Facebook's 'fact checkers': Biased and prevaricating, backed by guess who?
In an effort to eliminate 'fake news' from its site, Facebook has appointed 'fact checkers' to confirm or deny whether stories are true. But one of Facebook's 'fact checkers' has already been caught in a lie while reporting on a story about the Obama administration trying to influence Israel's elections, while another has been accused of falsifying news and embezzling money from its own website.
The first fact checker caught with its pants down is PolitiFact. The second - caught literally with its pants down - is Snopes.
Here's PolitiFact.
PolitiFact, which is part of a new group that will help Facebook flag “disputed” stories, last year rated as “Mostly False” a claim that the U.S. funded an election effort in Israel via the nonprofit One Voice aimed at defeating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
PolitiFact left out of its declaration on One Voice that Craig
Newmark, the founder of Craigslist who lists himself as an adviser and
donor to PolitiFact, documents on his personal website that he has been “helping out” One Voice, where he writes he also serves as an adviser.
Also missing from PolitiFact’s rating about the One Voice claim is that One Voice is partnered with Google, which also happens to be a donor to the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, which owns the Tampa Bay Times. PolitiFact is a project of the Tampa Bay Times.
A senate investigation in July concluded that the State Department
did not do anything illegal in funding One Voice to the tune of nearly
$350,000 in 2013, but that the infrastructure created by One Voice at
the time of the State Department financing could have been used last
year in the anti-Netanyahu campaign.
While PolitiFact noted that
its March 25, 2015 “Mostly False” designation “may change as more
evidence comes to light,” it did rely largely on One Voice’s word on the matter while failing to note the ties between PolitiFact and the partners of One Voice.
Now a DailyMail.com investigation reveals that Snopes.com's founders, former husband and wife David and Barbara Mikkelson, are embroiled in a lengthy and bitter legal dispute in the wake of their divorce.
He has since remarried, to a former escort and porn actress who is one of the site's staff members.
They are accusing each other of financial impropriety, with Barbara claiming her ex-husband is guilty of 'embezzlement' and suggesting he is attempting a 'boondoggle' to change tax arrangements, while David claims she took millions from their joint accounts and bought property in Las Vegas.
The Mikkelsons founded the site in 1995. The couple had met in the early 1990s on a folklore-themed online message board, and married before setting up the site.
Oh, and the PolitiFact article tells us that guess who is behind the 'fact checkers.'
Breitbart News last week reported
that a cursory search of the Poynter Institute website finds that
Poynter’s IFCN is openly funded by Soros’ Open Society Foundations as
well as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Google, the National
Endowment for Democracy and Newmark’s foundation.
Poynter’s IFCN is also funded by the Omidyar Network, which is the
nonprofit for liberal billionaire eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. The
Omidyar Network has partnered with Open Society on numerous projects and has given grants to third parties using the Soros-funded Tides Foundation. Tides is one of the largest donors to left-wing causes in the U.S.
Federal Judge slams Facebook and its legal counsel for not taking terrorism seriously
Greetings from New York City, where I have been since Thursday evening and where I have been totally tied up with work. I have a few minutes now before a conference call - not enough to work but enough to post something.
On Thursday, a Federal Judge in Brooklyn told a shocked lawyer from Chicago's Kirkland & Ellis that the lawyer's client, Facebook, isn't doing enough to deter terrorists from using its site. And then the judge laid into the firm for sending a first-year associate (someone about four months out of law school at this time of year) alone to the hearing.
U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis in Brooklyn, New York, also
accused Facebook’s lawyers -- by sending a first-year associate to a
hearing -- of not taking seriously lawsuits with implications of
international terrorism and the murder of innocent people.
“I
think it is outrageous, irresponsible and insulting,” Garaufis told the
attorney Thursday. The judge ordered Kirkland & Ellis LLP, the law
firm representing Facebook, to send a more senior lawyer to the next
hearing on Sept. 28 because he wanted to “talk to someone who talks to
senior management at Facebook.”
Garaufis
is overseeing two lawsuits in which more than 20,000 victims of attacks
and their families accused Facebook of helping groups in the Middle
East such as Hamas.
The judge noted similar suits haven’t been
successful under U.S. law which insulates publishers from liability for
the speech of others. But he said that doesn’t mean Facebook shouldn’t
take it seriously and try to address the issue.
Isn’t the social
media platform “basically putting together people who’d like to be
involved in terrorism with people are are terrorists?” the judge asked.
“Doesn’t Facebook have some moral obligation to help cabin the kinds of
communications that appear on it?”
The judge didn’t stop there.
"Let’s put the law aside and talk
about reality,” Garaufis said, less than a week after a bomb rattled the
Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, injuring 29 people. “The reality is
that people are communicating through social media and the outcome of
these inquiries, be it Google or Facebook, has the potential of hooking
people up to do very dangerous, bad and harmful things in terms of
international and domestic terror."
Federal
judges have limited ability to address terrorism and don’t usually get
involved in such cases until someone is arrested and charged with a
crime, Garaufis said.
"Don’t you have a social responsibility as
citizens of the world without having these plaintiffs come to me in
Brooklyn?" he asked. “There are things you could do that don’t involve
the courts or the judicial system."
Facebook said it’s committed to making people feel safe using the social network.
“Our
Community Standards make clear that there is no place on Facebook for
groups that engage in terrorist activity or for content that expresses
support for such activity, and we take swift action to remove this
content when it’s reported to us,” the company said in a statement. “We
sympathize with the victims of these horrible crimes.”
A Kirkland & Ellis spokeswoman didn’t have an immediate comment on the judge’s remarks.
The page pictured above was deemed not to violate Facebook's community standards. But Twitter last week briefly suspended Professor Glenn Reynolds (known as Instapundit on social media) for making a sarcastic comment that didn't threaten anyone. Some 'community standards.'
Last week's truck rampage in France and
Monday's axe attack aboard a train in Germany have raised European
concern about self-radicalised assailants who have little or no
communications with militant groups that could be intercepted by spy
agencies.
"How do you capture some signs of someone who has no contact
with any organisation, is just inspired and started expressing some kind
of allegiance? I don't know. It's a challenge," EU Counter-Terrorism
Coordinator Gilles de Kerchove told Reuters on the sidelines of a
intelligence conference in Tel Aviv.
Internet companies asked to monitor their own platforms'
content for material that might flag militants had begged off, De
Kerchove said.
He said they had argued that the information was too massive
to sift through and contextualise, unlike paedophile pornography, for
which there were automatic detectors.
"So maybe a human's intervention is needed. So you cannot just
let the machine do it," De Kerchove said. But he said he hoped "we will
soon find ways to be much more automated" in sifting through social
networks.
"That is why I am here," he said of his visit to Israel. "We know Israel has developed a lot of capability in cyber."
Here's hoping that everyone who does this is located in Judea and Samaria - probably too much to wish for. But it seems to be the only alternative. Everyone else is waiting for the United States to take the lead, and that seems unlikely to happen.
While Israel's emergency laws give security
services more leeway, its intelligence minister, Yisrael Katz, called
for cooperation with Internet providers rather than state crackdowns. He
cited, for example, the encryption provided by messaging platform
WhatsApp which, he said, could be a new way for militants to communicate
and evade detection.
"We will not block these services," Katz told the conference.
"What is needed is an international organisation, preferably headed by
the United States, where shared (security) concerns need to be defined,
characterised."
If the Obama administration ever started an organization like that, it would probably include Turkey (and Iran) and exclude Israel. Remember this? Maybe someone could ask Hillary Clinton about it.
Is Facebook responsible for 'Palestinian' terrorism?
These sorts of accusations are not new, but Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan has accused Facebook of partial responsibility for Thursday's murder of 13-year old Hallel Yaffa Ariel.
Erdan said on Saturday that the social network fails to block posts inciting violence and also sabotages the work of Israeli police.
"Some of the victims' blood is on Zuckerberg's hands," he told Channel 2. "Facebook has turned into a monster. The younger generation in the Palestinian Authority runs its entire discourse of incitement and lies and finally goes out to commit murderous acts on Facebook's platform."
Erdan's comments touched on Facebook posts by the terrorist who murdered an Israeli girl, Hallel Yaffa Ariel, in Kiryat Arba last week. Mohammed Nasser Tra'ayra, 19, from the Palestinian village of Bani Na'im, had been praising terrorists and voiced his wish to die a "martyr's death" on Facebook in the days before the attack.
Erdan said Facebook "could have reported to the police or defense officials about the post put up by that despicable murderer."
Well yeah, if they saw it, but I have my doubts that Facebook reviews every post that goes onto its site within a few days after posting, particularly if no one calls it to their attention. The IDF, which monitors Facebook itself, is far more likely to pick up a terror threat that quickly.
On the other hand, Erdan is right that Facebook does provide a platform for terrorists to plan and to incite others to join them.
Facebook's reaction to Erdan's accusations begs the question.
Facebook said in response that it works regularly with safety organizations and policy makers worldwide "to ensure people know how to use Facebook safely. There is no place for content encouraging violence, direct threats, terror or hatred on our platform. We have clear community rules intended to help people what is allowed on Facebook and we call on people to use our reporting devices if they find content they believe breaks these rules, so we can examine each case and take rapid action. Facebook has a regular dialog with the government on these issues."
Look at the picture atop this post and tell me whether you still believe Facebook has any credibility on this issue. In fact, Erdan's more general accusations against Facebook carry a lot more weight than the specific accusations relating to this incident.
He said that when the police ask Facebook for help, "when it comes to a Judea and Samaria [West Bank] settlers, Facebook doesn't cooperate and sets a high bar for removing inciting content and posts."
The Knesset is considering legislation requiring Facebook to immediately block and remove inciting posts. It will be interesting to see whether the legislation passes and whether it brings any change to Facebook's operations here.
Facebook: This doesn't violate our community standards
Yes, Facebook really decided that this didn't violate their 'community standards.'
“Thank you for taking the time to report something that you feel may
violate our Community Standards. Reports like yours are an important
part of making Facebook a safe and welcoming environment. We reviewed
the Page you reported for containing graphic violence and found it
doesn't violate our Community Standards.”
The following are reasons why a page would be removed:
Facebook removes hate speech, which includes content that directly attacks people based on their:
Race, Ethnicity, National origin, Religious affiliation, Sexual orientation, Sex, gender, or gender identity, or Serious disabilities or diseases.
Organizations and people dedicated to promoting hatred against these
protected groups are not allowed a presence on Facebook. As with all of
our standards, we rely on our community to report this content to us.
I wonder what would happen if we posted a 'Death to Islamic Terrorists' page.
You can find a petition against the 'Death to Israel' page here.
The BDS terrorists have been spreading the image above around the internet. The Algemeiner reports:
The picture,
posted by a page named “I Acknowledge Apartheid Exists”, shows skeletal
survivors holding up signs that read “Israel Assassins,” “Break the
Silence on Gaza,” “Stop the Holocaust in Gaza” and “Stop US Aid to
Israel.” A sign in the far back of the image says Gaza is “the world’s
biggest concentration camp,” while another poster shows a Palestinian
flag along with the words “Free Palestine.”
A slogan at the bottom of the offensive image reads, “Whatever happened to ‘never again?’”
The Facebook page, which boasts over 91,000 members, captioned the
post “Viva Palestine.” At the time of publication, the picture has been
“liked” by 307 users and “shared” on the social media site by 110 users,
including the Central NY Committee for Justice in Palestine.
Many Facebook users expressed disgust over the image, calling it
“inappropriate,” “shameful” and asking for the picture to be taken down.
One user said, “I find this really disturbing. It’s not a case of ‘not
getting it’. How can exploiting and image of other people’s suffering be
an acceptable thing to do? Is that not what we’re supposed to be
against??”
Don't bother to write to Facebook about this. They won't take the page down anyway.
I suppose that anyone who has been to the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam cannot be too surprised by Holocaust images being used to induce people to hate Israel. (That was already going on in 1980 when I was there).
Jerusalem light rail terrorist broadcast desire to murder Jews on social media
If I were to write on this blog that I wished to kill Arabs (or 'Palestinians' for that matter), the odds are pretty high that someone from the police department or the General Security Service would pay me a visit and follow me around for a while to see whether I intend to do what I said I'd do.
Abdelrahman Shaludeh, the terrorist who murdered a three-month old infant and wounded eight other people a short distance from my home on Wednesday night, bragged for months on social media that he wished to murder Jews. In the end, the police only stopped him after he succeeded.
A report in Yediot Achronot Thursday quoted Twitter and
Facebook posts of the 20-year-old Shaludeh, an Arab resident of Shiloach
(Silwan) who was a legal Jerusalem resident. In his last post on a
social media site frequented by Islamists, for example, he wrote “now is
the time to defend your home, Muslims – go out on a crusade to protect
the Al-Aqsa mosque” from Jews who sought to pray on the Temple Mount.
The day before the attack, he posted a link to a video published by
the Al Aqsa Brigade terror group – closely associated with Palestinian
Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah group. The clip displayed
terrorists in training. Slodi's comment: “See how the Al Aqsa fighters
train for suicide missions” to carry out against Israeli targets.
Speaking to Israel Radio, Israeli security officials said that Shaludeh was known to authorities, and officials believe that he acted on his own.
According to Palestinian
reports, a-Shaludi was released from jail in December 2013 after
serving a 16-month sentence. He was arrested again last February for a
period of one month. He is also reportedly a close relative of the Muhi
a-Din Sharif, aka "Engineer No. 2", a senior member of the Hamas
military wing who was killed near Ramallah in 1998.
A-Shaludi had a
history of security violations. When he was 18, he was indicted, along
with his brother and his friends, for targeting the Jewish residents of
Silwan in East Jerusalem, and for trying to prevent police cars from
entering the neighborhood.
In May 2013, he was sentenced to 16 months in prison in a plea
bargain, having pleaded guilty to, and been convicted of, throwing
petrol bombs at Jewish cars and at a police vehicle, attempted arson,
aggravated assault, attempted assault of a policeman and rioting.
A-Shaludi confessed and was convicted under the plea bargain to one
of three charges, for an incident that occurred on Nakba Day: He and his
friends made Molotov cocktails, which they divided among themselves and
hurled. The two charges that were dropped referred to the throwing of
firebombs at Jewish residents of Silwan.
In addition, he was arrested last March on suspicion of vehicular theft.
I must be missing something. If he was sentenced to 16 months in May 2013, why was he released in December 2013? Is our government now paroling terrorists? Fortunately, at least this terrorist will not be released in a 'prisoner exchange.' He died during the night. As of now, his body has not been released. Maybe we should trade it for the two bodies of the IDF soldiers who were killed in Gaza over the summer.... By the way, why is it that the police had apparently not done anything to stop Shaludeh?
The scare came after she posted a photo of herself after her first week in the army.
Her photo was shared by an Arab youth on Facebook, who tagged her and
included the threat in an Arabic caption, “the next kidnapping target.”
She initially ignored the share until she arrived home for the weekend and told her family what had happened.
“…they said ‘it’s serious,’ and that I’d have to report the incident
immediately,” she said. “I immediately understood that I could be
abducted, and didn’t want to take any chances.”
The IDF is taking the threat seriously, has opened an investigation
and is trying to track down the poster, according to Channel Two News.
Police warned her to be very alert for any unusual activities.
“I, like all the women (in the IDF), am supplied with tear gas, and
was taught self-defense, since we’re located close to Arab areas,” she
said.
“Our officers warned us not to hitch hike, and, after the kidnapping
of the teens, I understand not to dismiss the danger,” she said, adding
that, “truthfully, I’m pretty fearful from all of these threats.
“The post isn’t funny, and I hope they catch the guy,” she said.
The IDF has banned hitchhiking by soldiers since 1993 when Canadian immigrant Yehoshua Friedberg was murdered by 'Palestinians' who picked him up hitchhiking at the exit from Jerusalem and dumped his body along the side of the Jerusalem - Tel Aviv highway between Telz Stone and Shoresh.
'Kill a terrorist every hour' Facebook page has nearly 20,000 likes
A Facebook page that calls for a terrorist to be killed every hour until the three kidnapped Israeli teenagers are returned has garnered nearly 20,000 likes since being posted on Saturday.
There is no indication of who established the page,
which was created on June 13, one day after the abduction of the three
teens in the West Bank. But according to statistics provided by Facebook
under People Talking About This, the most popular age group for those
who liked the page is 18 to 24 and the most popular location is
Jerusalem.
The Facebook page Bring Back Our Boys, also established on June 13, has more than 93,000 likes.
“This page is part of our campaign to raise awareness about the
kidnapping of three innocent young Israeli boys, on their way home from
school, by the Hamas terrorist organization,” according to the
description in the About section. People from around the world have
posted photos of themselves on the page holding signs reading
#BringBackOurBoys.
In addition to exposing Facebook pages belonging to terrorists, the page also discusses (in Hebrew) how other countries deal with terrorists. Here's an example.
What do you say about the way in which the Russians freed four of their embassy employees who were kidnapped in Lebanon?
On September 30, 1985, four Russian embassy employees were kidnapped in Beirut. When they saw that threats and pressure were not helping, the Russians decided to use some less delicate measures. They kidnapped two people who were part of a tribe that was close to the kidnappers. Two days afterward, one of them was thrown in front of his family's home. His throat had been slits and his sex organ had been stuffed into his mouth. The body had a notice attached which clarified that if the diplomats were not freed, the second kidnapper would receive similar treatment. The kidnapped [embassy employees] were immediately released. Since then, there have been no attempted kidnappings of Russian civilians.
(From the book "The State of Israel will do everything" by Ronen Bregman - and thanks to the dear surfer who pointed out the story)
I have to be honest with you and to tell you that to me WhatsApp symbolizes everything that's wrong with our society today in which much of our contact is impersonal and remote. Any adult who has tried talking to a teenager (and that applies until age 30) who is 'paying attention' while using WhatsApp on their smart phone knows exactly what I mean. Still, only Iran could have called it a 'Zionist conspiracy.'
The Iranian government has announced a ban on the popular worldwide
messaging application WhatsApp, which was recently purchased by Facebook
for $19 billion. It said that the decision was reached because WhatsApp
was bought “by the Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who is an American
Zionist.”
(Tom Gross adds: In fact there is no indication that
Zuckerberg is a Zionist, and WhatsApp was purchased from its founder,
the Ukrainian-born Jew Jan Koum, who said in interview earlier this year
that he fled anti-Semitism in Ukraine before settling in America and
going on to found WhatsApp.)
The announcement was made by Iran’s Committee on Internet Crimes,
which hinted that other social media projects, including Viber, Tango,
Instagram and Facebook, may soon be shut down in Iran.
One Iranian blogger, speaking anonymously, told Fox News that “The
Revolutionary Guard sees these social sites as a major threat because
there’s an appeal for young people and the government worries about the
exchange of information.”
Thirteen government officials sit on the committee that polices
internet users, six of whom are also members of Iranian President Hassan
Rouhani’s cabinet.
As Iran finally admits that it will not be able to ban Facebook forever, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President Obama's Best Friend Forever, is trying to ban Facebook and YouTube in his country because they have posted items that are hostile to him in the current local elections.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey could ban Facebook and
YouTube, which he says have been abused by his political enemies, after
local elections on March 30.
Erdogan is locked in a power struggle
with the US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former ally who he
says is behind a stream of "fabricated" audio recordings posted on the
Internet allegedly revealing corruption in his inner circle.
"We are determined on this subject. We will not leave this nation at
the mercy of YouTube and Facebook," Erdogan said in a late night
interview with the Turkish broadcaster ATV.
Asked if the possible barring of these sites was included in his planned measures, he said: "Included."
Erdogan
says the release of his purported conversations is part of a campaign
to discredit him.
Gulen denies any involvement in the recordings, and
rejects allegations that he is using a network of proteges to try to
influence politics in Turkey.
So why doesn't he just ban them now? Oh... wait... Erdogan wants to be able to claim he was 'democratically elected' before he acts undemocratically. Hmmm.
Peace Now forced to apologize after slandering rights activist
Peace Now was forced to apologize and to take down a Facebook campaign against the human rights group (note - no scare quotes this time) Honenu, after it called one of the people Honenu assisted a terrorist. The person in question was acquitted on all charges ten years ago.
Extreme leftist group Peace Now was forced to delete its Facebook page campaigning against rights group Honenu Wednesday, after it falsely accused a man of being a "terrorist."
Honenu is a legal rights group which campaigns for the legal rights of Jews from Judea and Samaria, including the right to see a lawyer and the right not to face punishment without trial under “administrative orders.” On several occasions, the NGO has represented young men accused of so-called “price tag” vandalism in court.
Peace Now founder Yariv Oppenheimer accused the group of defending
"murderers and 'Price Tag' criminals" Tuesday. An attached advertisement
accused Honenu of assisting “terrorists.”
The list of “terrorists”
Honenu was alleged to have helped included Yossi Ben-Baruch.
According
to the ad, Ben-Baruch was part of the Bat Ayin Underground group; in
fact, he was found innocent of any involvement with the group over a
decade ago.
Channel 2 journalist Amnon Abramovich also slammed the
rights group on the weekly program "Friday News" on Friday evening,
prompting the organization to submit a complaint.
"In the 'Friday News' program which aired last Friday night, Mr.
Abramovich used the title 'Breaking the Law and Receiving Benefits' in
his broadcast and on the internet about our organization," Attorney
Doron Nir Zvi, legal representative for Honenu, noted in the letter to
both Abramovich and the Channel 2 news corporation. "This
header is not only false, but as indicated from the final words of
Abramovich in the article, portray our group as participating in illegal
activities."
"This organization has proper administrative approval and has never
acted without the full accordance of the law," the letter stressed. The
attorney then asked in the name of Honenu to issue an official apology
and change the false headline.
For the record, the picture at the top of this post is not Peace Now director general Yariv Oppenheimer, but rather LATMA's Yariv Googleheimer, a caricature of Oppenheimer.
As many of you probably know already, Facebook has prepared 'lookback' videos for all of us. They also prepared one for the President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama.
Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: Instapundit via Sunlight).
If you're on Facebook and you're Haredi (I know - that's supposed to be a contradiction in terms), you might want to consider changing your profile picture to the one above. It's protesting against the abuse of Haredim on Facebook.
I wonder whether they're going to try to move the company out of Israel. Reportedly, no, they learned their lesson from Waze. Onavo Ltd. is to become Facebook's first subsidiary based in Israel, at a price of about $100 million.
"TechCrunch" reports that Facebook Inc. has acquired Tel Aviv-based
Onavo Ltd., a developer of mobile app analytics solutions, for $100-200
million.
"AllThingsD" says, "Facebook will turn Onavo’s Tel Aviv
headquarters into Facebook’s new Israeli office, a first for the social
giant."
Onavo was founded in 2010, and develops mobile app analytics for marketers.
"Our
service helps people save money through more efficient use of data, and
also helps developers, large and small, design better experiences for
people," say Onavo's founders, CEO Guy Rosen and CTO Roi Tiger, in a
blog today. "We’re excited to join their team."
"Onavo will be an
exciting addition to Facebook,” a Facebook spokesperson told
"AllThingsD." “We expect Onavo’s data compression technology to play a
central role in our mission to connect more people to the Internet, and
their analytic tools will help us provide better, more efficient mobile
products.”
Facebook is known for acquiring companies and then closing them.
Meanwhile, Katie Harbath, manager of policy at Facebook, became aware of the situation. Ms. Harbath saw the Observer version of the story and reached out to New York Observer editor Ken Kurson; at the same time, CommentaryMagazine social
media associate Bethany Mandell had also contacted Ms. Harbath.
Immediately, Ms. Harbath sent me an apologetic e-mail, with an assurance
that if I ever ran into any trouble in the future, I should not
hesitate to get in touch with her directly.
Several hours later, I received a more formal explanation
from the folks at Facebook, which was posted on Monday afternoon as an
update to my story on the Observer:
“As our team processes more than one million reports each
week, we occasionally make a mistake. In this case, we mistakenly
removed content from Ruthie Blum’s profile, and worked to rectify the
mistake as soon as we were notified. We apologize for the inconvenience
cause due to the removal of this content, and we have already taken
steps to prevent this from happening in the future. Additionally, we
have removed any blocks on associated accounts.”
Though the removal of content from my page was never an
issue (a political stalker trying to silence me was the problem), it is
gratifying to know that the might of the pen sometimes works to my
camp’s advantage. This definitely deserves a “Like.”
I want you to note the part I highlighted. What this apparently means is that if you are Facebook friends with someone whose account is blocked, you become someone who is watched more closely and is more likely to have your account suspended in the event that someone complains about you (which is how Ruthie got blocked - the anti-Israel people complained about her). Something to think about for all of us....
Meanwhile, my friends overseas (at least in the US) report that the Holocaust denial page is still up, but here in Israel it is apparently blocked.
Pro-Israel activist and writer Ruthie Blum is blocked from Facebook, while pages like the one depicted at left, and the Holocaust denial page described here, remain unblocked for months, if not longer. This is from the first link.
Again I returned to the rules of conduct, to see if I could
decipher what I was doing wrong and how I could make it right. The clue
was at the bottom of the “community standards” page, in a paragraph
titled “Reporting abuse”: “If you see something on Facebook that you
believe violates our terms, you should report it to us.”
In other words, someone has been complaining about me to
Facebook, reporting abuse on my part. This person clearly doesn’t like
what I have to say–which is always from a conservative viewpoint–and has
come up with a way to silence me through bullying.
It is actually he or she who is violating Facebook
standards, not I. But there is nothing I can do about it, other than go
on the defensive, and so far not very effectively.
This is exactly how the enemies of Israel operate. They
repeatedly accuse the Jewish state of acting in an illegitimate fashion,
thereby placing the burden of proof on the unwitting defendant. It is a
brazen and shameless tactic. And it works like a charm.
Facebook is a private enterprise that has the right to
choose its users. Those users do not pay for the privilege; and it is a
huge privilege for writers to have access to such a massive readership.
Whoever has been targeting me knows this full well.
He or she is also aware that all one has to do to ruin
Israel’s reputation is to cast aspersions. Social networking takes care
of the rest.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
