...And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
Thanks babyfreep. Happy anniversary, everyone.
Posted on 07/03/2018 2:53:50 PM PDT by babyfreep
America's founding document might be too politically incorrect for Facebook, which flagged and removed a post consisting almost entirely of text from the Declaration of Independence. The excerpt, posted by a small community newspaper in Texas, apparently violated the social media site's policies against hate speech.
Since June 24, the Liberty County Vindicator of Liberty County, Texas, has been sharing daily excerpts from the declaration in the run up to July Fourth. The idea was to encourage historical literacy among the Vindicator's readers.
The first nine such posts of the project went up without incident.
"But part 10," writes Vindicator managing editor Casey Stinnett, "did not appear. Instead, The Vindicator received a notice from Facebook saying that the post 'goes against our standards on hate speech.'"
The post in question contained paragraphs 27 through 31 of the Declaration of Independence, the grievance section of the document wherein the put-upon colonists detail all the irreconcilable differences they have with King George III.
Stinnett says that he cannot be sure which exact grievance ran afoul of Facebook's policy, but he assumes that it's paragraph 31, which excoriates the King for inciting "domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages."
The removal of the post was an automated action, and Stinnett sent a "feedback message" to Facebook with the hopes of reaching a human being who could then exempt the Declaration of Independence from its hate speech restrictions.
Fearful that sharing more of the text might trigger the deletion of its Facebook page, The Vindicator has suspended its serialization of the declaration.
In his article, Stinnett is remarkably sanguine about this censorship. While unhappy about the decision, he reminds readers "that Facebook is a business corporation, not the government, and as such it is allowed to restrict use of its services as long as those restrictions do not violate any laws. Plus, The Vindicator is using Facebook for free, so the newspaper has little grounds for complaint other than the silliness of it."
Of course, Facebook's actions here are silly. They demonstrate a problem with automated enforcement of hate speech policies, which is that a robot trained to spot politically incorrect language isn't smart enough to detect when that language is part of a historically significant document.
None of this is meant as a defense of referring to Native Americans as "savages." That phrasing is clearly racist and serves as another example of the American Revolution's mixed legacy; one that won crucial liberties for a certain segment of the population, while continuing to deny those same liberties to Native Americans and African slaves. But by allowing the less controversial parts of the declaration to be shared while deleting the reference to "Indian savages," Facebook succeeds only in whitewashing America's founding just as we get ready to celebrate it.
A more thoughtful approach to Independence Day—for both celebrants and social media companies alike—would be to grapple with those historical demons.
...And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
Thanks babyfreep. Happy anniversary, everyone.
Well then....explain yourself please.
Facebook has made socially inept and unattractive people feel validated via “friends”.
Thanks, will look into it. Hardly ever use FB, but friends and family seem to enjoy it more than exchanging email (my preferred contact method).
No, they were savages.
Britschgi - Finnish?
At the time, many Indians were pretty much savages, killing each other in constant tribal wars, including women and children. It was a routine.
Most of the Africans brought here as slaves, sold by their own people, led a far better life than the one left behind. Contrary to what is emphasized as the rule, slaves were not treated badly anymore than hired hands, livestock, and equipment were mistreated. The investment of thousands of dollars was not something to be abused, which was the exception at the time.
And this, they call “artificial intelligence.”
I repeat that many times when I talk to my kids/grand-kids...times were different then. Culture, people and thoughts were different than they are now. This does not change the fact that the ideology behind our early documents - written by these geniuses - remains pure and should remain untouched.
I will check mewe out. Thank you for the notice. I had never heard of it.
Facebook is responsible for thousands of identity thefts and filing of false documents like tax returns.
NO FAKEBOOK
ping to mine :-)
Yes, somewhere hides the truth and it damn sure is not on facefart.
[The Deadly and Delusional Lying Left is driven by the satanic spirit of antichrist, HATE AMERICA]
You know, at one time, that would have sounded like a tinfoil nutjob conspiracy.
But I’ve seen many of these folks online. And they behave exactly in that manner. IOW, I don’t disagree.
The injuns of that period were most definitely “savages”. That description is historically accurate and isn’t a reflection on present-day ancestors,
Being genetically Scandinavian doesn’t mean I am offended by someone descibing Vikings as savages. They were!
'How to pick up Jewish chicks': Vile antisemitic picture shows human remains on a shovel - but Facebook refused to remove it.
FB has been accused of "enabling vicious Jewish hatred" after telling users an image depicting human remains on a shovel below the tag line "How to pick up Jewish chicks" did not breach its standards.
Just days after back flipping on its decision to censor an iconic Vietnam War photo of a naked girl escaping a napalm bombing, the social media giant is again under fire over its handling of posts reported as offensive.
In reply to complaints about the shovel image - which was widely shared, "liked" 21,000 times, and received more than 37,000 comments - Facebook said: "We reviewed the post you reported for displaying hate speech and found it doesn't violate our community standards."
Under its community standards policy, Facebook says it "removes hate speech" that attacks people based on their race, ethnicity, national origin and religious affiliation.
"We allow humor, satire or social commentary related to these topics, and we believe that when people use their authentic identity, they are more responsible when they share this kind of commentary," the policy says.
The image was posted to a page attributed to a Queensland man late last month and shared 2280 times. It has now been removed but tens of thousands of comments, many of which are anti-Semitic, were still visible in the thread as late as Thursday.
A FB spokesman said the image was removed for breaching community standards and that the company was still investigating.
But 24 hours after being asked, the spokesman could still not say when the photo was taken down. Facebook could also not explain why only the photo was initially removed and not the entire thread - which is standard when a post is pulled.
FB is dead to me. I don't even go there for friend's posts or anyone else.
I stay connected with guys from my old unit. We are all patriots and post all of the items in question.
I also have friends from various veteran organizations that do the same.
If these things were being blocked or deleted I would most certainly know.
Now that’s sick.
And if I think something is sick, you know it’s sick.
My God in Heaven that’s disturbing.
really??? Disgusting if true.
Which is why I don’t go there even for work related stuff.
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