Class action lawsuit.

[bakerjw]

There is no intent to make this a political post. If it is deemed to be, it can be moved or deleted.
My wife and I were talking this morning about a class action lawsuit against a couple of big tech companies. I dumped FaceBook years ago but she was on it until several months ago. I asked her if she ever had posts deleted because they were counter to the leanings of FaceBook. She had several removed so I advised her to join in the class action lawsuit. At some point a court has to determine that someone has standing and that if a big tech company is only silencing those from one side of a political spectrum, then they have to be regulated in an appropriate manner.
If you ever got banned or have content deleted due to its political nature, you should join in the lawsuit.

[badguybuster]

I agree that these companies need reined in. I left Nazibook years ago because they were actively singling out Republicans and Conservatives for harrassment

[StuBach]

Please take this as just a statement and not a condoning of FaceBooks actions. I refused to join Facebook even from the beginning when it was college only and I was in college. I don’t advise anyone put themselves out there like that on the web. I have an account only cause my former employer required me to get it for a project and I never dumped it but I also don’t have much info on there am only use it for games. Never post to it.

That being said, they are a private company and have the right to manage their content as they see fit in my book. And keep in mind, once you post, it stops being yours and becomes theirs. Don’t use their service, it’s not mandatory that everyone be on there, so don’t. I don’t agree with censorship so I don’t use the service, but it’s no different than when a moderator on any forum has to edit a post, delete a thread, or reprimand a member. They set their rules, if you don’t like it, don’t use it.

The more the law manages businesses and dictates rules the less incentive there is for creativity and for someone to develop something better.

Enough people abandon ship at Facebook and they’ll fall apart or change their ways. Let the market dictate to them, not the other way around.

[scotth]

i just dont understand why people keep saying they are a private company so they can do as they want. you cant go against the constitution. i cant tell you if you want to kill somebody to come to my business and do it because i am a private business. i can do what i want so how can they take away our freedom of speech and do what they want.

[BigAlofPa.]

I use F.B for my local groups im in. And to sell items local. Also my LGS post what he gets in on F.B. I don't post or go to any political groups. I don't go to the main F.B page either. So i don't see a lot of the nonsense.

[JimB..]

i just dont understand why people keep saying they are a private company so they can do as they want. you cant go against the constitution. i cant tell you if you want to kill somebody to come to my business and do it because i am a private business. i can do what i want so how can they take away our freedom of speech and do what they want.

Yes, you can often go against the constitution, it is intended to limit government and not citizens or businesses.

There are two sides, at least to this, FB either owns and publishes content in which case it is subject to certain laws about those activities, or it is just an open place where people share content in which case they aren’t subject to some of those laws. As I understand, FB claims to be the latter and further claims that their filtering is just of fake news, hate speech, porn and other broadly offensive content to protect their platform and that this shouldn’t cause them to be subject to additional regulation.

A court will eventually have to decide.

[Dieselhorses]

Please take this as just a statement and not a condoning of FaceBooks actions. I refused to join Facebook even from the beginning when it was college only and I was in college. I don’t advise anyone put themselves out there like that on the web. I have an account only cause my former employer required me to get it for a project and I never dumped it but I also don’t have much info on there am only use it for games. Never post to it.

That being said, they are a private company and have the right to manage their content as they see fit in my book. And keep in mind, once you post, it stops being yours and becomes theirs. Don’t use their service, it’s not mandatory that everyone be on there, so don’t. I don’t agree with censorship so I don’t use the service, but it’s no different than when a moderator on any forum has to edit a post, delete a thread, or reprimand a member. They set their rules, if you don’t like it, don’t use it.

The more the law manages businesses and dictates rules the less incentive there is for creativity and for someone to develop something better.

Enough people abandon ship at Facebook and they’ll fall apart or change their ways. Let the market dictate to them, not the other way around.

Then "wannabe" companies should not even begin to think about "creating something better" if they want to operate outside the constitution. I can understand about obscenities' being censored but not anything else.

[atr]

other than this site I don't participate in any form of social media as I think doing so is a monumental waste of time.

[Dieselhorses]

other than this site I don't participate in any form of social media as I think doing so is a monumental waste of time.

^^^What he said^^^

[Dieselhorses]

"And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:"
Revelations 18:11

After reading Rev. 18 I realized that all the giants will eventually come down-in a very short time at that.

[Three44s]

Strip section 230 and any other carve outs they have.

Make certain other platforms can start up and thrive.

Then they are private companies to do as they see fit.

As long as they are the “elephants” in the “room”, they are not just a private company.

My opinion

Three44s

[bakerjw]

This is not a free speech issue. The first only comes into play with government.

If a company blocks one set of users for a political belief and promotes another set of users with a differing political belief, then their involvement is political based and they need to be held accountable to election laws.

IMHO, they need to be regulated as utilities. As an example, Verizon cannot block my calls if I use their service to say things that go against their poltical leanings.

[trebor44]

Facebook! Why? Sheeple fodder!

[farmbif]

when you sign onto web sites such as this or facebook, do you have to agree to something? if you read the fine print what does it say?
if you print a newspaper you can put in it whatever you want and not put in it whatever you want. its your newspaper or web site, freedom of speech. if a web site kicks you off because they don't want what you have written, that is their right. get your own site if you want to write what others don't want on their site.
this is what I believe part of our freedom of speech is about.

[poppy42]

other than this site I don't participate in any form of social media as I think doing so is a monumental waste of time.

+1 on this!

[David2011]

Facebook has a shooting forum in which I participate, dedicated to the 6.5x55 cartridge and the rifles that shoot the cartridge. It’s moderately interesting; nowhere near the quality of this site. I also keep up with class reunions there but try to avoid the political issues.

[Pipefitter]

Class action lawsuits exist only to enrich lawyers. Say 1 million people join a "class action suit" and win a grand total of $500,000,000.

The lawyers will take $450,000,000 and leave the rest to be split among the 1 million,,,,,

[StuBach]

The irony of this all is that pop culture is starting to make fun of social media and already projecting its downfall. Can’t remember what I was watching recently but it was a SciFi future story (possibly Orville?) and they made reference to the “Social Media wars of the 21st century”. Best to get out while you can [emoji16].

[HodakaGA]

Facebook is a PUBLICLY traded company, it's not a private company...that actually changes the rules they are to abide by.