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Censorship Communications Facebook Government Social Networks The Internet Twitter United States Youtube Politics

White House Launches Tool To Report Political Bias On Social Media Sites (theverge.com) 402

On Wednesday, the White House launched a new tool for people to use if they feel they've been wrongly censored, banned, or suspended on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. "No matter your views, if you suspect political bias caused such an action to be taken against you, share your story with President Trump," the site reads. The Verge reports: The tool asks users for screenshots and links regarding specific enforcement actions, specifying Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube as platforms of interest. (None of the companies immediately responded to a request for comment.) The tool also collects significant personal information from the user, and near the end invites users to opt into email newsletters from President Trump, "so we can update you without relying on platforms like Facebook and Twitter." A separate question points users to an extensive user agreement, and makes clear that "you understand this form is for information gathering only."
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White House Launches Tool To Report Political Bias On Social Media Sites

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  • by Nick ( 109 ) on Wednesday May 15, 2019 @05:15PM (#58599094) Journal
    The Autocracy is already here.
    • by eaglesrule ( 4607947 ) <eaglesrule@nospam.pm.me> on Wednesday May 15, 2019 @06:29PM (#58599502)

      There is no Autocracy. There is no bias. That is a conspiracy theory.

      We do not take sides. We believe in freedom of speech. We have the right to freedom of association to ban those whose speech does not adhere to our community guidelines. We have the right to ban those whose speech does adhere to our community guidelines. We are a public platform and not a publisher.

      Your speech from five years ago has been found to be offensive.
      Oops, you apparently have some political power. The banning was an accident.
      No all the sites banning you at once was not collusion.
      You are now denied service by the payment processor cartel. Your appeals are also denied.
      The hate mob actively working to deplatform and dox you does not violate our terms of service.
      We will not allow you to be searched for, only those who debunk your theories.
      Your continued insistence to not dissapear from public view has some people feel uncomfortable or unsafe. Therefore you are a dangerous person, an extremist, or a terrorist.

      You are a threat to our democracy.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Most people don't want to share a social network with Nazis. Therefore he social networks kick them off. If you force them to keep the Nazis, they will either wither and die or move overseas where your draconian laws can't touch them.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          Most people don't want to share a social network with Nazis

          Where "Nazi" is defined in a suitably flexible way.

        • Sometimes I can't tell if what you post is satire or stupidity.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Nick ( 109 )

        This is the biggest load of horse shit I've read on Slashdot going back to its very inception.

        The media has been declared an enemy of the people;
        No more White House press briefings;
        Obstruction of Justice;
        Travel bans;
        Legislative oversight has been refused, denied, ignored;
        Children in cages;
        Judiciary has been delegitimized;
        Incitements of violence;
        Rally after rally after rally filled to the brim with Orwellian lies.

        The Autocracy is here.

        The DOJ has refused MULTIPLE subpeonas from the House.

        THE AUTOCRACY IS HER

    • But you proved that the hyperbole was first.

  • How cute! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Cyberax ( 705495 ) on Wednesday May 15, 2019 @05:16PM (#58599104)
    How cute! WhiteHouse messing with private platforms. Though I guess the code was simple: "Does this media outlet report the truth? If yes: liberal bias."
  • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Wednesday May 15, 2019 @05:23PM (#58599134)
    this is not normal.

    Also, where was the libertarian outrage when Trump praised Xi [reuters.com] for declaring himself President for Life? Can you imagine the shit storm if Obama had done that? I can't. It's like trying to imagine infinity. I understand the concept but the human mind just can't grasp some things...
    • by impossiblefork ( 978205 ) on Wednesday May 15, 2019 @06:50PM (#58599596)
      I don't agree.

      Instead, I think this is genuinely important. All platforms aren't slashdot and on places like reddit political censorship is very real, in part done by mods and in part enforced by the site itself.

      After the bomb attacks by a Muslim group on Christians in Sri Lanka /r/worldnews, a subreddit with six times the number of subscribers that the New York Times has, had at one point deleted 57.5% of all comments and it temporarily reached above 60% before dropping to 38.3% as comments arrived. Most of the comments removed were uncontroversial and broke no rules; and many highly upvoted comments were deleted. Particularly interesting is that there were deletions of any mention of previous reddit censorship, and lack of media coverage.

      /r/news has a rule that only one post about an event may be kept and the post the moderators allowed was one by Al Arabiya, a media company controlled by the Saudi State, broadcasting primarily in Arabic, which lacked many pertinent facts that were known at the time, such as that the victims were Christians or that the perpetrators were a Muslim group. It also, performed similar censorship in that thread.
      • You don't agree... with what? The parent said two things, "this is not normal," and, "libertarians are raging hypocrites." You haven't addressed either of those things.
    • Also, where was the libertarian outrage when Trump praised Xi [reuters.com] for declaring himself President for Life? Can you imagine the shit storm if Obama had done that? I can't. It's like trying to imagine infinity. I understand the concept but the human mind just can't grasp some things...

      It turns out POTUS can constantly say dumb things and get away with it. Who knew?

  • and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
  • by bobbied ( 2522392 ) on Wednesday May 15, 2019 @05:34PM (#58599192)

    This "tool" isn't hosted or mentioned on either the official White House website OR Trump's 2020 campaign site that I have found....

    Where I certainly don't know for sure, this may be "fake news"... Just sayin'

    Does anybody have actual confirmation from some official source, Sara Sanders, An official announcement or even a Trump Tweet that points to this? We really need to make sure this is official before we start into this debate too far..

    • Agreed. It is hosted on a "survey" platform, so anyone for $700 could put this up and "claim" to be the White House.

      Sorry I don't have any mod points.

      • What about the Trump administration makes you think that conducting official business with surveymonkey is out of character?

    • ... actual confirmation from some official source, Sara Sanders ...

      • ... actual confirmation from some official source, Sara Sanders ...

        Oxymoron : a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction

        You mean the official press sectary isn't an official source or she would be unable to officially confirm this came from the White House if it had?

        Who's the moron here?

        • I think the point was that Huckabee-Sanders goes out and tells bald faced lies and political propaganda to the press and public every day, so isn't credible, despite her position as Press Secretary.
      • ... Are you saying the White House Press Secretary is not an official source?

    • We really need to make sure this is official before we start into this debate too far..

      Now that's just crazy talk...

    • Yow dawg, I heard you like fake news. So I built some fake news about reporting fake news of fake news so you can fake news about your fake news...
    • we're still left questioning if Trump really did this. I mean, pre-Trump I would have just wrote this off as fake then and there.

      That said, I get this kind of stuff all the time as fundraising crap. I gave Bernie $50 bucks so I'm on every fundraising list on earth now. I get emails from "Nancy Pelosi" of all people hitting me up for "questionnaires" that always seem to end with a place for me to put my CC details in... So it's possible this is nothing more than a way to get names/addresses from politica
      • "We are aware of the connectivity issues some players are experiencing. We are investigating and working on a solution."

        Before Trump, you still believed the news wasnt fake, and the term "fake news" wasnt even a thing.

        The media coined the term "fake news" and then it backfired on them because most people arent stupid.

    • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 15, 2019 @06:14PM (#58599438)

      Try the Official WhiteHouse Twitter pimping it...

      https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1128765001223663617

      • Which goes to a shortening service which goes to that site.

        This is all a bit shady AF. Or incompetent. Not sure which yet. Doesn't pass the smell test.

  • Irony (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Rick Zeman ( 15628 ) on Wednesday May 15, 2019 @05:35PM (#58599198)

    The greatest irony here is that if Twitter followed their own terms of service, Drumpf would have been banned himself.

  • Its hosted on a public non .gov website with a aws issued certificate. It doesn't appear to be announced on Trump's crazy twitter, or whitehouse.gov either.

    I predict it will take maybe 10 minutes before bots are filling this out with nonsense data.

  • These websites are literally allowed to discriminate against users for any reason. They aren't doing that (users are the product, duh!) but if they desired to then they have the right to do so because they are offering you a service without charge.

    I'm pretty sure our President is suffering from stage 4 windmill sound cancer. ;)

  • Viva! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Wednesday May 15, 2019 @06:15PM (#58599452) Journal

    Next, we need a tool on whitehouse.gov where we can report anyone on social media who does not agree that the President's new suit of clothes is exceptionally fine and makes him look young and slender.

  • "so we can update you without relying on platforms like Facebook and Twitter."

    Translation: Those web sites are on to us so let us know how to continue sending you crazy wingnut propaganda, bizarre conspiracy theories, and come-ons for campaign donations.

  • I just used the form to let them know that I was banned from Breitbart. I hope the white house goes after them.
  • I'm pretty sure everyone on Slashdot is aware of the common mantra that's tossed about. Laws need to be modernize. What I'm not at all surprised is how there were tons in the public and early days of the Internet screaming from the hills "Light Touch Internet!!!". Well let's see what happens when we regulate something as absolutely as little as possible.... Oh that's right, folks sitting around a table talking about profit get to set the ground rules.

    Absolute shock.

    Now someone's feelings are being hur

  • It's just a show, you fill in the form, they'll do nothing with it, they say so themselves;

    "you understand this form is for information gathering only."

If all else fails, lower your standards.

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