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posted by janrinok on Tuesday July 26 2016, @08:57PM   Printer-friendly
from the guess-which-side-they-are-on dept.

Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956

Facebook admitted Sunday that it had blocked links to the Wikileaks trove of emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee.

In a Twitter post late Saturday, WikiLeaks accused the social media giant of "censorship" and gave its followers an online workaround, saying "try using https://archive.is."

The WikiLeaks allegation followed a firestorm of controversy that erupted earlier this year when former Facebook workers admitted routinely suppressing conservative news.

Source: https://nypost.com/2016/07/24/facebook-admits-to-blocking-wikileaks-links-in-dnc-email-hack/


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 26 2016, @09:17PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 26 2016, @09:17PM (#380447)

    Something is horribly wrong with you if you joined FB in the first place!

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by MostCynical on Tuesday July 26 2016, @09:23PM

    by MostCynical (2589) on Tuesday July 26 2016, @09:23PM (#380455) Journal

    Teenagers?
    University and college students?
    Travellers keeping "in touch" with friends at home?
    People with active social lives and a need to share?

    Yup, something "horribly wrong" with all of them.

    Naïvity, innocence, and trust are not *bad*, they are just unfortunate, when you end up getting done-over.

    --
    "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 26 2016, @09:48PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 26 2016, @09:48PM (#380468)

      Yup, something "horribly wrong" with all of them.

      There is indeed something horribly wrong if you choose to sacrifice your privacy to a company like Facebook [stallman.org] for reasons like that. There is no "need to share".

      Even the term "social media" is vomit-inducing. I'm not sure how people can use it seriously without gagging.

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday July 27 2016, @12:20AM

        by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 27 2016, @12:20AM (#380524) Journal

        In the early days, Facebook wasn't as bad as it is today. Like many other people, I created an account, just to see WTF it was all about. Likewise, I created a MySpace account, when it was new. I watched MySpace evolve from something that was merely objectionable, into an abortion. Likewise, we've watched Facebook evolve.

        All of you superior creatures who know how bad Facebook is - how did you discover that fact? Apparently, you've never clicked on a Facebook page, you have simply never visited the site - yet you know how horrible it is? Oh, I see, you've been following the evaluations and comments of braver souls who have explored the cesspool.

        I guess it's time for a newsflash, right? Virtually every internet business is in it for the money. Almost every page you visit online is hoping to make a few cents from you, or more. Even Soylentnews hopes that you will subscribe, thereby helping to keep Soylent online. Facebook is greedy, and they have crap ethics. They sell every bit of data they can scrape off of you. We know this because - well, because you never created an account there, right?

        Let me repeat - I have a Facebook account. And, I actually find it somewhat useful, when I need to track some lackwit who doesn't know any better than to post all his/her shit to Facebook. The cops have admitted as much. I recall a photo posted on Facebook, of some moron showing off a big double fistful of cash, immediately after a robbery. The cops also saw that photo. The fool was picked up later that day.

        The more discerning people among us can admit that Facebook has some few redeeming values. At the same time, we can avoid feeding the Facebook Moneymaking Machine. Do you think that Facebook knows all of my health problems/condition? Fek no, they don't.

        When it was new, I was less careful about permissions and crap. I even clicked on a couple of their apps, or whatever they are called. As I learned more about Facebook, I used the settings to protect my privacy better, and I dumped those stupid apps. Was the damage already done? Probably, but then again, I fed them plenty of false information.

        I see little problem with using Facebook, if you are actually using Facebook. Unfortunately, most people are used BY Facebook.

        • (Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 27 2016, @01:02AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 27 2016, @01:02AM (#380543)

          In the early days, Facebook wasn't as bad as it is today.

          The mere concept of "social media" is revolting, and it was obvious what it would turn into from the beginning. Come on now. It's only the billionth time a company has abused its users, so it should be obvious by now that posting your information everywhere is a bad idea.

          All of you superior creatures who know how bad Facebook is - how did you discover that fact?

          Gee, I don't know. Maybe reading the countless news articles about how Facebook abuses its useds, as well as having a brain. If you give away your private information to a "social media" company, it isn't hard to predict that they'll sell it, spread it around, give it to the government, and possibly do malicious and/or harmful things with it. Even absent the news articles, predicting that Facebook would abuse its users in increasingly horrible ways was too easy.

          I guess it's time for a newsflash, right? Virtually every internet business is in it for the money.

          Not just Internet businesses. And this is another reason it was so easy to predict what Facebook's actions would be, so there was no need for "braver souls" to be used by Facebook first.

          Let me repeat - I have a Facebook account. And, I actually find it somewhat useful, when I need to track some lackwit who doesn't know any better than to post all his/her shit to Facebook.

          There is no "need" here. And someone like that isn't worth reading about. I don't care if some dumb criminal is occasionally caught because they bragged about their exploits on fecal media.

          Unfortunately, most people are used BY Facebook.

          The big users of Facebook are the advertisers, giant companies, and the government, all of whom are more than happy to siphon up data from the suckers who falsely believe themselves to be the users of Facebook.

          The best thing would be for Facebook and all similar to companies to vanish off the face of the Earth, but that doesn't look like it will happen. There's just too many suckers that can be easily scammed.

          • (Score: 1, Flamebait) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday July 27 2016, @01:17AM

            by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 27 2016, @01:17AM (#380554) Journal

            Well, geez, you're a freaking omnipotent genius. You knew what Facebook would be way back in 1950, I suppose. You didn't even have to hear the name to know what it would become. You're amazing.

            "And someone like that isn't worth reading about."

            It isn't "reading about". If you are unable to imagine a situation in which you want to know where someone is, or what he/she is doing, or even whether they are still alive, then I suppose that you don't have much of a life.

            Facebook is a fact of life. You can't just wish that it would go away. It's here, it's real, and the less intelligent people use it carelessly. Their carelessness enables people to track them. Sometimes, I can put that to use. You can't? Then, maybe you lack imagination.

            • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 27 2016, @02:45AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 27 2016, @02:45AM (#380582)

              Well, geez, you're a freaking omnipotent genius.

              Wrong. It doesn't take a genius to realize the obvious. How many times have companies sold user information and just generally abused their users? It was not hard to predict Facebook would do these things with the information people gave it. Is your standard of "genius" really so low?

              Facebook is a fact of life.

              It's a fact of life only in the sense that it exists and a lot of people use it. But many bad things exist, so this is merely another addition to that list.

              You can't? Then, maybe you lack imagination.

              It's not that I "can't", but that I refuse on principle to use Facebook and its ilk in any way.

          • (Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday July 27 2016, @01:25AM

            by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Wednesday July 27 2016, @01:25AM (#380558) Homepage Journal

            You realize this site, and /. before it, are arguably social media, yes?

            --
            My rights don't end where your fear begins.
            • (Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 27 2016, @02:40AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 27 2016, @02:40AM (#380579)

              Sure, if you use an incredibly broad and useless definition of "social media". But then I would just say that that's not the type of "social media" being discussed.

              • (Score: 5, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday July 27 2016, @03:32AM

                by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Wednesday July 27 2016, @03:32AM (#380598) Journal

                With some people it's more like anti-social media...

                --
                I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
                • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 27 2016, @06:31AM

                  by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 27 2016, @06:31AM (#380621)

                  With some people it's more like anti-social media...

                  Yet with others is more like social anti-media.

              • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday July 27 2016, @10:57AM

                by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Wednesday July 27 2016, @10:57AM (#380688) Homepage Journal

                Ponder it a moment. There are way better news sites. What keeps everyone coming around are the discussions, debates, and outright arguments. So we're definitely social media.

                Historically, I think social media was done right just before D2 went in over at our great green grandparent. Everything since then has been people trying and failing to improve on that. Except for us. We rock my stripey socks.

                --
                My rights don't end where your fear begins.
                • (Score: 3, Funny) by Thexalon on Wednesday July 27 2016, @02:25PM

                  by Thexalon (636) on Wednesday July 27 2016, @02:25PM (#380746)

                  What keeps everyone coming around are the discussions, debates, and outright arguments.

                  Arguments? Wrong room, this is abuse! (stupid git)

                  --
                  The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
                • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 27 2016, @10:42PM

                  by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 27 2016, @10:42PM (#380927)

                  So we're definitely social media.

                  So "social media" is basically any website that allows users to post comments and have discussions. Okay, well, even if you define it that way, this site is still significantly different from Facebook and its ilk. No real name policy, no massive surveillance, no selling of private information, no real expectation of posting sensitive information, etc. Pretty much all of the abuses in the link above. If this site did even a small fraction of the evil things Facebook does, it's almost certain that a grand majority of people here would leave. So while this website may qualify as "social media" under some extremely broad definitions of the term, clearly Facebook is a different kind of "social media".

        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday July 27 2016, @03:22AM

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 27 2016, @03:22AM (#380596) Journal

          All of you superior creatures who know how bad Facebook is - how did you discover that fact? Apparently, you've never clicked on a Facebook page, you have simply never visited the site - yet you know how horrible it is? Oh, I see, you've been following the evaluations and comments of braver souls who have explored the cesspool.

          I guess it is a moderately higher form of wisdom to learn from the experience of others. For me, it was just another Twitter. I didn't see a good reason to use it and even early on, I could see the problems that would develop (such as having a massive circle of "friends" that need maintenance, too much of my information online, silly drama (just look at how much bellyaching and mod bombing there is with a slashdot-style rating system), and no pressing use case (still doesn't exist now either).

          • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday July 27 2016, @02:19PM

            by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 27 2016, @02:19PM (#380742) Journal

            "and even early on,"

            I will readily grant that things were pretty obvious "early on". Unlike the posts made by AC, you apparently took a wait-and-see stance, until things started going to crap. Salutes for that.

            Personally, I was an early signer-upper, and I used it very little. Early signs that it was turning to crap irritated and scared me, but I was still hoping that Facebook might have enough redeeming values to be worthwhile.

            Unfortunately, they blew away all of their redeeming values long before they became a publicly traded company. As mentioned earlier, I post almost nothing to Facebook, I read very little. The main purpose for keeping the account, is to check up on people who make it difficult to check up on them. They won't answer a phone call, but they'll post on Facebook? Go figure . . . .

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Tuesday July 26 2016, @11:15PM

      by fido_dogstoyevsky (131) <{axehandle} {at} {gmail.com}> on Tuesday July 26 2016, @11:15PM (#380492)

      Teenagers?
      University and college students?
      Travellers keeping "in touch" with friends at home?
      People with active social lives and a need to share?

      Email is an easy option for all of the above.

      Yup, something "horribly wrong" with all of them.

      If they don't stay clear of the likes of facebook.

      --
      It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by MostCynical on Tuesday July 26 2016, @11:31PM

        by MostCynical (2589) on Tuesday July 26 2016, @11:31PM (#380500) Journal

        Alas, the problems with "social media" aren't perceived by *most* people.
        "Normal" society (the parts that can't, or choose not to, understand) sees anyone espousing the problems as "loony".

        Conspiracy theorists, people with mental health concerns, IT and tech "nerds" are all lumped together by "mainstream" society, and dismissed, even when it has been shown over and over that "they" *are* out to get us, you and your data are *not* safe online (or anywhere with CCTV, or wifi coverage, or electronic ticketing, or rfid readers, or electronic tollway tags, or ....)

        You can't educate the willfully ignorant.

        --
        "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 27 2016, @01:46AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 27 2016, @01:46AM (#380565)

          Conspiracy theorists, people with mental health concerns, IT and tech "nerds" are all lumped together by "mainstream" society, and dismissed

          IT has gone mainstream normal and oldschool "autistic" tech nerds are not welcome in IT either.

          https://ddg.gg/?q=we%27re+social+coders [ddg.gg]

          You can thank Linus "Git" Torvalds for the world domination of GitHub as the Facebook of Social Coding. Membership in GitHub is absolutely mandatory, so much so that if you don't have a GitHub profile, you're dismissed as a crank who's simply not a coder. You see plenty of people here on SoylentNews proudly refuse to use Facebook, yet SoylentNews is all over GitHub.

          GitHub is social media.

  • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday July 26 2016, @11:35PM

    by Gaaark (41) on Tuesday July 26 2016, @11:35PM (#380502) Journal

    I joined to see pictures of my daughter's graduation that others had taken.
    I left because of GARBAGE that is fb!
    Glad I'm Canadian, and it is now fully.?. deleted.

    --
    --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 27 2016, @11:28AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 27 2016, @11:28AM (#380694)

      Try re-enabling/re-creating your FB-account (using the same email-address as that first time).
      Don't be too surprised about how much FB conveniently manages to provide again.
      Most of your initial account was never actually deleted, just made inaccessible to normal users (of course, FB's analysis and inference tools keep access to this data).