Block, Siteadmin, SkipCaptcha, Upload, Automoderated users, delete, edit, move, nsTeam2RO, nsTeam2RW, nsTeam2_talkRO, nsTeam2_talkRW, protect, rollback, Administrators, template
293,634
edits
Changes
→2020 Presidential election
Facebook banned political pages in an attempt to influence elections.<ref>Duke, Selwyn (May 15, 2019). [https://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/item/32360-big-tech-tyranny-facebook-is-at-it-again-trying-to-sway-an-election Big Tech Tyranny: Facebook Is at It Again, Trying to Sway an Election]. ''The New American''. Retrieved May 15, 2019.</ref>
Facebook banned political pages in an attempt to influence elections.<ref>Duke, Selwyn (May 15, 2019). [https://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/item/32360-big-tech-tyranny-facebook-is-at-it-again-trying-to-sway-an-election Big Tech Tyranny: Facebook Is at It Again, Trying to Sway an Election]. ''The New American''. Retrieved May 15, 2019.</ref>
Former [[James Comey]] general counsel [[James A. Baker (DOJ)]], who was complicit in the [[Obamagate timeline|Obamagate]] and [[FISA abuse]] scandals, was [[Twitter]]'s lead counsel during the [[2020 Presidential election]].<ref>https://nypost.com/2020/06/16/twitter-hires-former-fbi-chief-counsel-as-deputy-lawyer/</ref> Twitter interfered in the election when it blacked-out evidence of former [[Vice President Biden]]'s [[collusion]] with [[Burisma]] executives and [[Ukrainian]] [[oligarch]]s.<ref>https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/10/14/bookmark-todays-date-big-tech-has-crossed-the-event-horizon-to-protect-joe-biden/</ref>
Former [[James Comey]] general counsel [[James A. Baker (DOJ)]], who was complicit in the [[Obamagate timeline|Obamagate]] and [[FISA abuse]] scandals, was [[Twitter]]'s lead counsel during the [[2020 Presidential election]].<ref>https://nypost.com/2020/06/16/twitter-hires-former-fbi-chief-counsel-as-deputy-lawyer/</ref> Twitter interfered in the election when it blacked-out evidence of former [[Vice President Biden]]'s [[collusion]] with [[Burisma]] executives and [[Ukrainian]] [[oligarch]]s.<ref>https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/10/14/bookmark-todays-date-big-tech-has-crossed-the-event-horizon-to-protect-joe-biden/</ref> ''[[Yahoo News!]]'' reported:
{{quotebox|Instead of simply asking pertinent questions, or debunking the [New York] Post’s reporting, a media blackout was initiated. A number of well-known journalists warned colleagues and their sizable social-media audiences not to share the story. By the afternoon, Twitter had joined Facebook in suppressing the article, not only barring its users from sharing it with followers, but barring them sharing it through direct messages as well. It locked the accounts of White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, the Post, and many others for retweeting the story.
Twitter initially cited its “Hacked Materials Policy” and a “lack of authoritative reporting” as justification for censoring the Post, one of the most widely read papers in the nation. Though the reliability of the story is yet to be determined, Twitter has offered no evidence that any of the information was illegally obtained. No similar standard was applied when the New York Times published Trump’s tax returns, even though anyone who had legal access to them is likely to have broken the law in sharing them with the Times. Whatever the case, it’s all in the public record now.
A healthy democracy with a properly functioning and independent press would debate, investigate, and rigorously fact check new information. They wouldn’t work to squelch a story. It’s certainly not the job of giant tech companies who claim to function as neutral platforms to decide what news consumers can or can’t handle.
The most generous reading of Twitter and Facebook’s actions is that the rules are evolving, messy, and inadvertently unfair. A less generous — but more plausible — reading is that the tech giants single out specific stories damaging to progressives’ preferred presidential candidate.
It will backfire.
For one thing, it further damages the reputation of Big Tech. For another, it renders the industry more susceptible to a new regulatory regime already being championed by some in Congress. Mostly, however, it just makes the story they’re trying to suppress a far bigger deal.<ref>https://news.yahoo.com/twitter-facebook-shameful-repression-york-010644456.html</ref>}}
====FEC disclosure exemptions====
====FEC disclosure exemptions====