MCViewPoint

Opinion from a Libertarian ViewPoint

Posts Tagged ‘Atlantic Council’

Viable Opposition: Facebook and Its Close Links to Washington

Posted by M. C. on April 17, 2019

http://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2019/04/facebook-and-its-close-links-to.html

With Facebook taking a very strong stance against so-called fake news and foreign interference in what passes for democracy in the United States and particularly given its recent association with the Atlantic Council and its Digital Forensic Research Lab.  I would be remiss if I didn’t thank Matt Agorist at the Free Thought Project, one of the entities that was purged by Facebook in October 2018, for inspiring this posting

In no particular order, let’s look at some of Facebook’s key personnel and their relationship to Washington:

1.) Katie Harbath: Ms. Harbath is currently Director of Global Politics and Government Outreach at Facebook as shown here:

…and has very close links to the Republican Party (a relative rarity among Facebook key personnel) including Deputy eCampaign Director for Rudy Giuliani’s run at the Oval Office both before and during her tenure at Facebook as shown here:

It was Ms. Harbath who announced Facebook’s “exciting new partnership” with the Atlantic Council on May 17, 2018:

Today, we’re excited to launch a new partnership with the Atlantic Council, which has a stellar reputation looking at innovative solutions to hard problems. Experts from their Digital Forensic Research Lab will work closely with our security, policy and product teams to get Facebook real-time insights and updates on emerging threats and disinformation campaigns from around the world. This will help increase the number of “eyes and ears” we have working to spot potential abuse on our service — enabling us to more effectively identify gaps in our systems, preempt obstacles, and ensure that Facebook plays a positive role during elections all around the world.”

2.) Nathaniel Gleicher:  Mr. Gleicher is Head of Cybersecurity Policy at Facebook as shown here:

…and was former Director for Cybersecurity Policy for the National Security Council at the White House, Senior Counsel for Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section at the United States Department of Justice and a Law Clerk for Senator Patrick Leahy as shown here:

Just so you can get a sense of Mr. Gleicher’s belief system, here is what he said in a blog posting on January 17, 2019 entitled “Removing Coordinated Inauthentic Behaviour from Russia“:

Today we removed 364 Facebook Pages and accounts for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior as part of a network that originated in Russia and operated in the Baltics, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Central and Eastern European countries. The Page administrators and account owners primarily represented themselves as independent news Pages or general interest Pages on topics like weather, travel, sports, economics, or politicians in Romania, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russia, and Kyrgyzstan. Despite their misrepresentations of their identities, we found that these Pages and accounts were linked to employees of Sputnik, a news agency based in Moscow, and that some of the Pages frequently posted about topics like anti-NATO sentiment, protest movements, and anti-corruption.(my bolds)

Yes, imagine being anti-NATO and anti-corruption!  That’s totally unAmerican not to mention totally without merit!

3.) David Recordon: Mr. Recordon lists himself as a “doer” on his Linkedin page as shown here:

…however, his “real position” is Engineering Director for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a company founded by Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan which has the goal of “advancing human potential and promoting equality in areas such as health, education, scientific research and energy”.

Between March 2015 and January 2017, Mr. Recordon was the Special Assistant to the President and Director of White House IT and a consultant for the U.S. Digital Service at the White House as you can see here:

Please note that prior to his tenure with the federal government, Mr. Recordon was Engineering Director at Facebook.

4.) Aneesh Raman:  Mr. Raman is currently the Head of Economic and Social Impact at Facebook as you can see here:

…and was the former speechwriter to President Obama and worked in Strategic Communications at the Pentagon as shown here:

5.) Meredith Carden: Ms. Carden is currently working on Facebook’s News Integrity Partnerships as shown here:…

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Online Censorship: The Cure is Worse than the Disease | The Nestmann Group

Posted by M. C. on February 27, 2019

https://www.nestmann.com/online-censorship-the-cure-is-worse-than-the-disease

By Mark Nestmann

Fake news is a big problem. And as I’ve written, technology is about to make a lot worse.

But censoring online content to combat fake news is equally problematic. And it doesn’t matter where on the political spectrum your opinions lie…it’s a problem for everyone.

From a legal perspective, it’s clear that the government can’t force the media to filter out fake news. After all, the First Amendment reads, in part:

Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.

But private companies are free to censor anyone they want. That’s how iTunes, Facebook, Spotify, and YouTube justified removing Jones’ audio and video content produced by online provocateur and right-wing activist Alex from their platforms last August…

But as big a problem as fake news is, online censorship isn’t the answer. Like it or not, booting Alex Jones off social media puts us as a society on a dangerous slippery slope. And we are sliding down that slope now. On October 11, within weeks of kicking off Jones, Facebook removed hundreds of pages of smaller left-wing, libertarian, and anti-war media outlets. Four of the more prominent organizations affected are Cop Block, the Free Thought Project, the Anti-Media, and Press for TruthRead the rest of this entry »

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