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Social Media Is a Tool of the CIA. Seriously

Posted by M. C. on May 30, 2019

Google and CIA: old friends

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/social-media-is-a-tool-of-the-cia-seriously/

By Jim Edwards

You don’t need to wear a tinfoil hat to believe that the CIA is using Facebook, Twitter, Google (GOOG) and other social media to spy on people. That’s because the CIA publishes a helpful list of press releases on all the social media ventures it sponsors, via its technology investment arm In-Q-Tel.

The companies that take In-Q-Tel’s money aren’t shy about publicizing what they’re up to, either. Most recently, GeoSemble announced an update to its GeoXray product, which monitors social media chatter based on location:

This capability benefits business users who may be monitoring competition, supply chain activity or business opportunities in a county, neighborhood or border region.

For governments at the city, local and Federal levels it brings the ability to visualize activity in a given area filtered by topic, time and location.

… we can deliver whatever information is available about that place from websites, blogs, tweets and other social media automatically and accurately …

The world’s largest database on individuals
One of the main threats to privacy comes from advertisers, who want to track everything consumers do on the web and scrape their online accounts for personal information. It shouldn’t be surprising, therefore, to learn that the CIA and the worlds largest ad agency network, WPP (WPPGY), have been in bed together on a social media data-mining venture since at least January 2009. WPP currently claims to own the world’s largest database of unique individual profiles — including demographic, financial, purchase and geographic histories. WPP’s Visible Technologies unit took an investment from In-Q-Tel in fall of 2009. Visible Technologies develops tools that can scan social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook.

WPP also funded Omniture, a marketing ROI agency, with $25 million in January 2009. Omniture’s Visual Sciences unit has also taken In-Q-Tel money. The CIA re-upped with Visible Technologies as part of another $6 million funding round in March 2011.

Other companies that mine web data and have taken In-Q-Tel investments include:

  • Fetch Technologues: “Fetch’s customized software agents navigate websites to instantly deliver meaningful, useful and reliable data, and easily integrate with a company’s existing data management system for immediate analysis.”
  • Cleversafe: A cloud-based storage company that, as Wired notes, is “‘ideal for storing mission critical data by addressing the core principles of data confidentiality, integrity and availability.’ (Incidentally, those principles also spell out CIA).”
  • Cloudera: provides data storage software that makes it easy for governments to process and analyze vast amounts of information.


Google and CIA: old friends
Are you seeing a trend yet? Google (GOOG) has been a partner with the CIA since 2004 when the company bought Keyhole, a mapping technology business that eventually became Google Earth. In 2010, Google and In-Q-Tel made a joint investment on a company called Recorded Future, which has the Minority Report-style goal of creating a “temporal analytics engine” that scours the web and creates curves that predict where events may head.

Google is already helping the government write, and rewrite, history. Here, from its transparency report, are some stats on the amount of information it has either given to the government or wiped from the web based on requests by U.S. agencies:

  • 4,601 requests from U.S. government agencies for “user data“
  • Google complied with government requests for user data 94% of the time.
  • 1,421 requests for “content removal“
  • Google complied with content removal requests 87% of the time.
  • 15 requests were from “executive, police etc.”
  • 1 was a national security request.

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Facebook wants to send ’emotional’ robots to explore the world on tank-style tracks and scan the faces of people to ‘help users make friends’

Posted by M. C. on May 30, 2019

These would let them scan and interpret the faces and body language of people they encounter to assess their ‘likely emotional state’.

Substitute ‘psychological state’ and you have the end game. Those in control may decide, remotely, who needs re-education help.

Gun owners beware.

Think about that next time you are facial scanned at the airport, bank, Easy Pass toll booth, checkout, Skype call, Facetime…and where those scans are going.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7085789/Facebook-wants-send-emotional-robots-explore-scan-faces-help-users-make-friends.html

By Ian Randall

Facebook is considering building ’emotionally sensitive’ robots that can explore the world, identify objects and people and enable users to make friends remotely.

On-board sensors would allow the robots to spot people to engage with, judge their emotional state and listen to what they are saying, a patent filing revealed.

At the same time, the robot could display images, video and speak with people — potentially letting users meet people and make new friends remotely.

However, it is not known whether Facebook will follow through on the patent filing and make the rough robot designs a reality.

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Facebook is considering building 'emotionally sensitive' robots (pictured, in this rough sketch from the patent that the social media firm filed) that can explore the world, identify objects and people and enable users to make friends remotely

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Facebook is considering building ’emotionally sensitive’ robots (pictured, in this rough sketch from the patent that the social media firm filed) that can explore the world, identify objects and people and enable users to make friends remotely

The concept for the social robots was outlined in a European patent filed by the social media firm on May 16, 2019.

Each machine, about the height of an adult, would be equipped with cameras and other sensors.

These would let them scan and interpret the faces and body language of people they encounter to assess their ‘likely emotional state’.

Speakers and microphones would listen out for ‘sounds emitted’, allowing the robots to talk to people or pick out the sound of someone calling to them.

If integrated into Facebook’s social media platform, members could potentially used such robots as proxies for real-world exploration and interactions with people…

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EXCLUSIVE: More Names on FACEBOOK ‘Hate Agents’ List Revealed, Including Brigitte Gabriel

Posted by M. C. on May 21, 2019

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2019/05/20/exclusive-more-names-on-facebook-hate-agents-list-revealed-including-brigitte-gabriel/

by Allum Bokhari

Lebanese-American conservative author and religion critic Brigitte Gabriel (born Hanan Qahwaji) is also on an internal list of “Hate Agents” maintained by Facebook, Breitbart News can exclusively reveal.

Breitbart News exposed the existence of the “Hate Agents” list last week, after a Facebook insider leaked a partial screenshot showing black conservative leader Candace Owens was also on the list. The insider, who leaked the information to Breitbart, also shared a partial image of the list.

Following the leak, Facebook admitted that the list exists, but stressed that Owens had not yet been investigated.

More names and details about the list have since been leaked to Breitbart. Copies of the list obtained by concerned Facebook employees appear to have been updated in April, before the recent round of high-profile bans.

The list, an excel spreadsheet, features mostly right-wing figures and some left-wingers, along with examples of “signals” that suggest the individuals might be “hate agents.”..

It is unclear who at Facebook oversees the designation of “Hate Agents.”

Brigitte Gabriel, founder of the Islamic extremism watchdog ACT! For America, was added to the spreadsheet in the main category.

Under “Level Two Signals,” a Facebook employee notes that Gabriel might face a potential violation for having security at an event provided by a “DOrg” (designated hate organization), although the name of the organization is not mentioned.

The Facebook employee also notes that Gabriel “spoke at a Christians United for Israel event where she compared Arabs to barbarians,” a comment they describe as “Tier 1 Hate Speech.”

Another instance of “Tier 1 Hate Speech” cited by Facebook is Gabriel “comparing Muslims to a disease ‘Islamic Cancer’”.

The spreadsheet explains that “public statements, or statements made in private and later made public” can be categorized as Hate Speech by Facebook.

Even though the first incident occurred in 2007 and the second in 2015, both are included as “Level Two Signals,” which the spreadsheet describes as incidents that occurred in the past two years.

Another incident noted as a level two hate-signal is Gabriel’s description of Siraj Ibn Wahhaj as a “depraved Muslim terrorist.”

Wahhaj was arrested along with other Muslims at a makeshift training camp in New Mexico, and was charged with conspiracy to commit terror attacks – yet Facebook employees think labeling him a “depraved terrorist” might be over the line.

A spokesperson for Brigitte Gabriel confirmed that she faced a 24-hour ban on Facebook for the comment when it was made several months ago…

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Facebook Blames ‘Mistake’ After Censoring Candace Owens

Posted by M. C. on May 19, 2019

Poverty rate among MARRIED blacks: 7%

Mustn’t let this get out. The unwashed masses will mis-understand.

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2019/05/17/facebook-blames-mistake-after-censoring-candace-owens/

by Alana Mastrangelo

The founder of the Blexit movement, Candace Owens, was suspended on Facebook after posting about “liberal supremacists” and statistics regarding poverty rates in fatherless homes. The social media giant restored Owens’ account several hours later after Breitbart News requested comment, claiming it had “made a mistake.”

Candace Owens said that she was notified her Facebook account had received a seven-day suspension for violating the platform’s “community standards” after posting about “liberal supremacists” and the negative effects that leftist policies have on the black community.

“Dear [President Donald Trump], My [Facebook] page has been suspended for 7 days for posting that white supremacy is not a threat to black America, as much as father absence and & liberal policies that incentivize it, are,” tweeted Owens on Friday, “I am censored for posting the poverty rates in fatherless homes.”…

“Black America must wake up to the great liberal hoax. White supremacy is not a threat. Liberal supremacy is,” read Owens’ censored Facebook post, which included a screenshot of one of her recent tweets, which read:

Poverty rate among blacks: 22%
Poverty rate among whites: 11%

Poverty rate among MARRIED blacks: 7%

Do not let liberal supremacists convince you that white people are the problem at the same time that their policies encourage the 77% father absence rate in black households.

“Facebook has allowed every post that has falsely and horribly accused [President Trump] of white supremacy to remain on its platform,” added Owens in a follow-up tweet, “But when a black woman begins discussing the TRUTH—which is that liberal policies have systematically ruined black homes—they censor.”…

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In-Q-Tel: How the C.I.A. morphed into BIG BROTHER

Posted by M. C. on May 13, 2019

In a nutshell, The CIA Is and has been Investing in Firms That Mine Your Tweets and Instagram Photos from the onset.  Why?  To protect you?  Think again.

In-Q-Tel: How the C.I.A. morphed into BIG BROTHER

Dianne Marshall
The Marshall Report

THE MYSTERY “Q” – SOLVED OR NOT – ALL ROADS LEAD TO “In-Q-Tel”. BIGGER THAN BIG  BROTHER!

CIAiqtcia

Q Clearance Anon?  Are people being suckered or just sucked in?  What are the real clues that Q is providing?  It appears to me that the real rabbit hole to go down is that of the data mining wonderland.  I’ll start with Jim Breyer, head of Accel which is an American Venture Capital Firm with partnership to International Data Group named IDG Accel. CLICK here to find out more about IDG-Accel

Breyer invested 13 million dollars into Facebook, the same year Gilman Louie joined the Board of National Venture Capital Association of America (NVCA) who was also the first CEO of the CIAstartup “In-Q-Tel” which is an American Venture capital firm in partnership with IDG Accel.  CIA owns Facebook?  

Print

In-Q-Tel is the strategic investor for the U.S. Intelligence and Defense Communities that identifies and adapts cutting edge technologies that (supposedly) make our nation safer.   In-Q-Tel was founded in 1999 for the purpose of funding companies that could develop technologies that the CIAcould — USE TO GATHER DATA.

IQT Labs (short for In-Q-Tel) explore the art of possible emerging technology in areas of interest to national security.  These areas include cyber security, biotechnology, commercial space, and advanced data analytics.  Click her to read about IQT Labs

In a nutshell, The CIA Is and has been Investing in Firms That Mine Your Tweets and Instagram Photos from the onset.  Why?  To protect you?  Think again.

While so much speculation has been placed on “Who is Q Anon?” Q has told the readers that he has the highest security clearance there is.  Everyone runs to the President or someone in his top advisory capacity as the highest clearance so they think one of these must be “Q” .  Meanwhile the agency that even the President can’t dig into is the CIA.  The CIA has grown to be a monster of its’ own making.  A secret deep state society of its’ own.  Meaning although the President can use Military to control it – the CIA appears to have gone rogue and take orders from some place other and can withhold information, even from the West Wing.  We are seeing that now.  It is now proven that the CIA has such secrecy it can even plan the assassination of the Commander in Chief, i.e. the President of the United States as they did to President John F. Kennedy. And get away with it.

Therefore, President Trump, who already communicates with his people daily in Tweets, and can use the emergency broadcast system any time to speak to the people and the world,  would not have to go on Reddit channel and seek a select group of people on line to give clues out hoping they will connect dots and be the next “we the people” CIA????  While there are indeed crumbs and many that only high clearance would know about…. the CIA’s In-Q-Tel is such a source, and a much more likely one.

SAUDI AP_17142467002109-780x547REMEMBER when President Trump visited Saudi Arabia, King Salman showed him the mother of all “terrorist finding” cyber technology.  Remember also CIA is Mossad.  Mossad was the House of Saud. CIA is In-Q-Tel.  King Salman arrested the House of Saud. What does this new cyber technology hold?  What is President Trump holding?  What can it do?  What does President Trump think of this new artificial intelligence?  What do you think of this?  What is CERN?

I believe all dots connect and point to Q-Annon as being CIA’S In-Q-Tel.  Why?  To use a new form of data mining that I shall call – effective trolling.  Approach alternative media truth seekers in their own (secret) forum – 4-Chan.  Come in like one of them to do some real time data mining.  Why?  They could want to find what type of  “I- Q’s” human critical thinkers have by playing real time data finding games with real live people?  Is “Q” an artificial program?  Or a real person?

What does “Q” (high level clearance person) have to gain by throwing out bread crumbs?  What does “In-Q-Tel” have to gain by throwing out bread crumbs?

  1. To see what people know?
  2. Analyze how fast people can analyze clues?
  3. Find out how truth researchers think things through – know their thought processes?
  4. See how many people will research and how many will rely on others to find answers?
  5. See how fast people lose interest if answers aren’t found fast?
  6. See how many are discouraged and how long it takes to discourage certain groups?
  7. See how long it takes the last one to get discouraged if nothing is forthcoming?
  8. See how many remain if any, in the end?
  9. See if anyone finds the real “Q” and how long it will take?
  10. Lure other alternative news seekers into one hub?
  11. Data mine the hub?
  12. Find out who listens to them and who their followers are?
  13. Size up strengths and weaknesses?
  14. Infiltrate and classify researchers into groups?
  15. Identify those who really know and those who don’t know?
  16. Find who is capable of finding the real threats to their secrecy?
  17. Allow people to bla, bla, bla and reveal the things their algorithms can’t detect?
  18. Take the information and use it against them with their paid disinformation agents?
  19. See who and how many will do what they are asked by “Q” without knowing who “Q” is?
  20. Create disinformation wars among credible people?

I am sure there are more reasons, these are the ones just off the top of my head.  Before you laugh, remember they (In-Q-Tel) are already data mining everything you say on Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and all social media sites…

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Facebook’s Hire of Patriot Act Co-Author Raises Questions on Company’s Commitment to Privacy

Posted by M. C. on April 26, 2019

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/04/24/facebooks-hire-patriot-act-co-author-raises-questions-companys-commitment-privacy

by
Common Dreams

Facebook’s Hire of Patriot Act Co-Author Raises Questions on Company’s Commitment to Privacy

“What could go wrong?”

by
Eoin Higgins, staff writer
28 Comments
Sometimes I feel like, somebody's watching me.

Sometimes I feel like, somebody’s watching me. (Image: Flickr)

Social media giant Facebook made a major hire Monday, bringing on lawyer Jennifer Newstead as the company’s general counsel—a move that generated criticism due to Newstead’s work two decades ago drafting the Patriot Act.

The company announced the hire by citing Newstead’s extensive work in government. Most recently, Newstead acted as the legal adviser for the State Department.

During her time in the Bush administration, Newstead was known for being the “day to day manager of the Patriot Act in Congress,” according to torture memo author John Yoo.

“Jennifer is a seasoned leader whose global perspective and experience will help us fulfill our mission,” Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said in a statement.

Newstead referred to Facebook’s role in the public discourse in a statement released by the company.

“Facebook’s products play an important role in societies around the world,” said Newstead. “I am looking forward to working with the team and outside experts and regulators on a range of legal issues as we seek to uphold our responsibilities and shared values.”

Newstead’s history in government, though, triggered criticism of Facebook for putting her in a position of power—especially in light of recent comments from the company’s founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg that emphasized a more secure and private experience for users.

The Observer, in a report on the hire, took a skeptical view of Newstead’s past as far as it related to tech.

Ironically, the newly minted Facebook chief lawyer has made a career out of helping the government gain access to private citizens’ data in the name of security. Perhaps the most notable of Newstead’s work is helping draft and present Congress with the Patriot Act, a post-9/11 bill that helped the Bush administration utilize Americans’ phone and internet records.

Thus, as technologist Ashkan Soltani pointed out to Politico, the hire of Newstead is incompatible with the company’s public pivot to privacy.

“It’s almost as if we’re living in some bizarro world where the company does exactly the opposite of what Zuckerberg states publicly,” said Soltani.

Fight For the Future deputy director Evan Greer mused about how Newstead’s hiring fits into an ostensibly different privacy culture at Facebook.

“I can’t help but wonder how all the ‘privacy advocates’ that Facebook has been hiring lately are going to feel about working with a LITERAL AUTHOR OF THE PATRIOT ACT as their general counsel,” Greer tweeted.

Writer Jonah Blank put the hire in perspective, implying that Newstead’s addition to the Facebook team was not the best move.

“How has #Facebook responded to charges that it violates its users’ privacy, fuels ethnic/racial/religious tension, and may have helped #Russia interfere with the 2016 US election?” asked Blank.

“By hiring Trump appointee as its general counsel.”

“What could go wrong?” producer Evan Shapiro asked sarcastically.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License
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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

Posted by A Political Junkie

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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More Legal Troubles for Zuckerberg – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on April 10, 2019

For example, in a 2010 talk given at the Crunchie awards, he stated that “privacy is no longer a social norm,”18 implying that social networking online automatically meant you could no longer have an expectation of privacy, and that the company decided to change the privacy settings of its then 350 million users because “we decided that these would be the social norms now and we just went for it.”19

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2019/04/joseph-mercola/more-legal-troubles-for-zuckerberg-and-why-im-leaving-facebook/

By

Facebook and its founder Mark Zuckerberg are facing legal problems on multiple fronts these days. There’s the class-action complaint alleging lax security measures increased users’ risk of identity theft, following the 2018 hack of 50 million user accounts.1,2

Then there’s the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) probe into Facebook’s compliance with a 2011 consent agreement to safeguard users’ personal information, which has been ongoing for the past year.

According to Fortune Magazine,3 if the company is found to have violated the agreement, fines amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars may be levied. According to a March 4, 2019, report by Wired,4 the U.S. House Judiciary Committee is also conducting an investigation looking for links between Cambridge Analytica, Russia, President Trump and WikiLeaks.

In addition to that, the FTC recently launched a second criminal investigation into the company’s controversial data sharing practices. Top executives are also leaving the company — a sign that the rats are fleeing from Facebook’s sinking ship.

Among them are Facebook’s chief product officer, Chris Fox, who has been with the company for 13 years, and Chris Daniels, vice president of WhatsApp, a position he’s held only since May.5,6

FTC Probe No. 1…

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FACE TO FACEBOOK Mark Zuckerberg warned by Culture Secretary that Facebook will face legal crackdown over self-harm posts

Posted by M. C. on April 8, 2019

Their existing laws already have such a great affect on murder rate, knife crime and child grooming.

When in doubt, or rather don’t have a clue, add make more laws. At least you look like you are doing something.

CULTURE SECRETARY??? How Lenin-esque.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8812054/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-harmful-content-jeremy-wright/

Jeremy Wright told Mark Zuckerberg that Britain has ‘reached a turning point’ and that adding new laws is the only way to beat self-harm content.

Writing in today’s Sun, Jeremy Wright explains how he told Mr Zuckerberg at a meeting at Facebook’s officers in San Francisco in February that Britain had “reached a turning point” over its failure to act.

…

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3 Reasons Why Facebook’s Zuckerberg Wants More Government Regulation | Mises Wire

Posted by M. C. on April 2, 2019

Car companies love regulation.

In NYC the law says you must buy a several hundred thousand dollar medallion to run a taxi service.

It keeps competition under control.

https://mises.org/wire/3-reasons-why-facebooks-zuckerberg-wants-more-government-regulation

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants more government regulation of social media. In a March 30 op-ed for the Washington Post, Zuckerberg trots out the innocent-sounding pablum we’ve come to expect from him:

I believe we need a more active role for governments and regulators. By updating the rules for the Internet, we can preserve what’s best about it — the freedom for people to express themselves and for entrepreneurs to build new things — while also protecting society from broader harms.

But what sort of regulation will this be? Specifically, Zuckerberg concludes “we need new regulation in four areas: harmful content, election integrity, privacy and data portability.”

He wants more countries to adopt versions of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation.

Needless to say, anyone hearing such words from Zuckerberg should immediately assume this newfound support for regulation is calculated to help Facebook financially…

One: Regulations Will Give Facebook More Monopoly Power

Many Facebook critics like to claim that Facebook is a natural monopoly. That is, they think Facebook is so dominant in the marketplace, that it can use its supposed market power to keep out competitors. We’re told that Facebook has so many users, no serious competition will ever be possible.

But remember MySpace? People used to say exactly the same thing that that social media platform. A recently as 2007, The Guardian was asking “Will Myspace ever lose its monopoly?” Xerox corporation was once a tech powerhouse, as well. It has now all but disappeared.

Obviously, the answer to the Guardian’s question is “yes.”…

Part of the reason Zuckerberg has made peace with the idea of government regulation is the knowledge that Facebook will be one of the most powerful groups at the negotiating table when it comes to write the new regulations. In other words, Facebook will be in a position to make sure the new rules favor Facebook over its competitors…

Three: It Will Limit Facebook’s Legal Exposure

Another big benefit of regulation for Facebook will be the potential for using government regulation to limit Facebook’s legal liability when things go wrong. Bell continues:

By offloading decisions about harmful content, privacy rules, and elections onto third-parties, Facebook may not have to take as much of the heat when mistakes are made.

Put another way, Facebook canb protect itself form both the legal and public-relations repercussions to itself when it uses its platform to delete the posts and visibility of users with whom Facebook employees disagree…

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The Mark of the Beast

 

 

 

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