Tuesday, January 14, 2025
The Nordic Times

Polaris of Enlightenment

Tuesday, January 14, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

Breaking News
Ad:

https://nordictimes.com/the-nordics/norway/censorship-of-the-israel-palestine-conflict-draws-attention-in-norway/

Norway

Censorship of the Israel-Palestine conflict draws attention in Norway

Internet censorship

Published 1 November 2023
– By Editorial Staff
Actress Thea Sofie Loch Næss notices that some of her posts on Instagram are not reaching her followers.
Share via

Among others, the Norwegian actress Thea Sofie Loch Næss has pointed out that posts about the Israel-Palestine conflict seem to be suppressed if they can be interpreted as supportive of Palestine. Instagram cites bugs causing so-called shadow banning of posts, a claim which Norwegian authorities are skeptical of.

– If they start mixing politics into their moderating, it could affect Norwegian democracy, says Tobias Judin from the Norwegian Data Protection Authority.

Næss, who has 139,000 followers on Instagram and typically receives thousands of views on her posts and stories on the platform, experienced a significant drop in views when she posted about the Israel-Palestine conflict. After two hours, only five people had seen her story. When she asked her friends if they could see her story in their feed, they found that it wasn’t there at all. They had to visit Næss’s profile and click on the story to view it, which is not the usual behavior for posts and stories on the platform.

Næss had shared a post from the organization Doctors Without Borders that spoke about the insufficient timeframe Palestinians were given to evacuate Gaza, and another post condemning both Hamas and the Israeli government. After realizing her posts were being hidden by Instagram, she shared this with her followers, many of whom reported similar experiences.

– This affects everyone trying to share something that could be interpreted as pro-Palestinian or casting Israel in a negative light, she told the Norwegian state channel NRK.

Another Norwegian citizen, Anna Versto, also experienced something similar when she posted content that could be seen as pro-Palestinian. Typically, 400-500 people view her stories, but suddenly, only ten did.

– The fact that Instagram engages in censorship is very serious, says Versto, emphasizing that in this specific instance, it feels dehumanizing towards Palestinians.

Could affect Norwegian democracy

On October 15th, Meta, the company that owns Instagram, posted on X stating they had a bug in the system making it problematic to share posts, but that the issue had been fixed.

However, several users still report peculiar behaviors from Instagram even after this, such as the platform shutting down its largest pro-Palestinian account, citing “security reasons”.

The Norwegian Data Protection Authority expressed skepticism about Instagram’s explanations regarding shadow banning.

– This is the nature of these platforms. We are entirely at the mercy of the explanations they give us. It’s very possible they are playing tricks on us. We don’t have the tools to detect this, says Tobias Judin from the Norwegian Data Protection Authority.

– They’ve become a significant part of democratic discourse. So if they start mixing politics into their moderation, it could impact Norwegian democracy, Judin further states.

Instagram has previously (in 2021) been accused of censoring pro-Palestinian content, including by American model Bella Hadid, who has Palestinian ancestry. Hadid believed the platform censored posts she made about conflicts between Israeli police and Palestinians at the al-Aqsa mosque.

NRK mentions they reached out to Instagram for a comment regarding the posts but did not receive a response.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

TNT is truly independent!

We don’t have a billionaire owner, and our unique reader-funded model keeps us free from political or corporate influence. This means we can fearlessly report the facts and shine a light on the misdeeds of those in power.

Consider a donation to keep our independent journalism running…

https://nordictimes.com/tech/zuckerberg-biden-administration-forced-us-to-censor-vaccine-criticism/

Tech

Zuckerberg: Biden administration forced us to censor vaccine criticism

Internet censorship

Published 11 January 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Mark Zuckerberg says it was Biden's team that forced Facebook to censor vaccine criticism.
Share via

In an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says it was the Biden administration that forced the company’s platforms to censor posts criticizing the experimental COVID-19 vaccines.

The conversation covered several topics, but one that stood out was when Zuckerberg talked about government censorship and how the outgoing administration forced the tech company to weed out uncomfortable opinions – even if they were completely true.

– This hit the most extreme. I’d say it was during the Biden Administration when they were trying to roll out the vaccine programme. Now I’m generally pretty pro rolling out vaccines, I think on balance the vaccines are more positive than negative but I think that while they’re trying to push that program they also tried to censor anyone who was arguing against it.

– They pushed us super hard to take down things that were honestly true. I mean, they basically pushed us and said, ‘You know anything that says that vaccines might have side effects, you need to take down’ , the billionaire explained in the interview, claiming he opposed this demand.

According to Zuckerberg, representatives of the Biden administration contacted him personally and demanded that posts highlighting the side effects of the mRNA vaccine be deleted.

“That’s ridiculous“

Referring to the investigation, and the committee set up to look into the Biden administration’s censorship, Mark Zuckerberg went on to say that government representatives called and yelled at Meta’s team, demanding that various posts, even of a humorous nature, be deleted immediately.

– It just got to this point where we were like, no, we’re not gonna take down true things. That’s ridiculous… We’re not going to take down humor and satire.

According to Zuckerberg, his alleged refusal to comply with the Biden administration’s censorship demands also led the government to begin attacking his company through various pronouncements and government investigations.

– It was brutal, he claims.

With the departure of the Biden administration and the arrival of the Trump administration, the Facebook founder says it is high time to “restore freedom of expression” on platforms that were previously subject to widespread and arbitrary censorship, and where dissent was often effectively banned.

– We will go back to our roots, they say.

“Criminal censorship”

Not everyone finds Zuckerberg’s claims particularly credible, however. For example, author David Icke, an early critic of mass vaccination programs, points out that he was censored and suspended from Facebook back in 2020 when Donald Trump was president.

“They are all at it – letting Zuckerberg’s criminal censorship be whitewashed to bring him into the MAGA fold while Biden takes the blame”, he writes.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

https://nordictimes.com/tech/facebook-stops-fact-checking-too-much-censorship/

Tech

Facebook stops fact-checking: “Too much censorship”

Internet censorship

Published 8 January 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Mark Zuckerberg himself has been a driving force in censoring dissidents and other dissenters on Meta's platforms.
Share via

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta, announces that it will stop fact-checking posts on both platforms and move to a user-driven system.

Zuckerberg also blames politicians and the media for forcing such widespread censorship, saying it is now time to “restore freedom of expression“.

– We’re going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms. More specifically, here’s what we’re going to do. First, we’re going to get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with community notes similar to X, starting in the US, the billionaire states in a video clip.

He also admits that Trump’s election win played a big role in the decision, while criticizing “governments and legacy media” for pressuring the company to “censor more and more”.

– The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards, once again, prioritizing speech.

The Facebook CEO also acknowledges that the sophisticated systems created to moderate the platforms do not work well and lead to an unreasonable censorship of content that does not violate any rules at all.

– The problem with complex systems is they make mistakes. Even if they accidentally censor just 1% of posts, that’s millions of people, and we’ve reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes and too much censorship.

“A trade-off”

Some content guidelines will also be removed, for example on immigration and LGBT issues. This is interpreted as meaning that in future it will be possible to discuss these topics more freely and to hold dissenting views – without risking being suspended or censored as easily as before.

The content filter will also be modified, it says, and set so that posts are not deleted as easily and arbitrarily as before.

– The reality is that this is a trade-off. It means we’re going to catch less bad stuff, but we’ll also reduce the number of innocent people’s posts and accounts that we accidentally take down, Zuckerberg continues.

In recent years, censorship on Facebook has been extremely widespread and it has often been difficult to discuss political or other topics without risking censorship. According to analysts, the reason for Meta’s reversal is that Mark Zuckerberg wants to improve relations with President-elect Donald Trump and his administration.

Trump himself has been banned from both Facebook and Instagram for years – but was welcomed back this summer when it became clear that he would again be the Republican presidential candidate.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

https://nordictimes.com/tech/russian-media-blocked-on-telegram-in-sweden/

Tech

Russian media blocked on Telegram in Sweden

Internet censorship

Published 30 December 2024
– By Editorial Staff
It is unclear whether the media channels have been blocked in all EU countries.
Share via

The messaging service Telegram has previously been presented as a more privacy- and free speech-friendly alternative to the services provided by major American tech companies.

However, censorship has now started to increase there as well, and several Russian media outlets have recently been blocked in Sweden and several other EU countries.

These include the state news agency Ria, the TV channels Rossiya 1, Pervyj Kanal and NTV, and the newspapers Izvestiya and Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

Users in Sweden who try to access the media’s Telegram channels are prevented from doing so and are instead met with an error message stating that the channels cannot be shown because they violate local legislation.

It is unclear whether the Russian media are blocked on Telegram across the European Union – but it is clear that they cannot be accessed in Poland, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Greece, Italy and the Czech Republic either.

“An informational iron curtain”

It should also be noted that several of the media outlets now blocked by Telegram have previously been banned, blocked or sanctioned by EU powers for allegedly being under the “permanent direct or indirect control” of the Kremlin and playing a “essential and instrumental” role in the war in Ukraine.

Senator Alexei Pushkov, who heads the Russian media policy committee in the Federation Council, is highly critical of the censorship, drawing parallels with the Cold War.

– I believe that the blocking of the RIA Novosti Telegram channel and other Russian mass media, including Izvestia and Rossiyskaya Gazeta in a number of EU countries, is a continuation of the effort to create an informational iron curtain between Europe and Russia, he says, according to Russian state channel RT.

CEO arrested in France

RT also had all its Telegram accounts blocked across the EU shortly after the Ukraine war started in 2022.

This summer, Telegram founder Pavel Durov was also arrested and detained by French police, accused of not doing enough to prevent criminals from using his platform and told that he risks being held personally liable for the crimes others commit on Telegram.

Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov. Photo: facsimile/Tucker Carlson/YT

Shortly thereafter, Durov also promised that Telegram would become a “safer place,” while the service quietly updated its FAQ. Promises that chats were private and that data would not be shared with outsiders were replaced with instructions on how users can report “suspicious” messages.

Critics were quick to point out that it is not only criminal actors who risk being removed from the platform but also accounts belonging to political dissenters or other voices that Western leaders may want to silence.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

https://nordictimes.com/world/meta-admits-to-large-scale-censorship/

World

Meta admits to large-scale censorship

Internet censorship

Published 4 December 2024
– By Editorial Staff
According to critics, the arbitrary censorship on Facebook has made it difficult to have long discussions at all.
Share via

Nick Clegg, president of global affairs at Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta, admits that moderation on the company’s platforms today is far too strict and that content is constantly deleted even though it does not violate any rules at all.

According to Clegg, moderation’s “error rates are still too high” and he claims that it now wants to “improve the precision and accuracy with which we act on our rules”, reports The Verge.

– We know that when enforcing our policies, our error rates are still too high, which gets in the way of the free expression that we set out to enable. Too often, harmless content gets taken down, or restricted, and too many people get penalized unfairly, he continues.

The Meta chief also claims to be remorseful about how Meta very aggressively censored users’ posts related to COVID-19, which, according to Mark Zuckerberg, was largely due to pressure from the Biden administration.

– We had very stringent rules removing very large volumes of content through the pandemic. No one during the pandemic knew how the pandemic was going to unfold, so this really is wisdom in hindsight. But with that hindsight, we feel that we overdid it a bit. We’re acutely aware because users quite rightly raised their voice and complained that we sometimes over-enforce and we make mistakes and we remove or restrict innocuous or innocent content, he continues.

Extreme censorship

When Donald Trump was the target of an assassination attempt, photos and videos of the incident went viral on Facebook – but were also censored on a massive scale, which is just one of countless examples of what critics have described as politically motivated censorship.

A large number of words and terms are also effectively banned on Facebook today, and the arbitrary and extensive censorship has, according to critics, made it difficult to have any lengthy discussions about, for example, politics or news events.

It is unclear whether censorship will continue on the same scale as before during Trump’s presidency, and although the president-elect recently met with Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta has not yet made any major known changes to its content rules.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com