of stuff I put up. Never has anything I've said ever been censored.

On a related note (not directed at anyone in particular), the amount of ignorance on this site about Facebook is pretty staggering.


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

What kind of posts were you making?

and get a video of it happening.

I've posted things along the same lines, nothing has happened to those posts.

Are you in the US?

reply to post by 30_seconds


Eh idk, im sure there is definetly monitoring and archiving of information about the users, maybe some censoring too. but i posted this video www.youtube.com... to facebook and had a very interesting conversation on it with people and it is still there....

Well considering i read an article not to long ago about how FB was now on the side of the USG for the sake of national security, i dont know why anyone would willing give out information on FB. Can't remember the specifics about the article, and ill see if I can dig it up, but it had something to do with FB working in conjunction with unnamed organizations within the USG to track users of " questionable ' nature.

at least 30% of what i put on Facebook vanishes. There are some links fb wont take at all.
Anything linking to gov sites get axed. ie Link to Fema May exercises, gonzo...
Talk not nice about Potus... gonzo. Anything that doesn't make certain issues etc look good gonzo...
yes FB is censoring hard core these days. started couple weeks ago.

reply to post by mantic


Read my previous post above yours. Would suggest my statements about that article I read have merit would it not?

Can you get a before and after screen shot of the events?

reply to post by macman


I don't have before and after. Mostly stuff related to Japan radiation and Gulf of Mexico. Sometimes a comment will get it deleted.

You get a message when you follow the link that the page expired or cannot be found. Soon after all links pointing to it go too.
Once I got a message trying to post a link that said something along the lines that the information was heresy and could not be posted due to security concerns etc. Shoulda took a screenshot of that. If it comes up again, i grab it.

www.facebookcensorship.com...

proof-that-facebook-is-censoring-you
ariherzog.com...

facebook-censorship-clamp-down-on-political-views-as-over-fifty-groups-and-pages-are-closed
ukcanticuts.wordpress.com...

How Facebook Lets Whining Trolls Censor Everyone
ca.gawker.com...

yeah, they're getting busy with it.

reply to post by 30_seconds


I post a LOT of political stuff on Facebook, and usually, there isn't an issue. Once, though, and entire post of mine vanished, as well as comments on the same link that others friends had posted as well. Out of about five people, one still had the link up. Censorship? Glitch? Not sure. I KNOW YouTube pulls videos, and even closes accounts, based on political motivation. With Facebook, not sure, yet. Very possible, though. Husband has a friend that lost his FB account once, after he posted some remarks not in favor of the guy in the White House. Nothing illegal, or threatening, either. So, it's possible.

Something to try is this. If you post on your wall, take a screen shot. Then, if the comment is later gone, take another, showing where it should be on the wall. At least that would be a start. Maybe make a notepad doc of all the posts you do, to see if there is a pattern. Seems like there is, from what has been stated thus far.

reply to post by 30_seconds


Just saw a snippet from one of those TED lectures where a guy was arguing the idea of a "media bubble" where your tastes are so tailored to you that you may never be exposed to thought-provoking, challenging or divergent issues.

Here it is. Correction: he calls them "filter bubbles."

The quote by the Facebook guy at the very beginning about a dead squirrel in your front yard being more important than hunger in Africa makes the issue pretty clear.

It's a conspiracy in that people are actively working together to make it happen.
It's not necessarily meant to be malign by the individuals who have created it. But then again, we are all somewhat complicit when we allow social media to replace real-world interaction. The eventualities of it are very disturbing, probably a good idea to nip it in the bud while people can still see something like this type of lecture...or is this already a needle in a digital haystack?

Wouldn't surprise me in the least. Interesting recent article here. Talks about things like:

What makes this entire situation even more troubling, however, is the news that Facebook is reportedly in discussions with the Chinese government in an attempt to bring the social network to the China. And, like Google, Facebook will have to play by China's rules to get this done. This means Facebook will need to implement a much more robust and aggressive content filtering and censorship policy to abide by China's wishes to limit it's citizens' access to information (and I'm sure the Chinese government would love to have access to Facebook's logs of user profile and usage data, especially related to dissidents, etc)..

www.huffingtonpost.com...

reply to post by 30_seconds


I share what you describe.

Before, when a post I submit goes bye-bye, I'd click my profile page and it'd be there. That is no longer the case.

It is most certainly going on. I'm a victim of it myself, having never posted anything offensive, copyrighted, or threatening in any way. Just trying to do what I do on here... open people's eyes. One example of a post that was deleted was my link to this article: www.economist.com... as well as my comment in response to others' comments about the article. My comment was as follows:

My heart aches every time I read the hateful arguments back and forth. I dream of the day when Muslims, Jews, and Christians will all open our eyes and realize that our purpose on this Earth is not to try to force our will on one another, but to embrace each other as brothers and sisters, acknowledging that our God is the same God of Abraham. Despite the errs of our forefathers and their misinterpretations of God's will, why can't we stride forward in a new era of peace. I believe with all my heart that if we were to accomplish that, than this Earth could be as the Garden of Eden again. If we could only work together to end poverty and hunger. Imagine the wonders we could accomplish in medicine, technology, and science, if it was all focused on the continuing existence of man and nature. I pray one day there will be an awakening such as this. A paradigmatic shift that will usher in a new way of thought. Whether one believes in Christ as the son of God or not, we cannot deny his lesson which I believe is fundamental in our survival as a species... to love one another.

Now I ask, how were any of my words worthy of deletion from MY timeline in Facebook? There is censorship going on. The deletion of comments that are not aligned with the Facebook PTB is happening. Here's a link to a site documenting many other cases:

www.facebookcensorship.com...

reply to post by CavTrooper0430


I seem to have found a way around the censoring. If you click on "Activity Log" from your profile, you can scroll down and view all of your history. When you find something that's been removed from your wall, but you want it shown again, you just need to click the pencil icon in the top right corner, and click "Highlight". This will make the post reappear in your timeline in the correct spot.