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© Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Trump attacks social media companies after Facebook bans
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David Varnes
Huh... never knew Louis Farrakhan would be classified as a conservative.
extanker
Democrats: "Facebook is a private company and can do whatever it wants."
Also Democrats: "Russia bought Facebook ads! Collusion!"
Either companies like Facebook are independent or they aren't. Make up your mind.
sf2k
Only matters when his Twitter account is cancelled
Belrick
Because while he's POTUS he has no access to his personal money or businesses. You'd know this if you bothered to research.
Belrick
How come no Democrats have been banned? Bunch of cry babies is why.
Braze
I do not think Trump is the greatest POTUS in US history at all, he's just another in a long line of Statist. Everything else you wrote about him is true, Trump is not in the elites club, he is indeed under attack and that's obvious. Trump constantly steps on the elites feet, a POTUS should never do that, however he is keeping to American Exceptionalism and the elite do like that. I digress Trump only has until 2024 at the latest to carry the ball so to speak, the elite are on no timetable, they will just carry on with their Globalist agenda when Trump is gone. The elite have most people right where they want them, the 4 d's are almost complete, the people are distracted, demoralized, dumbed down and almost totally divided, that last one is the most important to any Conqueror.
Chip Star
Don't publish hate speech and those conservatives wouldn't be banned.
1glenn
"How dare you take the bullhorn out of the hands of my loudest supporters!!!!"
bass4funk
Yes and they’re all conservative.
gokai_wo_maneku
Trump is a billionaire (he says). So why doesn't he use his money to set up a platform that reflects his conservative viewpoint? It is not very difficult.
bass4funk
But as an American as bad as the man is has the right to free speech and I’m definitely no fan of the man.
There is no way you can prove where Trump has said verbatim that he hates Hispanics. None, because he never said it. That is an old and tired liberal debunked narrative. The issue was and has always been LEGAL immigration which most people want.
PR for years and years had infrastructure problems.
https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/353506-puerto-rico-was-a-disaster-long-before-maria-ravaged-the-island
kidnaps Hispanic children,
https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article213525764.html
I understand FB should be allowed to shut up conservatives they don’t like, but allow far left liberals to say what they want. Interesting.....so George Soros as radical as he is can say what he wants, Antifa and Code Pink as well, gotcha.
Ok, so Twitter can block any conservative from expressing any opposing view, but when Breitbart news or FNC say something that gets under their skin, they want the network off the air like Anita Hill.
Code: we want free speech for people we like regardless of what they say or do, conservatives with opposing viewpoints need not say anything and should be shutdown.
It’s a start and I hope the trend continues, good days ahead....
https://www.marketplace.org/2019/03/06/tech/exclusive-look-numbers-showing-users-leaving-facebook-by-the-millions
Chip Star
Astonishing that a post simply summarizing free speech jurisprudence gets any downvotes. I guess knowledge offends some.
Strangerland
So why doesn't the right work with the left to come up with an accurate definition of it? It's like voting - if you choose not to participate, you don't get much credibility when whining about the result.
starpunk
Farrakhan blubbers hate screeds about an evil black scientist named Yacub who 'invented' the 'inferior' white (and other) races. And he always slams Jews and gays. Trump has posted Islamophobic videos, expresses seething hatred for Hispanics - didn't give timely hurricane relief aid to Puerto Rico, kidnaps Hispanic children, calls migrants 'animals' and talks of 'war' (he tear-gassed them on Thanksgiving weekend in a violation of foreign airspace!). A loudmouth boor is just that - a total bullying JERK who has no place in conversations, forums, diplomatic meetings, conferences, anything.
FB, Youtube and other sites and such have their rules - and if those users can't be considerate for other people who may think differently than they do, if they can't shut up and read and/or listen to what others may say, if they can't shut up and act civilized and stop spouting their hate-soaked flatulence in the air then these media sites can kick them out. That's their prerogative, and trolls have no place there. They ain't welcome.
And yes if Twitter decides to kick out and block the uncouth motormouth Trump then he has no right to cry and bellyache about that either. He can't talk or post anything w/o putting someone down, which shows his maturity (elementary school level). The blogs, FB, chats, etc. are for mature discussions and those who can't post or act in such a manner don't belong there.
bass4funk
It was banned for awhile until they woke up at Twitter. Smh.
Will Omar be banned from FB? How about Keith Olbermann, you know the man that got the ball rolling on liberal trash meltdown, Kathy Griffin? How about Jeff Zucker or Petter Griffin? Will Johnny Depp other Hollywood celebs get their accounts blocked?
Oc conservatives, not liberals...Dennis Prager is another one, so if FB gives equal haters the same treatment, I’ll owe you an apology.
Most of the Democrats do even better than Trump, I don’t see any of them and their liberals friends getting banned.
Still have their accounts up and running, shameful.
Jimizo
Trump has thrown a barrage of rancid conspiracy trash at Republicans and beauty queens. He’s an equal opportunity trashmonger.
Yes, but what about the jihadist liberal socialists robbing Paul to pay Peter in the unicornverse?
Silvafan
Russian Embassy: Trump Initiated Putin Call, And It Was 90 Minutes, Not 60
https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/trump-initiated-putin-call-013550345.html
LOL!
bass4funk
Well, not nearly as bad or as trashy as what most liberals in Hollywood or TV say, but we shall give them a pass because liberals are perfectly fine with people on their side spewing garbage. When you have idiots like Anita Dunn trying to shut down the largest news network in cable TV, you know something upstairs is broken. So once again to recap: free speech only applies to liberals good or bad and conservatives they don’t like get banned
bass4funk
So what’s your point?
Yes and with good reason, that was the time when Frank Lucas saturated the city with drugs and dealers squatting anywhere they could, so he had every right to protect his properties from that. Again, I only know 3 of the people you mentioned and could care less what the number ratio is, I don’t care about any of it. The only thing I care about is, as Americans do we have freedom of speech or not AND should a private company be allowed to silence only conservative radicals, but give the liberal radicals like George Soros (for example) a free pass?
Serrano
Get ready for some top-notch conspiracy theory trash about the Democrat candidates.
Don't need conspiracy theories for the Dems, just let them keep talking nonsense and dig themselves an ever deeper hole. Russia, blah blah, obstruction, blah blah, impeach, blah blah, subpoena, blah blah, we got 12 years left to do something about climate change, blah blah blah blah...
Jimizo
Trump is a fan of Alex Jones. Get ready for some top-notch conspiracy theory trash about the Democrat candidates.
Trump will carry that torch.
SuperLib
Trump plays the victim card again.
Serrano
Youtube also banned Alex Jones and Infowars from its site.
That'll shut him up! lol
It is unbelievable what he ( Trump ) has achieved.
And this is with the Democrats and RINOS trying to block everything he does.
Serrano
Biden just gave hime ( Trump ) the nickname of "clown"
Biden will forever be Sleepy Joe.
the Democrat Party
Seriously, how many nails can the Democrats keep putting in their coffin? They probably got the hammers from Clinton, lol.
Laguna
This is a very interesting line. On one hand, SCOUTS has decided that Internet content providers are, within a reasonable degree, not responsible for the content users upload to their site. On the other hand, the site is akin to a magazine - and one would not as soon allow, say, submissions of pornography as one would hate speech.
All in all, I'm in favor of this move, if only to rein in the more extreme actors. They can find other outlets.
gokai_wo_maneku
Why don't they just set up their own sites? It is not that hard. A couple of tech-savy conservative billionaires should just do it.
Jimizo
Infowars is the media company we're talking about. It's basically a far-right conspiracy news website known for things like claiming that the Sandy Hook elementary school murders in 2012 either didn't occur or were a "false flag operation" by gun control activists.
Alex Jones, a far-right conspiracy theorist who runs Infowars.
Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, whose rhetoric has been called anti-Semitic and homophobic.
Laura Loomer, a media personality who has been accused of peddling far-right conspiracy theories.
Paul Nehlen, a former congressional candidate who described himself as a "pro-White Christian" and had been banned from Breitbart News in 2018 for "for ties to neo-Nazis and racist comments about Meghan Markle," according to The Washington Post.
Paul Joseph Watson, who also works for Infowars and was described as a "far-right Youtube pesonality" by the Post.
Milo Yiannopoulos, a British right wing media personality.
Donald Trump, conspiracy theorist and fantasist who promulgated the birther theory, Ted Cruz’s father being in on the JFK assassination and sees non-existent people dancing in celebration of attacks along with non-existent sex tapes. Son of Fred Trump who was born in Germany, New York or possibly on Atlantis.
He does fit in quite well.
Chip Star
Then why is he constantly moaning about Mueller?
That's not what Mueller's report says at all.
bass4funk
Yes, I can and No, it’s not the same thing, the difference is allowing one group to spew the puke into see whatever they want and then to not allow another group to say whatever they want., Facebook has the right to do whatever it wants to do as a private company, but do not tell me or any other conservative that they are being fair, don’t even go there.
Yes, that is correct, but I don’t own a company like Facebook and would not tell other people what they can or cannot post on my site. I think Farrakhan is a vile person, but I wouldn’t silence him, in fact I would want to know what he is saying.
bass4funk
I doubt that. He doesn’t care, Mueller couldn’t find him doing any collusion with any foreign government and didn’t have any evidence to indict him on corruption. Case closed. If Mueller can’t do that, then he’s not guilty, either you are or you’re not. 19 lawyers and 40 FBI agents couldn’t find it, then Nadler sure as heck won’t. Lol
But they can allow every liberal spew vile towards conservatives? That’s ok?
So you hate Antifa as well....great!
No you didn’t say that! Liberals are reactionary towards anything that involves race, identity politics, sexism, when it comes to issues on abortion, what ever it is or any social issues they lose their minds and if you’re not for any of that then you are a sexist, you are a homophobes, you are whatever flavor they want to categorize you in. For conservatives you can do whatever you want they could care less what you do with your life just as long as you don’t push your beliefs on us. Liberals on the other hand they think you have to believe in us we do otherwise you will be assaulted, verbally, physically, mentally.
Oh, I have! Here you go, just a small sample.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/list-15-democratic-attacks-assaults-threats-on-republicans
No, not really. Barr is coming, stay tuned....
Andrew Crisp
Paul Joseph Watson is an "extremist" that made me laugh he actually posted a video about the Presidents response to his ban
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDxRlsBi4Ac
Serrano
he feels the special counsel investigation is behind him.
So does most of the rest of the country. Unfortunately the Democrats just can't let go of it. it will be their undoing.
Speed
Facebook is a company not the government. Facebook can ban whomever they please.
Twitter should ban Trump since we don't have to hear about how he's going to be "monitoring and watching (FB) closely".
Goodlucktoyou
Recently all my software and communication systems require me to update and agree to new conditions. When I read the very small print of the 20 pages, I found something I don’t agree with. If I don’t agree I can’t use the programme. Recently I lost a little bit of money because of Skype new update. I understand they are private companies, but they lure you into becoming dependent, then you are their birch.
theFu
On private property, the owner of that property gets to decide was is allowed or not.
If you don't like how any private property decides to censor or not censor, stop visiting those sites. They can use any reason they want and don't need to explain themselves.
I'd need to talk with a lawyer about what is mandated by current law, but I think individuals violating laws by making threats on any public forum, are responsible for their own words, just like people posting illegal images are liable for doing that.
Blacklabel
It’s not “inflammatory racist material” if it’s true. I suppose that is what it was called when people said the supposed hate crime against Smollett was fake. Then we found out it was.
Appears in the specific case you are referencing it was false. So in that case it should be removed once it is confirmed false.
Jimizo
In the case of Trump retweeting videos from a known racist group, it was later found that the videos were dodgy. The responsibility surely lies with the person who retweets inflammatory racist material to check if the material is at least legitimate. He should have been punished for this.
As for the example of the non-existent sex tape he asked his followers to watch, there is no evidence this tape exists and he even denied his rancid tweet existed during a live debate. This should convince even the most partisan mind that he was dealing in lies again. He should have been punished for this.
As much as I hate racism, I think the best way to deal with this problem is not to try to shut racists up. However, retweeting dodgy racist material is unacceptable.
Truth matters.
Blacklabel
How do you know what’s “false” at the time it’s posted? Lots of things that were supposedly false 2 years ago have been proven true. And supposedly true things proven false.
Jimizo
He’s a pretty good troll. I wouldn’t ban trolls, but I think it is the duty of social media platforms to smack people like Trump into line when he posts fake news like the dodgy videos from racists which he retweeted. This was fabricated rancid trash. Asking his followers to search out a non-existent sex tape also deserved a slap.
I’m in favour of allowing the likes of Farrakhan, Trump or any other loudmouth to use social media and share their ideas, but they need to be slapped around when they post demonstrably false trash. This is an idea which has more in common with hygiene than censorship.
Blacklabel
Yeah the whole problem is that liberals seem to get to define what is “hate” speech.
CrazyJoe
A private publishing service (Facebook) does not have a responsibility to allow all its users to engage in violent speech or any other type of speech ostensibly protected by the First Amendment. The First Amendment covers political speech but advocating violence is not protected.
Conservatives (as they self identify) who are in fact reactionaries with fascist foundations are quick to cry persecution when in fact they will persecute anyone who disagrees with them let alone disparages them. I have never read or heard any progressive use the First Amendment to advocate violence against the right-wing. This attitude that "Trump will investigate" is more posturing (expletive deleted) to make the rubes think he is protecting their fellow travelers from persecution.
starpunk
Since WHEN is advocating ILLEGAL and immoral acts like child molestation good and right, like Milo said? And since WHEN is it OK to post 'conspiracy theories' (LIES) knowing that they could lead to criminal activity and even DEATH? Inducing panic is a CRIME.
Donnie il Douche whines, moans and groans about the 'bad' things Google says about him, and he recently advocated censoring that - like the little Nero baby-man that he is. Well the truth HURTS, doesn't it? WAH!
Dumdum Donnie is espousing HATEFUL words, words of discord and elitism - and those words and his attitude ALWAYS leads to violence because they portray others as less than human. Dictator Don referred to migrants/Hispanics as 'animals' just before he kidnapped thousands of their children who are now DYING in concentration camps. He has openly encouraged a GOP congressman to assault a press reporter in Montana. He has openly blubbered about shooting resistance in 2016. Supporters and advocates of his hate have committed atrocities - like that moron behind that mosque massacre in NZ. And just last fall a Trumpturd initiated that pipe bomb scare and Dufus Donnie said nothing.
FB is supposed to be a platform for online friendships and info sharing - a public service medium, and hate advocates like the aforementioned imbeciles and others, including Screwy Louie Farrakhan have NO place on their spreading their hateful screeds. Isn't 4chan and Faux News (in)famous for that crap anyway?
Serrano
@Braze Trump is the greatest troll in history as well as the greatest U.S. president in history and he's only 2 years and 3 months into his first term.
Meanwhile blue states are moving to block him from the 2020 ballot, well, it's the only way they would ever win at this point with the possible exception of California and New York, lol.
bass4funk
Hit it out of the ballpark. 110% agreed!
Tokyo-Engr
Absolutely I am in favor of free speech. Once speech is curtailed, criminalized, or banned it will be very hard if not impossible to reverse the course.
And one must always ask; Who gets to decide what speech is considered "hate" or criminal? Zuckerberg? Trump? Bernie Sanders? The admin at the Japan Today?
Personally I want none of the above to decide for me what is hateful. I would prefer to make these decisions myself
theFu
Either you believe in the freedom of speech or you don't.
Supporting the right to free speech when it is unpopular, hurtful, nasty, is hard. But it is the right thing. Idiots should be allowed to say dumb things in public.
Public.
Facebook, twitter, insta-whatever, pine-whatever ARE NOT PUBLIC places. They are owned by private companies who are free to ban anyone they like, for any reason they like. Period.
Censorship is an quick, easy-appearing, way to fight this. It will fail. All that will happen is common terms will be used as "code words" and facebook will have to ban "Winnie the Pooh" just like China does.
Censorship doesn't work.
Chip Star
Freedom of speech includes the right:
Not to speak (specifically, the right not to salute the flag).
West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943).
Of students to wear black armbands to school to protest a war (“Students do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate.”).
Tinker v. Des Moines, 393 U.S. 503 (1969).
To use certain offensive words and phrases to convey political messages.
Cohen v. California, 403 U.S. 15 (1971).
To contribute money (under certain circumstances) to political campaigns.
Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1 (1976).
To advertise commercial products and professional services (with some restrictions).
Virginia Board of Pharmacy v. Virginia Consumer Council, 425 U.S. 748 (1976); Bates v. State Bar of Arizona, 433 U.S. 350 (1977).
To engage in symbolic speech, (e.g., burning the flag in protest).
Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989); United States v. Eichman, 496 U.S. 310 (1990).
https://www.uscourts.gov/about-federal-courts/educational-resources/about-educational-outreach/activity-resources/what-does
Chip Star
It's the right to express without governmental restriction or interference. Prosecution and imprisonment are merely the harshest form of governmental interference and restriction.
Goodlucktoyou
The guy is publicly backing racists. Nice guy huh.
Chip Star
Haha. Spot on.
Strangerland
I think Twitter is Trump's drug of choice, not Facebook.
Jimizo
If there is a good reason to ban people from social media, pushing fake news is one of the better ones.
Looking at another platform, I’m surprised Trump got away with retweeting dodgy videos from a known racist group. That surely deserved a suspension at least.
I’m in favour of letting everyone have their say, but dealing in lies to support your point of view must not go unpunished.
Strangerland
I find it interesting that the people who make the most noise about being silenced, are the ones who want the freedom to continue to say hateful things.
Richard Burgan
Facebook should ban Trump himself. Better yet they should have a dog house or a jail page where they explain why they have banned people. I would like to see the policy used to ban people in writing.
Strangerland
· List of people on the left that the right has decided are evil: Check.
· Base-grabbing words like hate and conservative speech: Check.
· Repetition of baseless bubble claims about liberals: Check.
· Base-friendly words like witch hunt: Check.
Standard template for a Bass post. What do you figure, 80% of his posts follow this template?
Serengoza
Facebook is sooo last decade.
bass4funk
The same way George Soros and Antifa, Bill Ayers, Media Matters, Jeff Zucker, Phill Griffin are the exact vile people that use their platform to promote hate and to attack any conservative speech on every level. Liberals care about one thing only, to drive this President out of office, their failed attempt at the Delusional Russian collusion witch hunt backfired and now they are trying to resort to finding something of obstruction which doesn’t exist. They didn’t have a back up plan. Anita Dunn tried moronically to ban FNC from the airwaves and it failed miserably in her face. Liberals can’t win on the issues so they have to try and find new and creative ways to silence them at any cost even the radical ones.
GW
Look I am NOT a fan of far right nut jobs NOR am I a fan of left wing nut jobs!
As I have said elsewhere before, while I may strongly disagree with a point of view, BANNING is a very bad idea, and it does seem that a bunch of loudmouths going on about being offended are making enough noise to get bans put in place in various media & elsewhere.
We also see these with speakers being cancelled or not allowed on campuses etc, IT IS getting BAD & this will come back on us all!
We are seeing a lot of bans, de-monetizing video's etc all because of simply disagreeing with IDEAS.
Again I see lots of nutters left & right. I say let them SPEAK, we CANT have them banned because they offend, offending is NOT a reason to ban, and people are now USING words like hate improperly & it is causing problems & they seem to be getting worse
bass4funk
I don like these people, but if FB is going that route then why not do the same to far leftist groups? If you believe in freedom of speech, you allow either everyone the right to say what they want or block everyone, you don’t block one group and then allow another group to say whatever they wish, that’s fascism in its purest form. No wonder people are dropping off FB like flies.
Hate speech is protected, like it or not. There are a lot of liberals that traffic in it, don’t like or respect these people, but their right to speak out should always be protected. The US is not China or Cuba.
Also, if there were a conservative site that blocked every radical liberal from its platform, liberals would lose their mind, so food for thought there....
Trump also excoriated a lot more on the left, but that somehow skips the liberals minds.
M3M3M3
That's true, but it's only half the story. Pointing out that the constitution only limits government action is not an argument against those who say that congress should pass legislation extending 1st amendment protections into the private sphere. For example, the 14th amendment also applies only to government, but that hasn't stopped congress from extending the principles of the equal protection clause to private companies with laws banning racial and gender discrimination in hiring and housing.
PTownsend
Big state led by Trump competing with big data corporations in a battle among private and public leviathans competing to censor individuals.
Trump's got despot envy. He sees what leaders in China, North Korea, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and other totalitarian states are doing to manipulate and control information and wants to be like them.
Trump knows these right wingers laud him. They serve PR purposes for him along with Rupert Murdoch and Putin’s respective global media empires, Sinclair Media and others. Trump’s joined them in pushing conspiracy theories, e.g. Obama’s religion and birthplace, Ted Cruz’s father’s roles re Cuba, ‘Spygate’, among so many others.
IloveCoffee
Facebook doesn't care about any of that. This is all about profits. The public, or a loud minority from the public is threatening to boycott some of these ad companies, and they in turn put pressure on FB to get rid of the content that these people don't like.
What these people who push for all this need to understand is that they are doing their own cause a disservice. Whether certain information or speech is "hateful", "racist" or "anti-semitic" is irrelevant. That's a weak argument that tends to have the opposite effect of the desired one. What matters is whether what the person says or writes is "correct" or not. If you think it is incorrect, then correct him, debunk him, prove him wrong, expose him. Calling their arguments "racist" and then shutting them down does not prove them wrong, in fact, it emboldens them, and it helps them attract more attention.
I admire their cause, but they need to start fighting with arguments, otherwise they are doing themselves a disservice. If they don't publicly debunk what they think is "wrong", then they will just embolden them, put the spotlight on them, and make them more appealing. It gives them more weapons -- "they know we are right, so they are trying to shut us down". Fight lies with facts. Fight cherry picked facts with more facts.
CrazyJoe
You would think true conservatives would be horrified to be linked to the alt-right or people like Alex Jones. If they aren't, I would say they aren't very good people. Or very intelligent.
Congress, not Facebook, not any private company, not your boss, not your Mom, etc. The Constitution only applies to the GOVERNMENT. It only protects you against the GOVERNMENT restricting your speech. It does not protect you against a private company saying you can’t use our product to spew your hate. It’s actually interesting that Trump so readily admits that these hateful people are part of the right - the Republican Party.