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Zuckerberg once wanted to sanction Trump. Then Facebook wrote rules that accommodated him.
Hours after President Trump’s incendiary post last month about sending the military to the Minnesota protests, Trump called Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.
The post put the company in a difficult position, Zuckerberg told Trump, according to people familiar with the discussions. The same message was hidden by Twitter, the strongest action ever taken against a presidential post.
To Facebook’s executives in Washington, the post didn’t appear to violate its policies, which allows leaders to post about government use of force if the message is intended to warn the public — but it came right up to the line. The deputies had already contacted the White House earlier in the day with an urgent plea to tweak the language of the post or simply delete it, the people said.
Eventually, Trump posted again, saying his comments were supposed to be a warning after all. Zuckerberg then went online to explain his rationale for keeping the post up, noting that Trump’s subsequent explanation helped him make his decision.
[...] Zuckerberg talks frequently about making choices that stand the test of time, preserving the values of Facebook and subsidiaries WhatsApp and Instagram for all of its nearly 3 billion monthly users for many years into the future — even when those decisions are unpopular or controversial.
At one point, however, he wanted a different approach to Trump.
Before the 2016 election, the company largely saw its role in politics as courting political leaders to buy ads and broadcast their views, according to people familiar with the company’s thinking.
But that started to change in 2015, as Trump’s candidacy picked up speed. In December of that year, he posted a video in which he said he wanted to ban all Muslims from entering the United States. The video went viral on Facebook and was an early indication of the tone of his candidacy.
Outrage over the video led to a companywide town hall, in which employees decried the video as hate speech, in violation of the company’s policies. And in meetings about the issue, senior leaders and policy experts overwhelmingly said they felt that the video was hate speech, according to three former employees, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. Zuckerberg expressed in meetings that he was personally disgusted by it and wanted it removed, the people said. Some of these details were previously reported.
At one of the meetings, Monika Bickert, Facebook’s vice president for policy, drafted a document to address the video and shared it with leaders including Zuckerberg’s top deputy COO Sheryl Sandberg and Vice President of Global Policy Joel Kaplan, the company’s most prominent Republican.
[...] Ultimately, Zuckerberg was talked out of his desire to remove the post in part by Kaplan, according to the people. Instead, the executives created an allowance that newsworthy political discourse would be taken into account when making decisions about whether posts violated community guidelines.
That allowance was not formally written into the policies, even though it informed ad hoc decision-making about political speech for the next several years, according to the people. When a formal newsworthiness policy was announced in October 2016, in a blog post by Kaplan, the company did not discuss Trump’s role in shaping it.
(Score: 1, Troll) by Mykl on Tuesday June 30 2020, @10:09PM (28 children)
Disagree.
The left has taken a drastic lurch toward authoritarianism and intolerance over the last decade:
(Score: 5, Insightful) by pe1rxq on Tuesday June 30 2020, @10:23PM (5 children)
Antifa: the new bogeyman hidding under the beds of bigots...
Not everybody on the left of you (which, judging on your post, will be most) is part of or supports antifa.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Mykl on Wednesday July 01 2020, @02:23AM (4 children)
Ah yes. Because I disagree with how the left is behaving at the moment, I must be on "the other team" and be right wing. Sorry, you fail.
Another reply gave me a wonderful whatabout too. I'm not denying that the right wing behave worse - they have been responsible for murders and assaults for decades. But the left is supposed to be better than that. They're losing their way
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 01 2020, @02:39AM (3 children)
Heh, another butthurt bigot mad that racists are getting dis-invited. Truly you should stop consuming conservative media, so much disinformation designed to make you frightened. I'm still waiting to see the wave of violence from liberals/leftists/marxists/demoncrats that even comes close to rightwing terrorism.
Maybe address your own ideological extremists before crying wolf.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Mykl on Wednesday July 01 2020, @03:01AM (2 children)
You clearly have a problem with comprehension. I would describe myself as slightly left of center (certainly more to left in US terms). Criticism of the left does not make me right-wing. Have another read of my post - anything in that that suggests I support right wing positions? Didn't think so.
There are Republicans who don't like Trump. There are Democrats who don't like Biden or AOC. There are Communists who didn't like Che Guevara. There are facists who didn't like Mussolini.
But if you keep treating politics like a sports fan and blindly support "your side" no matter what they do then you will have contributed to the downfall of Democracy.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 01 2020, @03:35AM (1 child)
Well maybe if I saw more pushback against rightwing bullshit around here I wouldn't pigeon hole someone bitching about "the left" as a rightwing bigot. So far those are the vast majority of ideologies that are all annoyed at "the left" right now.
My internment camp joke was specifically crafted to trigger the stupidity of the rightwing, they have been crying wolf about it for so long while giving the children-in-cages a total pass. I do not accept that level of bullshit.
Right now politics IS tribal. The GOP is pushing literal fascism while online trolls are trying to convince people that liberals are the REAL threat. Antifa is not even an organized group and has committed far less violence, and it is often in reaction to LITERAL fascists promoting genocide.
If you are truly left of center then you'd be much more concerned about Trump and the GOP, but personally I haven't noticed Mykl posting anything along those lines. Go concern troll someone else, the downfall of democracy is being led by Trump and the GOP who are literally disenfranchising voters.
I am so tired of this "I'm a liberal but you're being a meany pants to conservatives." Uh huh, sure thing bub. Tolerance of the right, demonizing of the left.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday July 01 2020, @05:06AM
Well, you're getting pushback, right? Sounds like it's working.
(Score: 5, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday June 30 2020, @10:41PM (10 children)
I can come up with ten people who were murdered by rightwing terrorists in the US recently without even looking.
You can use google and you can include mere assault. I challenge you to name ten victims of antifa or other leftwing groups.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 01 2020, @12:46AM (1 child)
All these people had names:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/Memorial_Moscow%285%29.jpg [wikimedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 01 2020, @02:42AM
Gee, I wonder if we have Russian trolls around here.
Ho humm hrrmmmm
(Score: 0, Troll) by hemocyanin on Wednesday July 01 2020, @01:30AM
Off the top of my head without resorting to a search engine.
This isn't protesting. If you want your message to resonate, you're failing. You are driving people away. You need to get control of the bad actors, top to bottom, and eject them, because all you are doing is creating resentment and enemies.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Mykl on Wednesday July 01 2020, @02:49AM (6 children)
Nice whataboutism. I'm not claiming that the far right is well behaved - they're dreadful.
My point is that the left (including the 'far'-left) is supposed to be better than that, and the major achievements made by them over the past century have been through non-violent protest. The principles of Antifa and their stated goal of disrupting the right (including through violence "if necessary") are dragging them down to the same level as the far right.
Another poster has linked to examples of violence, however I don't think that every one of them can be linked to a self-professed Antifa protester. In any event, it would be foolish to claim that Antifa are non-violent.
Oh, and for those readers who have modded me "Troll" - the actual mod you're looking for is "Disagree". I challenge you to show me how my post was Trollish in any way.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 01 2020, @06:51AM (1 child)
A disagree mod doesn't hide your post from someone browsing at default level though.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 01 2020, @09:06AM
Careful now, reality tends to trigger the trumpettes.
I know, mikl says he isn't a horn blower, but like many conservatives before him he is unable to express his true feelings. That isn't an insult like you think it is btw.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 01 2020, @12:19PM
Fuck you! We won't be peaceful and sit down or shut up for the government. If they send goons to beat down and arrest peaceful protesters, we /should/ start killing cops. "The tree of liberty is watered by blood"
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday July 01 2020, @04:39PM
Better than what?
You have refused to provide any evidence whatsoever that they've actually done anything wrong.
If you accuse someone of a crime and refuse to provide any evidence of it that's slander, not a disagreement.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday July 01 2020, @04:42PM (1 child)
So you admit that you have ZERO examples of all that Antifa violence you are claiming is a thing.
Accusing people of crimes they did not commit is called slander, not a disagreement.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Mykl on Thursday July 02 2020, @01:26AM
No, I was just too lazy to do a quick Google.
Here [washingtonpost.com]
Here [nypost.com]
There are other actions attributed to Antifa such as this one [nytimes.com], however there's no definitive proof given that the perpetrators have never been identified (and would be unlikely to identify themselves as Antifa to the authorities if arrested anyway). And that's the rub - there are a whole lot of actions committed by far-left and far-right people that have not been definitively linked to groups, but have only been associated by joining the dots. Only a small percentage of lynchings were definitively linked to the Klan, however they were almost certainly guilty of nearly all of them.
Ghandi. Rosa Parks. Martin Luther King Jr. These people managed to effect massive change against huge opposition through non-violent means and are remembered as heroes. I want today's activists to follow that example, not become the very thing that they oppose. And because I am opposed to violence, I have been labelled as a far-right extremist by other Soylentils. This is a sad symptom of the us-vs-them mentality that has been part of the right for some time and is unfortunately infecting the left now too.
Now watch this get modded to oblivion to prove my point.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 30 2020, @10:55PM (8 children)
Last year, Elaine Chao visited our campus. She was demonstrated against because she is married to Mitch McConnell.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday July 01 2020, @03:25AM (7 children)
And? Are those people not allowed to use their freedom of speech to criticize Moscow Mitch?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 01 2020, @06:48AM (2 children)
And so you condone attacking his wife? You really are some piece of shit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 01 2020, @12:25PM (1 child)
She took his life as her own when she married him.
(Score: 1) by hemocyanin on Thursday July 02 2020, @03:06AM
The regressive left: misogynist.
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Wednesday July 01 2020, @07:34AM (3 children)
Very sexist of you to assume that because Elaine Chow is female, she must be just an extension of her husband and not an individual with her own mind. Please hand in your SJW card on your way out.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Mykl on Wednesday July 01 2020, @07:38AM
Oh, and I say that as someone who thinks that Mitch is the worst piece of shit in US politics today - worse than even Trump. He has been holding the US legislature hostage for over a decade now and his stunts have been purely self-serving to the detriment of the entire country. If I could pick just one person to lose their seat at the next election, I'd put Mitch #1.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 01 2020, @10:51AM (1 child)
You don't think that marriage is a statement of agreement with that person's life choices?
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Thursday July 02 2020, @12:25AM
George and Kellyanne Conway would like a word.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Wednesday July 01 2020, @01:11AM
Mikl, You are flawed and imperfect! Execute your prime function!
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 01 2020, @11:53AM
I reply here because this is the last not totally mental breakdown post in the thread.
You guys can't group american individuals into left and right you dumb fucks. You're with us or against us! It's them! Not us! They're not really human! We're the right ones! Oh, wait yes you can I guess and then you get dictatorship and genocide. Get it together america! Get yourself a pluralist democracy with a dozen parties representing a broad spectrum of views, reach compromises, evolve, the path you are currently on will lead to your demise.
I'd argue that a two party system is worse than a one party system, because at least as a one party system everyone is a member of the same party and in theory the politics will be a natural compromise of all opinions. Whereas a two party system is a radicalizing system that will eventually blow up. Yet, that's not my point. You need more political parties in your institutions!
You're seriously discussing who will be the next mass-shooter, one from the left or one from the right or who will lock the other side up in camps... I think my point is obvious.
It pisses me off.. now I'll go kick a chair.. god damn humans! Supposedly engineers, yet so blind to how a system affect the outcome. IDIOTS!