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1210 points jbegley | 9 comments | | HN request time: 2.157s | source | bottom
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googlryas ◴[] No.43656769[source]
I'd like to see examples of actual posts that were taken down, rather than talk of the quantity, or who filed the reports.
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esalman ◴[] No.43657102[source]
I am part of a neighborhood group where I grew up in Bangladesh and lived until 5th grade in the 90s.

The group admin this morning let us know via Facebook post that he has received warnings frm Facebook. The group is "at a risk of being suspended" because way too many posts relating to "dangerous organization and individuals" have been removed. He wants everyone to be extra careful when posting about p*l*s*i*e, I*r*e*, g*z*, j*w* etc. He used asterisks himself just to be extra careful himself.

Not to mention my country is dealing with rohingya crisis, which was fueled by Facebook and WhatsApp misinformation campaigns, and Facebook had 2 moderators for the whole country of Myanmar and refused to do anything about said misinformation campaigns. But they sure make exceptions for I*r*e*.

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ipv6ipv4 ◴[] No.43658772[source]
Makes you wonder what kind of posts about Jews a local Bangladeshi group is posting... Or why.
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1. esalman ◴[] No.43658961[source]
They're writing posts on Facebook, not dropping bomb on anyone. Relax.
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2. ipv6ipv4 ◴[] No.43660704[source]
To explain further. I can't imagine why anyone would post about Jews on my local NextDoor or FB group. It's just not a topic that comes up outside of Jewish community events, like holidays. There are certainly no Jewish community events in Bangladesh. If they are writing posts about Jews like were posted about Rohingya, then maybe it's not just "posts on Facebook".

You are the one who seems to be uptight, bringing up the topic of bombs (?!), and scolding me to relax. Maybe you should relax.

P.S. for those wondering, my flagged comment simply asked why Jews would come up as a topic at all on a local Bangladeshi group. The irony of it being flagged in a post about censorship is piquant.

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3. yibg ◴[] No.43661108[source]
It was already dead otherwise I would have downvoted it too. Why? Because the implication of your original post is the only reason that fb group would post about those topics is for bad reasons. Why can’t there just be a casual conversation about something that was all over the news?
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4. ipv6ipv4 ◴[] No.43661234{3}[source]
In what context does your local neighborhood FB group raise Jews (or any other non-local ethnicity for that matter) as a topic of discussion?
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5. esalman ◴[] No.43661503[source]
Well, you insinuated that people in the local neighborhood groups are calling for violence against Jews just like Buddists called for massacre of rohingya people.

For a start, I don't outright deny that. Personally I haven't come across a lot, but there are different kinds of people and commentary on social media, so I won't be surprised if a fraction of them are indeed doing so.

Even if they do, Facebook is evidently maximizing resources to moderate calls for violence against Jews/Israel. Which I personally applaud. Palestine is a complex issue that cannot be fixed with violence. It's just that I'd appreciate if Facebook did the same level of moderation when Buddists in Myanmar were doing the same. Otherwise in plain and simple view it seems Facebook does not bother when victims are of certain group.

Remember that Bangladesh is a Muslim majority country (85%+). So naturally there is popular support in favor of Palestine and strong anti-Israel sentiments.

What's really happening is that people are organizing procession and demonstration in support of Gaza, and when they try to organize and communicate online on Facebook and other platforms about this specific issue, their posts are getting moderated out of existence.

Now if you ask whether should people organize in support/against either Palestine or Israel, that's a whole different issue and not what we are debating here.

6. yibg ◴[] No.43661535{4}[source]
I don't know, I'm not part of those groups. But my automatic assumption isn't they're a bunch of antisemites or hamas supporters.
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7. ipv6ipv4 ◴[] No.43666926{5}[source]
This is not hard. In what contexts do Jews come up in your circle of friends?
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8. yibg ◴[] No.43667755{6}[source]
In my personal circle Jews don’t come up but Palestine and Israel certainly do. Why? Because 1) they were in the news and we discuss current events and 2) being in the tech industry Israel comes up frequently. Why is this an issue?
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9. ipv6ipv4 ◴[] No.43677748{7}[source]
Exactly. Israel/Palestine comes up. But not Jews. It's a strange topic for a local neighborhood group. You can deduce that from reflecting on your own interactions.

Further, FB found it necessary to stop discussions about Jews on that group. Now, we can cook up any number of conspiracies about how any mention of Jews is like discussing fight club, or the Illuminati, and that's why FB instructed the group to stop discussing it. Or we can deduce the obvious. That the group, that would normally not be expected to be discussing Jews, had some fairly distasteful discussions about Jews.

FB is not a model of good moderation by a long shot. But given the strangeness of the topic in a local neighborhood group, we can deduce that FB probably got it right in this case.