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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsKremlin Calls Facebooks Removal of Troll Farm Censorship
https://www.thedailybeast.com/kremlin-calls-facebooks-removal-of-troll-farm-censorship?ref=home
Kremlin Calls Facebooks Removal of Troll Farm Censorship
The Kremlin has criticized Facebook for removing dozens of accounts run by a Russian internet troll farm, saying it amounts to censorship. On Tuesday, the company announced it had deleted 70 Facebook accounts, 138 Facebook pages, and 65 Instagram accounts run by the Russia-based Internet Research Agencya site that operated to impersonate Americans to exacerbate political divisions ahead of the 2016 president election. Speaking Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov agreed with a questioner from one of the media outlets affected by the deletionsthat it was a hostile step that smacked of censorship. Yes it is, Peskov told a conference call with reporters. We are of course following this and we regret it.
Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)I suspect that they would understand censorship as I understand that they have some experience with it through the last few decades. As to removing bots from a social media service being censorship, I think that they may have misunderstood just how it all works.
usaf-vet
(6,212 posts)as humans the "Russian Bots United" legislation. Where bots are granted the rights to lie to American Voters
Generic Brad
(14,276 posts)But, were they Americans, they would have known that.
TNNurse
(6,929 posts)Ignorance is rampant there.
X_Digger
(18,585 posts)The first amendment (all the BoR) is a protection from government action. Facebook could delete your account for political speech, or religious speech of any stripe, and it would have no bearing on the first amendment.
BlueMTexpat
(15,373 posts)bitterross
(4,066 posts)No private company is bound by the 1st Amendment. Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc. are free to censor speech. Our major broadcast networks (think Sinclair) do it all the time.
So very true
Facebook, Twitter, etal can choose to allow or prohibit whatever they choose.
sharedvalues
(6,916 posts)Link to tweet
?s=20
Nitram
(22,890 posts)haven't committed treason because "we are not at war with Russia."
gordianot
(15,245 posts)No matter if you are an Imperial Royal Dynasty, Revolutionary Socialist Communist State, or run by former Communist in a capitalist Democratic reboot; Russia is historically dangerous to their own citizens and a world threat. Combine Russia with the worst America can produce is a recipe for an epic world wide catastrophe.
titaniumsalute
(4,742 posts)They run nearly all TV and radio stations in Russia at some level.
ck4829
(35,091 posts)Roland99
(53,342 posts)HAB911
(8,916 posts)gratuitous
(82,849 posts)The first words of the First Amendment are, "Congress shall make no law . . ." Last I checked, Facebook wasn't Congress.
tymorial
(3,433 posts)luvtheGWN
(1,336 posts)At least Comrade Peskov is admitting that the troll farm exists.
Gosh, you just can't make this stuff up, can you? What world are we living in? -- I ask myself this every day.
muntrv
(14,505 posts)sarge43
(28,945 posts)Just when you think the hypocrisy can't get anymore hypocritical ...
Augiedog
(2,548 posts)killing the goose that provided a place for it to thrive and to lay a golden egg. I heard something on the radio, I know, I know that really dates me, but anyway...greed is not good, ambition is good. Its a concerning notion that all is ok in the pursuit of cash. Just look what that has done to our politicians and our politics.
If a Islamic owned Facebook was doing this the right wing nuts would be going crazy.
lpbk2713
(42,766 posts)It's disappointing they couldn't do better than this.
workinclasszero
(28,270 posts)Really?
FO Boris, you have no rights to anything in this country!!!!
Their Russian troll farms are an act of WAR against the USA and if we didn't have a traitor POTUS and a traitor party backing him up we could successfully shutdown this cyber war and make Mother Russia pay!!!
sdfernando
(4,941 posts)the Kremlin crowing about censorship?
LiberalFighter
(51,096 posts)Mc Mike
(9,115 posts)Hekate
(90,828 posts)He laughs every day while pulling Trump's strings. He laughs every day while contributing to the destruction of Western democracies.
Wow.
Mc Mike
(9,115 posts)Never thought any negative thing about your slant on the issues. Never bumped into you personally before. That being said:
Yes I'm being serious in my critique of Vlad. Yes, I know who Putin is. The o.p. shows him whining, that's the point of the entire news story. Can't see what you possibly feel someone who has negative motives against America, the Dems, the site, the truth, would gain from a statement like mine.
Kremlin whines about Facebook censorship? I stand pat on my assessment of that whiny little bitch. He's also a world class hypocrite.
Hekate
(90,828 posts)Renew Deal
(81,875 posts)Hekate
(90,828 posts)You know what it reminds me of -- only on a global scale? The trolls (or charitably, the uninformed) who over the years have accused DU of "censorship" and of "violating their First Amendment rights."
Putin, however, is not uninformed, but a master manipulator.
Mc Mike
(9,115 posts)He, and his repug buddies, are constantly engaged in a 2 part double think strategy. Go on the attack, then immediately whine about how they're 'being attacked'.
Having to discuss their version of reality with them, about how they're the 'real victim' here, lets them make another kind of attack, is itself a psy op. It's the exact same strategy an 8 year old school yard bully will sometimes 'ingeniously' hit upon, when they grab a smaller kid's hand, and smack the smaller kid's face with that hand, while saying 'stop hitting yourself'.
There's no argument to be made by the smaller kid, against the 8 year old bully's stupid statement, any word the smaller kid says disagreeing about the reality of the situation is another victory for the bully. Because they're discussing the 'merits' of the bully's argument about reality, while the bully is in reality currently engaged in attacking, physically, with the smacks. The lying words are another attack, an attempted psy op, an attempted head spin.
Hekate
(90,828 posts)...in fact, he is one happy fella.
Mc Mike
(9,115 posts)Delighted to see attacks against our feds and intel, and NATO and all our allies, our economy, military preparedness, infrastructure. Delighted about Syria, Ukraine.
I just saw a little piece of O'Reilly's new pay podcast, where he was whining about the 'attack on whites' politically, how the US is just throwing out whites from elected positions, so minorities can take over politically. Striking that the repug party, the alt right nazis and birchers, and the fake news propagandists all scream and cry about how unfair the world is against them, how they're 'being attacked.'
The MRA's attack women, then scream and cry about how they're being attacked, and everyone should listen to their whines and whinges. The 'surpremacists' attack all Black and Browns, then scream about how their scary dark enemies are attacking 'poor Whitey'. They attack Jews and Moslems, then scream about how christianity is being attacked. Gun nuts rack up a big bodycount, then we hear them whine about how the bad guys (U.S. school kids) are attacking them and trying to take their guns. etc.
They do this all the time, standard operating procedure. Attack and cry that you're being attacked. Having to hear their whining is an attack on our ear drums and mental sensibilities. It's an offense, offensive. The best defense is a good offense, an offense that occurs while you're offensively whining that you 'have to defend yourself.' Those whines are another offense, an obscenely offensive offense.
Krugman dug up Kissinger's Doctoral thesis for the intro of his book The Great Unraveling. The nazi repugs, both the tRump dirtbags and the birchers who took over the mainstream GOP, Ryan, the teabags, etc. are a revolutionary power in their own minds, so is Nigel and Boris, Britain First, Le Pen, Putin. They're all buddies. They want a nazi dictatorship, or a 'caucasian nationalist Stalinist dictatorship'. Prof Paul quoted Henry's writing -- "The distinguishing feature of a revolutionary power is not that it feels threatened ... but that nothing can reassure it."
So they keep making attacks, trying to gain ground in every area they want to put down their 'enemies' and opposition. Then they also keep going on the mainstream media to scream and cry about how they're 'the real victims here'. They've gamed the refs for decades about how unfair the mainstream media is to them, so we get to hear hours of them whining on the mainstream media about how unfair the mainstream media is to their point of view version of reality. While they have an army of OReilly fake media sources backing them up and attacking reality for them all the time. They whine about fake news, on the real news, while calling it fake news.
They want a complete nazi take over, and they can never be reassured no matter how many levers of power they've grabbed, how many attack-political-enemies irons-in-the-fire they have going.
That being the case, it all comes down to do they believe it? In their heads, are they the victims?
Despite their attempt to have a doublethink style reality where both things are true, there is just an either or possibility here. Either they believe it, Poor O'Reilly thinks they're being attacked. Il Douche A thinks he's being attacked. They believe it. So they're really whining.
Or Putin and his nazi buddies know they're lying while they're whining about being attacked, know they're on the attack but feel the need to whine for the record, about how they're being attacked. They're completely self assured but saying they need reassurances. We in the reality based community have to be the adults and reassure the scared child by humming him a bedtime lullaby that sounds like 'make the world go away'. We have to seriously entertain the 'stop hitting yourself' thesis, and say 'there there, it will be all right' while this obnoxious little dead eyed runt sore loser poisoner would be world ruler who's an 8 year old school yard bully in short pants hits us with our own hand and says he's the victim who wants it to stop.
Either they believe it, and they're whining about it, or they don't believe it, and are whining about it. I'd like to just cut to the chase, go bumper sticker mentality on the nazis and putinistas, and just say 'stop whining about it, you whiny little bitch.' (Hard to believe I'd say that after droning on and on for all those paras, but it's true.) When dealing with those jag offs, it's sometimes best to just cut to the chase and not do nuance. Bumper sticker them. That's all they ever do. 'build the wall, lock her up, drain the swamp, maga, fake news'. It's an effective tactic against the tee rump teabags a lot of the time, though I agree that it's important to keep polonium Vlad's actual death squad armed incursion tactics and style in mind.
Sanctions were working, the existing ones are driving Vlad and his buddies into the ground. The new ones will hammer the last nail into Vlad's kleptocrat group's coffin, financially. They won't be able to get their stolen billions out, won't be able to make any financial moves. Less money, less adherents and people who fear them.
Mc Mike
(9,115 posts)I'd prefer to kick Vlad in the ding ding, when he's telling me to stop smacking myself, and then tell him 'stop kicking yourself in the ding ding'.
peggysue2
(10,842 posts)The Kremlin has the gall to mention censorship? Really? What about the journalists they've murdered because their work was inconvenient for the Kremlin or Russian dissenters they've snuffed out, thrown in prison and silenced for their opposition. Anna Politikovskaya, Alexander Litvinenko, Sergi Maginitsky, Navalny, anyone? The list goes on and on. Not to mention all the mysterious deaths of Russian diplomats during and after the 2016 election cycle.
Censorship much??
Then again, it wouldn't surprise me if a Nunes or Rohrabacher type claim that 'bots are people, too,' try to fold them into Citizens United.
Incredible!
ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)Solly Mack
(90,787 posts)malthaussen
(17,217 posts)And so what? Facebook is a company, not a government agency.
-- Mal
Chemisse
(30,817 posts)It's so sad that nobody has an obligation to ensure their free speech at a private company in a foreign country.
BobTheSubgenius
(11,571 posts)It's a corporate entity, and has the right to make decisions about its business model without asking you first. As long as it is operating within the bounds of US law, there's little that can be said about its decisions.