facebook Facebook Is Ready To Censor Posts In China -- Should Users Around The World Be Worried?

[vissha]

Facebook Is Ready To Censor Posts In China -- Should Users Around The World Be Worried?

 

 

Facebook's relationship with China has a tense and turbulent history. The social network is currently banned in China, and this clearly takes a huge chunk out of Facebook's ad revenue. In a bid to keep Chinese authorities happy, Mark Zuckerberg has been involved in the creation of software that can be used to monitor and censor posts made by users.

 

In terms of playing by China's rules, this is clearly great news for Facebook, and it opens up the possibility of the social network operating in the country. While there is the slight silver lining that Facebook's censorship tool does not amount to a full blackout (as the Guardian puts it: "The posts themselves will not be suppressed, only their visibility"), the new program does raise a very important question: if Facebook is willing and able to create such a censorship tool for China, what’s to stop it doing the same for other markets, or even for its own benefit?

 

The answer, of course, is 'nothing'. Facebook has shown time and time again that it is more than happy to fly in the face of popular user opinion and do whatever it wants. We have already seen some of the ways in which the social network is willing to tinker with users' newsfeeds. Increasingly controversial algorithms have been used for some time to tailor news and posts in a way that Facebook says is in users' interests.

 

There is nothing to stop these algorithms being further tweaked to prevent the appearance of certain posts, certain types of content -- be that at Facebook's whim, or at the behest of governments around the world.

 

Of course, the counter argument is that it would not be in Facebook's interest to introduce censorship outside of China. Except the Chinese case has very much indicated that it is in Facebook's interest to use censorship tools. In China, it is a matter of bowing to governmental demands in order to -- hopefully, in Facebook's view -- be allowed to operate in the country once again. The real driving force here is, as mentioned, money generated through advertising; this is the very reason why we should be wary of Facebook's development of a censorship tool, and fear its use elsewhere.

 

Just as with the covert activities of the NSA, there would be nothing to stop Facebook from using a censorship tool without making it clear to users. After all, Facebook is free to do whatever it wants to do with content that is posted, so long as it is in keeping with the law. It is not a stretch to imagine a high profile advertiser applying pressure to Facebook to put a damper on certain opinions and to threaten withdrawal of advertising. Money talks, so it is hardly inconceivable that Facebook might at least be tempted to comply with such a demand -- and users would be none the wiser.

 

What’s happening in China -- and, indeed, in Russia and other countries -- is great cause for concern. Facebook does not have a great track record when it comes to maintaining user trust (just look at the fake news problem), and as news of tools such as this starts to spread, any trust that does remain is only going to be further undermined.

 

Source

[BTJB]

There is no more Facebook. They are in technical issue from long time, about 1 year! They can not process reports. They have auto-preview and auto-answer from robot and you can make now fake name like animal. My browsers can not load any more wall and video as it was before. There is dropping and lagging.

[steven36]

Not really worried  censorship is  a big part of the internet  the biggest search engine  is the worlds biggest censors and still it dont stop me from looking for what I want . If facebook want let people speak freely that have freedom of speech  they will just go somewhere  that will let them speak freely and let China have it.. many have  moved on to Reddit and Snapchat  already .  Always they will be somewhere open up to cater to people who wants to speak openly.

[franco46]

I am not worried; but, despise Facebook.

[namek]

If Chinese officials said: "Censor or we will ban you", I think they didn't have much of a choice. China has very limited human freedom, very.

[davmil]

Try FBPurity extension for Chrome or FFox.  Let's you customize how your FB pages display and weed out all sorts of crap (aka self censoring) that you don't want to see.  http://www.fbpurity.com/

 

Between this add-on and AdBlock Plus you can turn their pain-in-the-butt clutter interface into something that might actually interest you; quickly and efficiently.

[steven36]

New European regulations will come into force around May 2018 and  places like Facebook will have too stop tracking people in the EU or be sued .

 

Quote

 

Ad agencies, Big Brands and organizations everywhere need to prepare for what is being earmarked as the greatest overhaul to privacy regulation in years according to PageFair’s Dr Jonny Ryan.

New European regulations will come into force around May 2018. They will impact how individuals data can be distributed and shared. Since 1996 when cookies were first used to track users around the internet there has been an assumption that trading users’ personal data was acceptable. This mindset will have to change.

 

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will be a significant redesign to privacy regulation. Organizations over the globe should conform to the GDPR on the off chance that they need to serve any of the EU’s 500 million individuals, or handle information for any European organizations. European regulators will have the ability to fine up to 4% of an organization’s worldwide yearly turnover. This is enormous news for online companies.

 

The GDPR’s impact will probably be to bring down the valuations of adtech and martech organizations, change user behaiour, and provoke a union in media and promoting that favors distributers who have trusted associations with clients. It will likewise boost CMOs to apply a higher worldwide standard to their showcasing and clients’ information.

This is terrible news for third-party tracking cookies?

 

The Regulation builds up a chain of duty regarding information and a new approach to consent. It will be illegal for organizations anywhere on the planet to pass a European user’s personal data to another company or to store this data, without agreeing a formal contract with the “data controller” (traditionally this is the organization that asked for the information from the client in the first place) that defines limits on how the information can be utilized.

 

To utilize individual data past these limits will require obtaining consent from (or in the particular instance of direct marketing advise clients about what they do with the information, and allow the user to object at anytime). This can’t be covered easily in T&Cs as users must be informed “clearly and separately from any other information”.

Many organizations will find this challenging to conform to because they lack direct relationships with end users. While it is possible that controllers may see this as an allowable reason not to educate clients, I think it far-fetched.

 

The end result of this upheaval should make the direct relationships that publishers enjoy with users enormously valuable. It may also prompt mergers and acquisitions between the media and adtech ventures. Facebook is now vertically coordinated in this way. It has both an immediate association with its clients and the foundation to target and convey promotions. Only it doesn’t pass individual data to outsiders with a specific end goal to profit.

 

It is likely that publishers and service providers will become very careful to avoid permitting tracking pixels and third party JavaScript on their webpages because they could be liable for infringements as a result. This would help reduce the ha bit of including unknown parties to the chain of data sharing. The end result – the volume of trackers, cookie syncing, pixel dropping, finger printing, and so on is likely to decrease.

 

Ad agencies, Big Brands and organizations everywhere will face lawsuits and fines.

 

The GDPR prepares the way for a rush of claims against all parties in the advertising chain. Users will have the right to follow information back to its source. For instance, a man who gets an advertising email from a brand will be allowed to discover where the information on them has been obtained from, and can make legitimate moves or grumbles to a regulator.

 

Such cases might be critical in light of the fact that different organizations “involved in the same processing” of a user’s personal data can each be held liable for the entire damages awarded in a case. It is likely that there will be an excess of these cases on the grounds that the Regulation permits non-profit privacy groups to take legal action on behalf of many users.

 

As indicated by TJ McIntyre of Digital Rights Ireland, which was included in the Schrems case against Facebook that provoked the EU-US Privacy Shield, “The fact that representative bodies can act on behalf of individuals will, practically speaking, be very important where actions require either specialist knowledge or deep pockets.”

 

In the meantime privacy regulators will be under pressure to act all the more conclusively on the grounds that customers now can indict them for not legitimately reacting to complaints.

Users Behavior will change

 

Mosts users are not aware of how big brands and global organizations handle their data. This is probably going to change as a consequence of two measures contained in the GDPR.

 

Initially, the Regulation requires that a comprehensive level of detail be given to clients on how their own data is utilized by each party. For instance: who is gathering information? What will it be utilized for? With whom will it be shared? How long will they be stored? Will the information be passed outside the EU, and if so under what conditions?

 

Where personal information is used for automated decision-making, including profiling, the user also has to be told what the logic of this process is, and what the significance of the outcomes may be.

The Regulation visualizes the foundation of iconography to cconcisely communicate data use, risks, and rights in plain language. Users should likewise be told of their entitlement to access, correct, and remove all personal information held by any company, and how they can lodge a complaint with a regulator.

 

The Regulation presents another emphasis on security that will further contribute to user fears. All parties that handle information are now required to protect personal information from misuse and loss, and users must be quickly informed when a data breach occurs.

 

Users will understand how much information exists about them, as well as how regularly this information is exposed. The probable result will be an influx of paranoia. The kickback could incite users to utilize their new powers to opt out at any time. The Regulation requires that it be as simple for a person to withdraw consent at any time as it was to give it.

What this implies

 

Personal privacy is about to receive a long overdue upgrade. The new prerequisite to appoint tenured data protection officers at the highest level means that many CMOs will now find themselves sitting across from DPOs at board meetings. It is likely that global CMOs will find it easier to apply common global standards that conform to the high bar set by Europe than carve data on the world’s biggest market from all other territories.

 

https://cookiecontroller.com/cookies-hit-by-eu-regulations/

Too bad for places  that use ads to spy on you .

[pc71520]

18 hours ago, franco46 said:

I am not worried; but, despise Facebook.

+1