Misogyny is Facebook Approved

It appears that FB now allows women to be referred to as property.

I have never trusted Facebook or that prick Zuck and now this just shows that I was correct to distrust this prick.

Meta’s new hate speech rules — or lack thereof — now allow users to make shockingly misogynistic claims on the company’s social networks.

A perusal of the latest update to Meta’s “hateful conduct” rules reveals that a number of rules that barred users from comparing minorities to inanimate objects, including references to “women as household objects or property,” have been removed.

As part of the tech company’s transparency efforts, users are able not only to see updates to policies, but also a change log of what had been added and stricken out between updates.

For its January 7, 2025 update — which went into effect seemingly just after CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced yesterday a sweeping content overhaul that was derided as a clear effort to curry favor with president-elect Donald Trump — Meta’s confusing new rules strike out a number of formerly prohibited types of speech, much of which relates to women and gender minorities.

Among the strikethroughs in the “hateful conduct” policy change log is the removal of a section barring users from comparing people to inanimate objects or “non-human states.” That rule, now rescinded, banned referring to women “as household objects or property or objects in general.”

You don’t have to a be a scholar in feminist theory to know why it’s seriously messed up to refer to a woman as someone else’s property — and that’s without getting into the history of chattel slavery in the United States, when white men owned and abused Black women for hundreds of years.

In the age of Trump 2.0, the concept of a man “owning” a woman is a logical — and terrifying — endpoint of the so-called “trad wife” movement, which seeks to reinstate traditional gender roles by will or by force. It’s also the undercurrent of the anti-choice push that the president-elect’s cronies hope to enact further once he takes office again in a few weeks.

That same regressive and misogynistic energy also seems to be on display in another peculiar removal from Meta’s new hateful conduct policy.

While the policy used to ban “generalizations that state inferiority” based on physical appearance and sexual activity — like calling people “slut,” “whore,” or “pervert,” per the old rules — the new overhaul now simply prohibits “insults” about character.

Though the new update added language saying that users should not post allegations about another person’s “sexual promiscuity or other sexual immorality,” it’s unclear what the difference between that addition and the exclusion of the “slut” and “whore” language would be, and we’ve reached out to Meta for clarification about that.

Within the context of Zuckerberg’s newfound Trump fandom, meanwhile, this policy overhaul feels very much like the “grab ’em by the pussy“-era misogyny of the president-elect’s 2016 campaign — and Meta has a lot of explaining to do if it wants the women who use its platforms to believe any different.

(futurism.com)

For the life of me I cannot see why anyone would use or continue to use this platform…..he has his subscribers by the nuts and they love it.

How sick is that?

Then I read an op-ed about time to pull the plug on FB…..I have been saying that for years…..please do it….and do it NOW!

There’s a guy named Christopher Langan who claims, because of his alleged super-high IQ, to be the smartest person in the United States. And maybe he is—I have no idea because I am decidedly not. But when Langan appeared in 2008 on the TV quiz show 1 vs 100, he fell short of the top prize widely seen as a gimme for a genius. And what struck most wasn’t just that he failed to win the million dollars on offer, but that he was forced to use the “ask the mob” option so early in his appearance, turning to them twice at the $100,000 level to answer a question about Abbott & Costello.

I was reminded of this moment while reading the news of Meta’s decision to suspend its third-party fact checking program, and to replace it with a “Community Notes” system modeled on Elon Musk’s Twitter. (I will not call it “X” because that’s a stupid name and I see no reason to honor somebody’s request not to deadname their company when they refuse to do the same for their own daughter.)

https://www.thedailybeast.com/status-update-its-time-to-pull-the-plug-on-facebook/

This final part is for all those that are interested in getting out of Facebook….

Facebook has been a staple for many people for nearly — checks notes — two decades at this point. But there are several reasons why you might finally be considering deleting your account. Whether you’re concerned about privacy, want to reduce time spent on social media, or simply no longer find Facebook useful, deleting your account is a huge step toward a digital detox — one that comes with both benefits and consequences.

Before you go through with it, let’s go over what deleting Facebook means and how to do it on different devices.

When you delete your Facebook account, it’s permanent. Most of your data — including your profile, photos, posts, and videos — will be permanently removed without the possibility of recovery. Some residual information, like messages sent to friends, will remain visible in their inboxes. You’ll also lose access to any apps or services you logged into using your Facebook account, such as Spotify or Pinterest, so you need to reset your login credentials with the various platforms to continue using them.

https://www.pocket-lint.com/how-to-delete-facebook-account/

I cannot vouch for the accuracy of this article for like I have said many times…I have NEVER been on Facebook so I do not need to delete my account….but if you try please let my readers know if it is accurate.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Creepy Line

This is a rare occasion for IST….I do not normally review books or film for my tastes would probably bore the crap out of my readers….but from time to time I see or read something that I feel all should be exposed to in some small way.

It is Sunday and I try to be an FYI blog so today’s post is the control of society by Google and Facebook.

It is no secret that I am no fan of social media…..I use to use Twitter as a news feed but have not been on the site for over a year, my wife goes on my site but I have abstained….I have never been a member of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Tiktoc, of any other social media….basically I do not want to share every minute of my life with the world….I could care less about their make-up secrets, of fashion knowledge, or the food they eat…..for me all that is a huge waste of time and those who do are just seeking some sort of validation.

A few years ago I made my thoughts known on this leech on society….

Social Media Is The Mind Killer

All that aside I recently came across a film that explains just how Google, Facebook and others are manipulating society and the individual.

The title of this film is “The Creepy Line” and it is available on IMDb…..

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8896670/

You may think you know all about these social titans but you have NO idea just how deep the manipulation is to our society.

Just watch the damn film and learn something!

I liked the film because you did not need a degree from MIT to understand just how these sites are manipulating and changing society….IMO they are turning society into a pack of idiots.

Please take some time and watch the film it is an eye opener…..it exposes our addiction to social media and the consequences of that addiction.

Have a great day….Be Well….Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Violence Against The Russian People

I post this because we Americans will gladly hate a people….which is so sad.

The people of Russia are in the dark about this war in Ukraine….thanks to the tight control Putin and his government has over the content they are allowed to see and hear.

But even the hypocrisy and cynicism we have seen to this point by Big Social Media does not prepare one for a shocking development today, as first reported by Reuters and then picked up by the Washington Post: Facebook (and Facebook-owned Instagram) have “updated” their “Community Standards” guidelines and will now allow calls for violence against Russians.

Yes that’s right. Russians – not the Russian government or the Russian economy, or even top Russian political figures but just plain old Russians – are now subject to new guidelines that ALLOW rather than forbid “Hate Speech” and even actual calls for violence!

It is very clear that we are not progressing as a society toward ever-more liberal values. We are regressing to a violent, feral state. Endlessly looking inward for enemies to destroy. “Anti-vaxxers,” Trump voters, and now just plain old everyday Russians. Kill them. They are evil. Is this OK?

Facebook, a de facto arm of government, is now encouraging calls for violence against innocent people who happen to be of a particular race or ethnic background or linguistic group.

Race-hate of an unpopular ethnic and religions group? Haven’t we seen this horrific movie before?

(antiwar.com)

Seriously?

So it is perfectly OK to use violence against a people that have no idea what is happening in Ukraine……how sad.

Actress Mila Kunis, who is Ukrainian, has made a statement about this……

Mila Kunis says she has always felt far more like an American than an Eastern European—but when Russia invaded Ukraine, it felt like “part of my heart just got ripped out.” Kunis was born in Chernivtsi, southern Ukraine, and moved to the US with her family in 1991, when she was 7. In an interview with Maria Shriver, she said the world should blame the people in power in Russia for the conflict, but ordinary Russians shouldn’t be seen as the enemy, the Hill reports. “I do really want to emphasize that. I don’t think that that’s being said enough in the press,” Kunis said.

“I don’t think it’s the people of Russia, so I don’t want there to be a thing of all Russians are horrible human beings,” Kunis told Shriver, per People. “I don’t want that to be the rhetoric.” Kunis and her husband, Ashton Kutcher, started a GoFundMe fundraiser last week to support refugees and humanitarian aid efforts. It has now raised more than $20 million, with Kunis and Kutcher contributing $3 million. The full interview will be released Sunday via Shriver’s Sunday Paper newsletter.

I agree….do not hate a people for the stupidity of their leaders.

But sadly I feel this will all fall on deaf ears….for Americans seem to have to have someone to hate.

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Big Tech For Voter Suppression

Do you use Facebook?

We all use Google.

What do you think of all the voter suppression in many states?

How does all these questions relate?

In the first quarter of 2021, Facebook, Google, and several other major American companies donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to a Republican political group that advocates for voter suppression laws around the United States.

Facebook donated $50,000, and Google donated $20,000, according to a new report from Popular Information, alongside a $50,000 donation from AT&T and $100,000+ donations from two major pharmaceutical companies: Eli Lilly and AstraZeneca.

The organization that received those donations — the Republican State Leadership Committee — describes itself as, “the largest national organization focused on electing Republicans to state offices in every corner of the nation.”

The RSLC supports Republican candidates that have supported voter suppression laws, and itself advocates for said laws.

https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-google-donated-tens-of-thousands-to-republicans-this-year-2021-4

So the very sites that you use to stay in touch and/or get information have spent time and money helping these voter suppression laws by Repubs get passed.

Then there is AstraZeneca…the vaccine hero for the pandemic…….helping save lives all the while working to help suppress the vote….a perfect example of the slim in corporate world.

Facebook and the others were not alone….

Since 2015, AT&T, Comcast, UnitedHealth Group, Walmart, and other big businesses have donated a combined $50 million to state Republican lawmakers who are currently supporting voter suppression bills across the United States—generous political spending at odds with recent corporate efforts to rebrand as defenders of voting rights.

A new report (pdf) released Monday morning by consumer advocacy group Public Citizen found that during the 2020 election cycle alone, U.S. corporations donated $22 million to Republican architects of voter suppression bills that are advancing through state legislatures nationwide.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/04/05/follow-money-corporations-gave-50-million-gop-lawmakers-behind-voter-suppression

Read the pdf and weep for our nation.

You still think these sites are indispensable to your life?

Maybe it is time to stop letting these corporate slugs run and ruin your life.

Thoughts?

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–21May19

By now we all have heard that Russia diddled around in our elections and have also done the same for other “Western” countries……and they have been condemned by most people that know of their interference.

Of course they are not the only one that has attempted to diddle….some say China, North Korea, even Iran possibly…..this is reported by our dynamite media…they want us and the world to know of these attempts…..

But there is one that is not getting any attention and as usual the MSM is protecting one country from criticism…….

Facebook said Thursday it banned an Israeli company that ran an influence campaign aimed at disrupting elections in various countries and has canceled dozens of accounts engaged in spreading disinformation.

Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy, told reporters that the tech giant had purged 65 Israeli accounts, 161 pages, dozens of groups and four Instagram accounts.

Although Facebook said the individuals behind the network attempted to conceal their identities, it discovered that many were linked to the Archimedes Group, a Tel Aviv-based political consulting and lobbying firm that publicly boasts of its social media skills and ability to “change reality.”

“It’s a real communications firm making money through the dissemination of fake news,” said Graham Brookie, director of the Digital Forensic Research Lab at the Atlantic Council, a think tank collaborating with Facebook to expose and explain disinformation campaigns.

https://www.apnews.com/7d334cb8793f49889be1bbf89f47ae5c

The MSM made sure to report on the Eurovision piece of crap but have not thought it was important enough to report on their meddling……so damn typical!

At least Facebook has stepped up….but I think it is more because of the bad press they have gotten recently more than any serious concern……

Facebook In The News

Closing Thought–03May19

Everybody’s favorite site, Facebook, well almost everyone’s….I have NEVER used Facebook and will never in the future….I do not feel the need to share that much of my life……

Poor Zuck has had his bad news in the past couple of years….from investigations to calls for his baby, Facebook, to be broken up…..The Zuck has fought governmental control until recently…..with all his troubles he now wants the government to handle all of it for him…….typical BS as usual from him.

Facebook made the news by banning hate speech and hate sites from their media……

Facebook announced Thursday afternoon that it had designated some high-profile people, including Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who’s notorious for using anti-Semitic language, and right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, as “dangerous” and said it will be purging them from its platforms.Jones and his media outlet InfoWars had previously been banned from Facebook (FB) in August 2018, but had maintained a presence on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook. On Thursday, Jones and InfoWars will be barred from Instagram as well. Other people banned on Thursday included Paul Nehlen, an anti-Semite who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2016 and 2018, and fringe right-wing media personalities Laura Loomer, Milo Yiannopoulos and Paul Joseph Watson.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/02/tech/facebook-ban-louis-farrakhan-infowars-alex-jones-milo-laura-loomer/index.html

Of course I think this is a good thing….but I also see where a 1st amendment battle may ensue…..

Then there is more bad news for Facebook….it appears that their platform has been used for the sell of illegally obtain artifacts from Iraq and Syria……….

Facebook is being used by networks of traffickers to buy and sell looted antiquities, the BBC has learned.

Private groups also discuss how to illegally excavate ancient tombs, according to research by academics.

Facebook says it has removed 49 groups following the BBC’s investigation.

The BBC has also seen evidence that antiquities are still being smuggled from Iraq and Syria into Turkey, despite a police clampdown and the retreat of the Islamic State group.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-47628369

Read that!

Facebook closed down 49 sites after the BBC investigation. They do not act until someone else does the heavy lifting for them.

Sorry…time for Facebook to be broken up into manageable sites for they are not so today. What do they do for the money they make?

The time for me to step back and get my stuff ready for the weekend…..

Closing Thought–26Mar19

This post illustrates just how accurate the saying is…”You Can’t Fix Stupid!”

I read a great story about how some guy milked $122 million out of Google and Facebook….that is $122 million!

Last week, Evaldas Rimasauskas of Lithuania plead guilty to US wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering charges, admitting that he had stolen $99m from Facebook and $23m from Google between 2013 and 2015.

Rimasauskas’s grift was pretty bold. He merely sent Google and Facebook invoices for items they hadn’t purchased and that he hadn’t provided, which the companies paid anyway. The invoices were accompanied by “forged invoices, contracts, and letters that falsely appeared to have been executed and signed by executives and agents of the Victim Companies, and which bore false corporate stamps embossed with the Victim Companies’ names, to be submitted to banks in support of the large volume of funds that were fraudulently transmitted via wire transfer.” He also spoofed emails that appeared to come from corporate execs.

Apparently, no one checked first to see if these corresponded to invoices/POs that had been issued within the companies.

Rimasauskas was pretending to be the giant Taiwanese hardware manufacturer Quanta Computer Inc, and had registered a company in Latvia with the same name.

He’s agreed to forfeit about $50m. It’s not clear what’s happened to the other $73m, but Rimasauskas was a prolific and baroque money-launderer who squirreled cash away in Cyprus, Lithuania, Hungary, Slovakia, and Latvia. Google has said that “We detected this fraud and promptly alerted the authorities. We recouped the funds and we’re pleased this matter is resolved.”

Rimasauskas will be sentenced on July 29. He faces up to 30 years.

Say if Google and Facebook did not vet the bills they received then I say let the guy keep his ill-gotten gains…

But they is just me.

The “Selfie” Body Count

I recently wrote about a tourist in Michigan that walked off a cliff trying to take a selfie to post wherever those damn things are posted……https://lobotero.com/2018/09/30/was-that-selfie-worth-it/

But just how many have been dumb enough to injure themselves for the sake of a “selfie”……

A study investigating the increasing problem of fatalities that stem from victims taking selfies in dangerous locales has placed a body count on the preventable tragedy, per the Washington Post. In the study titled “Selfies: A boon or bane?” researchers published findings in the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care that estimate some 259 people worldwide perished between October 2011 to November 2017 while attempting to take photos. The study came up with the number by looking at English-language news reports from across the globe. The data was broken down in some surprising ways. For instance, when countries were tallied separately, the data revealed that incidents in India accounted for 50% of all reported selfie deaths, followed in prevalence by Russia, the US, and Pakistan, in that order. Drowning was found to be the most common cause.

One such drowning occurred just last month when a selfie-taker plunged 200 feet off a cliff into Lake Superior. In July, a 19-year-old Mormon missionary from Utah suffered a similar fate in Australia. About 72.5% of victims were found to be males and half of all victims were between the ages of 20 and 29. Per Fox News, such tragedies led study authors to conclude there’s a need for “no selfie zones” around problem areas including “water bodies, mountain peaks, and over tall buildings” in order to warn prospective self-takers of the inherent dangers. “Selfies are themselves not harmful, but the human behavior that accompanies selfies is dangerous,” wrote lead author Agam Bansal. “Individuals need to be educated regarding certain risky behaviors and risky places where selfies should not be taken.”

There is your answer to one of the most baffling causes of death there is…..

Propaganda and Social Media

I have accused the MSM of being nothing more than an extension of the M-IC…ever since the Clinton admin made it possible for corporations to own the news.

The MSM tells us which wars to support, which party is the best…..and then social media became prominent and it is now a good source for propaganda..

But first one disses one needs to understand what propaganda is…….and I can help with that chore…….

https://lobotero.com/2013/01/11/what-is-propaganda/

https://lobotero.com/2014/01/06/propaganda-2-0/

Facebook will do its part…..

Media giant Facebook recently announced (Reuters9/19/18) it would combat “fake news” by partnering with two propaganda organizations founded and funded by the US government: the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI). The social media platform was already working closely with the NATO-sponsored Atlantic Council think tank (FAIR.org5/21/18).

In a previous FAIR article (8/22/18), I noted that the “fake news” issue was being used as a pretext to attack the left and progressive news sites. Changes to Facebook’s algorithm have reduced traffic significantly for progressive outlets like Common Dreams (5/3/18), while the pages of Venezuelan government–backed TeleSur English and the independent Venezuelanalysis were shut down without warning, and only reinstated after a public outcry.

The Washington, DC–based NDI and IRI are staffed with senior Democratic and Republican politicians; the NDI is chaired by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, while the late Sen. John McCain was the longtime IRI chair. Both groups were created in 1983 as arms of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a Cold War enterprise backed by then–CIA director William Casey (Jacobin3/7/18). That these two US government creations, along with a NATO offshoot like the Atlantic Council, are used by Facebook to distinguish real from fake news is effectively state censorship.

https://theantimedia.com/facebook-propaganda-partners/

Personally, I would not trust Facebook to do anything like right.  To use an old saying….trusting Facebook to stop “fake news” is like putting a fox in charge of a hen house.

But It Is Hate Speech

Closing Thought–06Jul18

A couple of days ago we celebrated our independence day and did you know that is has been tagged as hate speech?

Say HUH?

The Declaration of Independence contains hate speech, according to Facebook’s algorithms. Though the social media site eventually allowed the famed historical document to be shared in full, Texas’ Liberty County Vindicator ran into trouble while posting fragments of the text on its Facebook page ahead of Independence Day. Facebook’s algorithms specifically flagged three words in a line accusing the British monarchy of endeavoring “to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages,” claiming the line violated the site’s standards on hate speech, per the BBC. “Unfortunately, [Thomas] Jefferson, like most British colonists of his day, did not hold an entirely friendly view of Native Americans,” the Vindicator‘s managing editor, Casey Stinnett, commented after the text was removed.

Stinnett wasn’t all that upset, though. “The newspaper has little grounds for complaint other than the silliness of it,” he wrote. Still, Facebook later restored the content and apologized. “We made a mistake and removed something you posted on Facebook that didn’t go against our community standards,” the company told the paper. It’s an admission surely welcomed by Christian Britschgi at Reason, who accused Facebook of “whitewashing America’s founding.” While “clearly racist,” the flagged line of text “serves as another example of the American Revolution’s mixed legacy; one that won crucial liberties for a certain segment of the population, while continuing to deny those same liberties to Native Americans and African slaves,” he writes.

Did you know today in history….1947, the AK-47 went into production…..and has been in constant production since that date…..71 years.

Just a little something to think about on this Friday to start your weekend…..