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Facebook's Fascism in Group Membership Elimination
atlas shrugs ^ | 5/24/11 | pamela geller

Posted on 05/24/2011 11:50:59 AM PDT by Nachum

A couple weeks back I described a deeply disturbing development at Facebook here. Facebook management is dismantling groups, eliminating their memberships with an "upgrade" that is only available to some groups.

Neil Munro over at The Daily Caller has picked up on the story and done some digging:

Facebook upgrade spurs fears of political bias

Facebook’s managers are deploying a new software upgrade that will dismantle myriad groups of like-minded political activists unless they get a special software-key from the company.

But Facebook managers are providing very limited information about which groups are being favored with the new key, prompting some activists to complain about possible political favoritism among Facebook managers, and many other activists to experiment with techniques and tricks to get the needed upgrade-key.

“Who is being given the upgrade?” asked Pamela Geller, the New York organizer of a 15,000-member group opposed to Islamist political groups. Without the special key, groups lose access to their members, she said. “I’ve seen people really freaking out.”

Facebook’s software changes do not effect the individual pages that Facebook subscribers use to stay in contact with friends and to tout their relationships, statuses and accomplishments. The upgrade only effects the software that links Facebook’s “groups” of like-minded people, each of which is managed by one or more group administrators. Obama facebook

The groups vary in size from a single person to more than one million people. They have varying levels of activity from nothing to very active.

The new software-upgrade will automatically archive all groups. Once archived, each group’s past activity will be still be visible on Facebook, but the groups’ administrators will lose access to their lists of group members. That means the administrators lose contact with everyone in their groups, and will be forced to recruit all those members again – unless Facebook provides them with the special upgrade software.

With the upgrade, group-administrators can keep in contact with their original members, and get to use the upgraded software to help the group become more active.

That’s why the upgrade software is so important to Geller and other activists.

Geller’s “Stop Islamization of America” group has 15,062 members, but no upgrade-key, she said. If Facebook archives her group without allowing her to reach its members, she’ll have to rebuild the group from the scratch, one e-mail at a time, she said. “I can’t just sit down and write a message to 15,000 members,” she said. “Why not just give us the upgrade option?”

“The Coalition to Save Marriage in New York” is a group of 1,163 social-conservatives seeking to preserve traditional marriage’s role as an institution for parents and child-rearing. The group has been very active this year trying to derail a gay-marriage push in the state assembly, but the group doesn’t have the upgrade, said the group’s administrator, Jason McGuire in Rochester, N.Y. “Nobody else that I know got one,” he said. “You do have to wonder if Facebook is leaning towards liberal positions, instead of being on open format,” he said.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence got the upgrade for its 1,000-member group. “We changed over very smoothly,” said David Churchill, the network-manager at the D.C.-based gun-control group. “We just basically clicked the upgrade button, checked it over, and we have a tremendous increase in participation,” he said.

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation’s “GLAAD open group” also got an upgrade for its 300 members. The group’s administrator did not respond to TheDC’s emails.

[...]

“Some groups will be given the opportunity to upgrade into the new design while others will need to re-create their groups,” said a statement from Andrew Noyes, the company’s manager for public policy communications.

The award of the upgrade-software is determined by the activity on each group, he said. “We determined what groups to archive based on a number of factors, including the amount of recent activity [and] we’re currently working on ways to refine our systems so as to not accidentally archive or move groups that were incorrectly characterized and we appreciate user feedback as we do so,” he said.

But that argument is unpersuasive, said Geller, because her group is large and active, yet still does not have the key that smaller groups have already received.

The activists’ worries about Facebook’s possible political tilt are fortified by the political activities of its founders and employees. The company’s employees donated heavily to the Obama campaign in 2008, just as did the employees of Google and Microsoft. Facebook-founder Chris Hughes workers as head of the online-organizing campaign for the Obama campaign, while company chief Mark Zuckerberg has declared himself to be an Obama supporter.

In the same election, Google‘s YouTube subsidiary also used its video-sorting technology to demote online-ads run by GOP candidate John McCain, even as Obama’s online-ads dominated YouTube’s display pages. Google’s website-ranking system is similarly opaque, fueling claims of political bias by pro-life groups and by groups that championed Hillary Clinton’s primary run in 2008.

The companies’ officials can also quietly provide valuable advice and favors for groups they personally support, or that can provide support to their company. For example, Noyes worked with gay-advocacy groups to add “domestic partnership” and “civil union” to Facebook’s option “status” description buttons, and also worked with federal officials to add notification-software to Facebook as part of a White House “anti-bullying” event in March.

Noyes also worked informally with gay activists to knock down Facebook pages they disliked. “We had a sort of informal relationship with GLAAD based around things people were seeing on Facebook that they believed needed to come down,” Noyes told Metro Weekly, according to a March 2011 article. “It was a very important, informal relationship that we had, because nine times out of 10, the content did violate our terms and we did take it down,” he said.

Read more: the rest.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: facebook; facebooks; fascism; group; membership

1 posted on 05/24/2011 11:51:05 AM PDT by Nachum
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To: Nachum

There’s no fascism, like Silicon Valley fascism.


2 posted on 05/24/2011 11:55:44 AM PDT by Talisker (When you find a turtle on top of a fence post, you can be damn sure it didn't get there on its own.)
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To: Nachum

It is time for Conservatives to have their own social networks. That is obvious.

The best revenge is doing well. Facebook will soon find itself losing customers - that is called the power of the pocketbook. As everyone knows, liberals adore and crave money all the while claiming they are above that nonsense!

Hit them where it hurts most.


3 posted on 05/24/2011 11:58:22 AM PDT by SatinDoll (NOT FOREIGN NATIONALS AS OUR PRESIDENT)
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To: Nachum

Just as the obame re-election gets underway.

What a surprise !


4 posted on 05/24/2011 12:02:46 PM PDT by maine yankee
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To: Nachum

Last I looked, Facebook is a free web site and can set the rules as they see fit (kind of like FR) ...


5 posted on 05/24/2011 12:03:02 PM PDT by An.American.Expatriate (Here's my strategy on the War against Terrorism: We win, they lose. - with apologies to R.R.)
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To: SatinDoll

A class action lawsuit from geller’s membership list as well as every organization that didn’t get a key would do wonders and make headlines.

Does the Facebook terms of service say anything about conservative groups need not apply.


6 posted on 05/24/2011 12:07:32 PM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (Who is John Galt)
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To: An.American.Expatriate

No shit. No one is arguing that fact. Soneone needs to create a Facebook-like site for conservatives, which would be the ultimate revenge.


7 posted on 05/24/2011 12:08:16 PM PDT by ohioman
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To: An.American.Expatriate

“Last I looked, Facebook is a free web site and can set the rules as they see fit (kind of like FR) ...”

FR bills itself as a conservative web site. I didn’t see where Facebook bills itself as a liberal website. And I would think they have the right to terminate anyone they want, but to discriminate based on political orientation is fascism.


8 posted on 05/24/2011 12:10:47 PM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (Who is John Galt)
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To: Nachum

As so , like no FaceBook Uncensored 2.0 will emerge?!!!


9 posted on 05/24/2011 12:11:36 PM PDT by mo ("If you understand, no explanation is needed; if you do not, no explanation is possible")
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To: Nachum

A private company is going to do what it wants. Someone should’ve been collecting their group members’ info separately, just in case. Facebook isn’t the only game in town.


10 posted on 05/24/2011 12:12:28 PM PDT by skr (May God confound the enemy)
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To: Nachum

Facebook has gone from being exclusive to College students to including everyone, even businesses, nonprofits etc. Sounds like they want to go back to being exclusive to only the groups they want.


11 posted on 05/24/2011 12:15:38 PM PDT by happilymarriedmom
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To: EQAndyBuzz
And I would think they have the right to terminate anyone they want, but to discriminate based on political orientation is fascism.

Are you accusing FR of political facism?

It's THIER site. If Geller or anyone else doesn't like it there - LEAVE! No one forces her, or anyone else to use thier service and there are MANY alternatives ....

12 posted on 05/24/2011 12:16:04 PM PDT by An.American.Expatriate (Here's my strategy on the War against Terrorism: We win, they lose. - with apologies to R.R.)
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To: ohioman
No one is arguing that fact.

Actually, that is what the whole whine in the article is about! Geller wants Facebook to conform to HER desires and feels unfairly treated. She has not purchased a service and is using someone elses property to further her political agenda - which is at odds with the agenda of the owner of the site.

13 posted on 05/24/2011 12:19:17 PM PDT by An.American.Expatriate (Here's my strategy on the War against Terrorism: We win, they lose. - with apologies to R.R.)
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To: Nachum

People gotta stop whining so much. Unlike 99% of all the changes FB does they’ve actually pre-announced this one. If their group isn’t getting the automatic moving of the subscribers, which apparently they already know, then they should take some screen shots of their list and when the switch happens get the reinvites going. If they took half the energy they’re putting into complaining into actually dealing with it they’d already have dealt with it.


14 posted on 05/24/2011 12:23:59 PM PDT by discostu (Come on Punky, get Funky)
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To: An.American.Expatriate

Facebook’s mission statement is to “give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.”

Nowhere do I see, “except for conservatives.”


15 posted on 05/24/2011 12:24:23 PM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (Who is John Galt)
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To: Nachum
What would you think if a bunch of socialists and communists started flocking over to an organization?

...Coupled with rumors of Gibbs’s consideration for a job at Facebook and the defections of several lower-level Obama administration officials to the company (Facebook), some are wondering whether the two entities have become too close.

16 posted on 05/24/2011 12:26:57 PM PDT by The Bronze Titan
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To: Nachum

I don’t know where they’re getting this information. All of our groups are upgradable to their new format. Never seen anything about any “key.”

And actually, the new format seems to work quite a bit better than the old one. Interaction with personal pages is better.


17 posted on 05/24/2011 12:27:48 PM PDT by EternalVigilance (If Obama is Irish...or American for that matter...I'm Kenyan.)
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To: EQAndyBuzz

Since when does a “mission statement” mean anything?

And

does that statement give you a perpetual right to do whatever you want with facebook’s property?

Is that mission statement somehow a legally binding agreement for services provided?


18 posted on 05/24/2011 12:36:24 PM PDT by An.American.Expatriate (Here's my strategy on the War against Terrorism: We win, they lose. - with apologies to R.R.)
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To: An.American.Expatriate

“Is that mission statement somehow a legally binding agreement for services provided?”

Nope. just another rich communist social engineering for fun and profit.


19 posted on 05/24/2011 1:11:47 PM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (Who is John Galt)
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