Re: Campaign to boycott Facebook

[Hector Espinoza]

   Hi Jim:
   I think your point is very important.
   Day to day, not only inside of digital social networks, but in
   television/radio/newspapers that probably happens as well.
   Perhaps digital social networks have democratized social networking but
   regulating content is always tricky. Maybe inside that network or any
   other network anybody can potentially be the biggest leader/influencer
   (time/workforce resources aside).
   It is up to us in last instance to determine our trusting entities. Of
   course too much noise makes that more difficult.
   Cheers,
   Héctor Espinoza
   On Sun, Feb 23, 2020 at 4:38 PM Jim Garrett <[1]jimgarrett@posteo.net>
   wrote:
   >
   > Hi everyone,
   >
   > I've always counseled friends to leave Facebook, when the
   conversation
   > was feasible or potentially fruitful, but hearing recently that
   author
   > Stephen King has left Facebook due to FB's policy to allow factually
   > incorrect political advertisements, I realized just how this
   threatens
   > US democracy (and possibly democracy in other countries as well):
   > (1) the Trump campaign has at least 500M dollars, and (2) Trump has
   no
   > compunction against disgorging a stream of lies with no concern for
   > discourse. I'm envisioning what is technically called a s**tstorm
   that
   > will cause chaos and simply overwhelm discourse.
   >
   > I'm calling out to my friends to ask them to boycott, and I'm
   > suggesting they preserve their Facebook community by organizing
   > transitions to alternatives.  I suggest Friendica and Mastodon as
   > specific alternatives.
   >
   > I've written my missive in blog form here:
   >
   >
   [2]https://internetperdition.wordpress.com/2020/02/22/boycott-facebook-
   for-real-this-time-to-save-our-democracy/
   >
   > Please consider reaching out to your friends and colleagues
   similarly.
   > Feel free to point them to my blog, create your own version, or
   > proceed however makes sense to you.
   >
   > I think this is a special time.  Facebook has always been
   > reprehensible, but now they've made one additional error that most
   > people find particularly hard to swallow: they forbid incorrect
   medical
   > ads because "they could cause harm", but not incorrect political ads.
   > It follows that Facebook believes that political ads don't cause
   harm.
   >
   > Admittedly, my post is US-centric.  I also made the tactical choice
   to
   > not for Free Software specifically, for which I'm sure many here will
   > be disappointed.  I generally do advocate for Free Software when I
   > see an opportunity, but I felt the need to focus in this case, and
   can
   > discuss software freedom in whatever follow-up conversations arise.
   >
   > Thanks for acting in whatever way you can!
   >
   > Jim Garrett
   >
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References

   1. mailto:jimgarrett@posteo.net
   2. 
https://internetperdition.wordpress.com/2020/02/22/boycott-facebook-for-real-this-time-to-save-our-democracy/
   3. mailto:libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org
   4. https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss