Facebook is siding with state governments and censoring protesters who are trying to use Facebook to organize protests of the continuing quarantine:
POLITICO – Facebook is blocking anti-quarantine protesters from using the site to organize in-person gatherings in states that require residents to stay in their homes due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The world’s largest social network has already removed protest messages in California, New Jersey and Nebraska from its site at the urging of state governments who say those events are prohibited by stay-at-home orders, a company spokesperson said.
“Unless government prohibits the event during this time, we allow it to be organized on Facebook. For this same reason, events that defy government’s guidance on social distancing aren’t allowed on Facebook,” the spokesperson said.
Protesters have gathered in state capitals around the country in recent days to push back against their governments’ decisions to close non-essential businesses and requiring residents to largely isolate at home.
Facebook doing the bidding of state governments to keep protesters from organizing against the continued quarantine? Talk about big brother in your backyard.
I bet a young Mark Zuckerberg would have sworn he’d never use his platform to silence people at the behest of governments, but that’s exactly what he’s doing now and it’s loathsome. He’s allowing state governments to enter the public square and infringe on the first amendment rights of people in these states.
We’ve come a long way from the Facebook who let people use their platform to organize in Egypt back in 2011 to foment civil unrest and overthrow their government, ushering in the Arab Winter. I can’t imagine Big Brother Facebook doing that now. Or maybe they would, if they agree with it.