4 Comments »
Even though the Israeli government is turning to online social networks to distribute information about the war in Gaza, there are others using such social networks for their own agendas. According to Gawker, some Facebook users have found it impossible to post certain content related to words like “Gaza” or “Palestine.”
From the users’ perspective, it seems as though Facebook is censoring some politically sensitive content. But Gawker reports that the supposed censorship is really a result of the self-contained flagging system, which enables users to report inappropriate content. To the dismay of many, this merely reflects Facebook as the user-generated network that it is. As a reflection of human nature’s truest colors, users are no doubt frustrated by the act of not being able to express themselves through Facebook’s network. What’s a user to do?
This isn’t the first type of censorship we’ve seen in the online space, and there’s only so much you can do when content is being prevented from posting as a result of other users flagging the content. Should Facebook step in, it would then become the ultimate determining factor in which content can and cannot be posted, leading to an extremely sticky situation. In fact, Facebook sometimes does find itself in such situations, even when deciding what types of groups are permitted on its social network.
So what does all this say about various groups that are looking to social networks for getting their word out? In the case of the Israel government, what if its content was being reported on Facebook? While Israel seems to be focusing more on visual and instant communication feeds like YouTube and Twitter, content could ultimately be blocked from spreading further across the web if other users are reporting it as inappropriate content on networks like Facebook.
Regardless of an individual’s stance on the content itself, could this be the real democracy of media dissemination when users wield so much control? That certainly appears to be the case, and it only emphasizes online networks’ ability to bring out the often unseen sides of people.
interesting. certain people can’t write on my wall either. someone hacked my you tube and added music to one of my videos….etc….
What I don’t get is, why doesn’t FACEBOOK have the final call in what’s appropriate and what isn’t? Say someone flags a pro-Israel message because they disagree with it. Shouldn’t the Facebook admins look at it and see that it’s just a political statement and isn’t inappropriate? If it IS, they can remove it. If it isn’t, it stays. I thought that’s how it worked.
I am a Facebook user, and my account was disabled today with no explanation. I am also a Facebook developer and have been working on multiple applications. Out of the blue, when I tried to log-in about four hours ago, I received the following message:
“Your account has been disabled by an administrator. If you have any questions or concerns, you can visit our FAQ page here.”
Prior to that I had received no e-mail warnings or even an e-mail saying that the account had been blocked. I am concerned that my account has been blocked for the political reasons you mentioned above, because I have been quite active in posting articles on my Profile using Facebook’s “Share” mechanism.
I have contacted Facebook but have yet to receive a response. Please continue to cover this issue and make sure that Facebook addresses it and restores the accounts that it has deleted.
What a specific thing to do to someone when you hack their YouTube account.
As for the ‘censorship’… Too bad. Flagging should lead to a Facebook employee reviewing it though; not it being automatically deleted.