On Thursday, President Biden said that members of the MAGA movement are similar to fascists.
Biden compares MAGA movement to fascism https://t.co/MXHr25cZQe
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) August 25, 2022
That would be about 74 million people. Who voted for Donald Trump.
Good job uniting the country, Joe. Meanwhile, we just got some insight into something that actually is kind of fascist.
On Thursday, Meta (Facebook) CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted that his platform significantly decreased the ability of users to share the New York Post’s now-infamous Hunter Biden laptop story weeks before the 2020 presidential election. He compared Facebook merely manipulating its algorithm regarding the story to Twitter, which outright banned it being shared.
Why did Facebook do this? The FBI told them to be on the look out for “Russian Disinformation” and said they shouldn’t let this supposed disinformation spread.
See for yourself:
BREAKING: Mark Zuckerberg tells Joe Rogan that Facebook algorithmically censored the Hunter Biden laptop story for 7 days based on a general request from the FBI to restrict election misinformation. pic.twitter.com/llTA7IqGa1
— Minds💡 (@minds) August 25, 2022
There it is. Private companies sharing or not sharing news influenced by the government’s directive. By admission of Facebook’s head.
Knox County Mayor and WWE star ‘Kane’ had an observation.
So a federal government agency convinced a private company to shadow ban a story which turned out to be true and had massive implications on a presidential election. This is borderline fascism and should worry everyone. https://t.co/V7HXNZ1nt0
— Glenn Jacobs (@GlennJacobsTN) August 25, 2022
I don’t know how much impact this Facebook and Twitter policy had on the election at the time. But it is very concerning that the government thinks its role is to tell private companies what news or opinion they should allow or not allow.
As if they do appear to have an interest in impacting an election.
Even if the FBI didn’t demand Facebook or Twitter do this, it has to be pretty intimidating to be receiving these sorts of directives from the U.S.’s top law enforcement agency.
We don’t have a dictator in America. We don’t have soldiers making reporters say things at gunpoint. It’s even legally okay for private companies like Facebook and Twitter to allow or censor whatever they like on their platforms.
But when the government is putting pressure on what those platforms say or don’t say, there are certainly First Amendment issues.
FBI coercing Facebook to censor political information is a violation of the first amendment.
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) August 26, 2022
And it is, as Jacobs noted, something too much in the ballpark of fascism.
This again, the collusion of elites in the public and private sector to exert power over the populace, is the classic definition of fascism.
— Steve Deace (@SteveDeaceShow) August 25, 2022
Don’t forget that the Hunter Biden laptop story has since been verified by the New York Times and the Washington Post.
It was a totally legit news story.
So Jacobs has a point.
Also:
How is this not a huge story? https://t.co/UwQdt5YNZo
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) August 25, 2022
Good question. It has been a huge story throughout right-wing media. As of this writing there hasn’t been much about it in legacy media.
There has been plenty of mainstream attention paid to Biden calling Trump supporters fascists. Maybe they should also pay attention to something that happened that’s actually closer to the real thing?
The FBI warning Facebook away from a factually true story is incredibly ominous. The information police are here. https://t.co/YaMvF7xoqt
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) August 25, 2022
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