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Facebook gearing up for French presidential elections

By on April 16, 2017 in Censorship, Democracy, disinformation, France, Free Information, Freedom of Speech

Facebook says it has targeted 30,000 fake accounts linked to France ahead of the country’s presidential election, as part of a worldwide effort against misinformation.

The company said Thursday it’s trying to “reduce the spread of material generated through inauthentic activity, including spam, misinformation, or other deceptive content that is often shared by creators of fake accounts.”

It said its efforts “enabled us to take action” against the French accounts and that it is removing sites with the highest traffic.

ABC News: Facebook targets 30,000 fake France accounts before election »

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A free and open society?

By on April 10, 2017 in Big Brother, Big Government, Censorship, Civil rights, Democracy, Free Information, Freedom of Speech, Human rights, War on Terror

Once again, a senseless terror attack.

Once again, politicians are telling us that we must stand up for a free and open society.

Of course we must. But do they?

Western democracy is slowly being hollowed out. It’s getting ever more secretive and less transparent. Power is being centralized and is moving further away from the people. It is getting ever more difficult to participate in and to scrutinize the decision-making process. Free citizens are being reduced to subordinates.

Civil and human rights are being eroded – e.g. when it comes to the rule of law and the right to privacy.

Free speech is being curbed, the Internet is being censored and people are being told what to think. The so-called fake news is being fought by trying to limit free information instead of giving people more, different sources.

Of course, terrorists and religious fanatics are very real threats to a free and open society. But so are our politicians.

/ HAX

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Freedom of expression under attack in Germany

By on April 6, 2017 in Big Brother, Censorship, Free Information, Freedom of Speech, Germany, Rule of law, social media

Minister Maas has proposed the law which places a variety of obligations on the companies, in the apparent hope that this will lead profit-motivated companies to take over private censorship measures. Following years of deletions of perfectly legal content by, for example, Facebook, Minister Maas seems to believe that this will lead to outcomes that are appropriate in a democratic society based on the rule of law. (…)

Another addition to the draft law is a procedure to prohibit the distribution of pornography. The effects on group chats, such as WhatsApp which might also be affected by the law, depending on the scope, will be interesting as partially public exchanges of legal content such as pornography would suddenly become the focus of deletions. (…)

In total, 24 criminal offences have been added to the latest draft, including counterfeiting and fake news for the purpose of treason against the nation, defamation of the state and its symbols, as well as insults to the Federal President.

EDRi: Reckless social media law threatens freedom of expression in Germany »

Zerohedge: Germany Passes Bill To Fine FaceBook, Twitter Up To $50MM For “Fake News” »

Related, EU Observer: Germany calls for EU laws on hate speech and fake news »

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EU censorship of social media launched

By on April 6, 2017 in Censorship, Democracy, EU, Free Information, Freedom of Speech, Rule of law, social media

A database set up jointly by Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube aims to identify “terrorist and radicalising” content automatically and to remove it from these platforms. (…)

It appears that no research whatsoever has been done on the likely impact of this initiative, including no review mechanisms on its impact and no way of establishing whether the initiative has counter-productive effects. (…)

The role of judicial and law enforcement authorities in this process has, unsurprisingly, not been mentioned.

EDRi: Social media companies launch upload filter to combat “terrorism and extremism” »

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»Liking« on Facebook ends up in court

By on April 4, 2017 in Facebook, Free Information, Freedom of Speech, social media

In Switzerland, the first trial based on likes on Facebook is currently underway. According to The Local, a 45-year-old from Zurich has been charged with defamation for liking Facebook posts that accused the plaintiff of being anti-Semitic. So basically, a man is being prosecuted for liking something somebody else posted.

The absurdity.

The Next Web: Swiss man sued for ‘liking’ Facebook posts that called a convicted racist a racist »

The Local.ch: Man faces court for ‘liking’ Facebook posts »

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Full circle…

By on March 30, 2017 in Big Brother, Civil liberties, Democracy, Free Information, Freedom of Speech, Twitter

A Spanish court on Wednesday sentenced a young woman to jail for posting jokes on Twitter about the 1973 assassination of a senior figure in the Franco dictatorship.

Even the granddaughter of Carrero Blanco attacked the move by public prosecutors to charge Vera and put her on trial, saying in a letter sent to daily El Pais in January that while the jokes were in poor taste they were not worthy of such legal action. “I’m scared of a society in which freedom of expression, however regrettable it may be, can lead to jail sentences,” Lucia Carrero Blanco wrote.

The Guardian: Spanish woman given jail term for tweeting jokes about Franco-era assassination »

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California to make »fake news« illegal?

By on March 29, 2017 in Big Brother, Censorship, Civil liberties, Democracy, disinformation, Free Information, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, Internet, US

From a proposed Californian law:

18320.5. It is unlawful for a person to knowingly and willingly make, publish or circulate on an Internet Web site, or cause to be made, published, or circulated in any writing posted on an Internet Web site, a false or deceptive statement designed to influence the vote on either of the following:

(a) Any issue submitted to voters at an election.

(b) Any candidate for election to public office.

EFF comments…

In other words, it would be illegal to be wrong on the internet if it could impact an election. The bill is unconstitutional under U.S. Supreme Court case law (see our opposition letter for more information on that), and likely to draw immediate and costly lawsuits if it is signed into law.

EFF: California Bill To Ban “Fake News” Would Be Disastrous for Political Speech »

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EU to ISP:s: Scan and censor everything

By on March 26, 2017 in Big Brother, Big Entertainment, Big Media, Censorship, Copyright, EU, Free Information, Freedom of Speech, Intellectual Property, Internet, Privacy

Under the extreme rules proposed by the Commission in the Copyright Directive, uploads to the internet would need to be scanned to assess if any photo, video or text that is being uploaded can be “identified” based on information provided by copyright holders. This would block, for example, memes that include copyrighted images or videos, parody, quotation and other perfectly harmless activities.

In order to encourage internet companies to monitor and delete information as thoroughly as possible, it is also proposed that their legal liability for uploads would be increased.

EDRi: EU moves one step closer to the world’s worst internet filtering law »

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German anti hate-law announced

By on March 17, 2017 in Censorship, Free Information, Freedom of Speech, Germany, social media

The past week, German government put forward its controversial bill to fight online hate speech – threatening social platforms with fines up to € 50 million.

Politico:

Under the rules proposed, social media companies must clearly explain rules and complaint procedures to users and follow up on each complaint. Blatantly illegal content must be deleted within 24 hours, while other law-breaking content must be taken down or blocked within seven days.

Politico: Germany unveils law with big fines for hate speech on social media »

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