nuclear-news

TODAY. Absolutely fed up with Facebook and Google’s censorship of nuclear issues

I wonder how many others are experiencing this censorship from Facebook and Google?

I’ve noticed this for a long time now, but it is getting beyond a joke. On nuclear issues, when I go to post a news link to Facebook, – bingo! – up comes the message: “Content Removed – Spam”. If I spend time following this up, I am informed that my post “breached community standards”. ( You can complain to Facebook /META – but what a useless time-waster that is)

This morning it was news items about Aboriginal Australians’ success in stopping uranium mining in the beautiful Kakadu National Park – a campaign long led by the beautiful Yvonne Margarula . Nah – Facebook didn’t like that.

I could give numerous more examples – of the way in which Meta/Facebook has deemed that I “breach the (nuclear lobby) community standards.” And I’m not alone. Australia’s prestigious energy journalist Giles Parkinson is having the same experience.

As for Google – well, Google warns you about links that are likely to be malicious. So, when I send out newsletters on gmail, Google magically marks these in bright red “suspicious website”. It’s getting so that this is mark of excellence – websites that give genuine information, as opposed to the usual handouts regurgitated from the nuclear industry,

Here are a few of them:

RADIATION FREE LAKELAND (Google really hates this one)

Mongabay.

Westminster Confidential

Strategic Culture

STOP SMRS

Real Clear Wire

Fix the News (this one not even about nuclear – just environment and health)

Google also warns about websites that reveal Israeli atrocities against Palestinians, and international law about this. Human Rights Watch found that the censorship of content related to Palestine on Instagram and Facebook is systemic and global. Meta’s inconsistent enforcement of its own policies led to the erroneous removal of content about Palestine.

The Dissenter

The Cradle

When the World Wide Web, enabled by the internet, got going in 1991 as  “universal linked information system” , there were high hopes – for a real democracy in information provision. At last, anyone could have their public say – rather than just a privileged minority.

Now this has been reversed, and we are back to a privileged minority running the information show. It is probably worse. Now there are the billionaire technocrats controlling the digital media outlets. With the increasing popularity of social media, real journalism has declined. Those few journalists who still hang on to a paid job in the “mainstream media” are well aware that they’d better toe the line of the corporate owners of that media.

Independent journalism is happening, but even in the “alternative media”, writers are being monitored. So, if you step out of line – say by condemning the actions of Israel, or of the nuclear lobby, well, the moguls of social media can, and do, prevent the spread of your message.

Marshall McLuhan in pointing out that “the medium is the message” , also showed that while it seems that minority voices are free to have their say, this seeming democracy actually allows, or ensures, that those voices will be lost in the deluge of “mainstream” media.

The activities of the social media platforms – take Google’s listings for an example – ensure that the corporate voices prevail.

What is to be done about this? I don’t know. But – something – soon – I hope.

July 27, 2024 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Christina's notes