Zuckerberg Just Revealed Facebooks 7-Point Plan to Censor Fake News and Its ChillingBy Claire Bernish Of all the content on Facebook, more than 99 percent of what people see is authentic. Only a very small amount is fake news and hoaxes, Zuckerberg wrote in a post to his platform last Saturday. The hoaxes that do exist are not limited to one partisan view, or even to politics. Overall, this makes it extremely unlikely hoaxes changed the outcome of this election in one direction or the other. Now, rather than stand by that original assertion, Zuckerberg instead cast all logic aside and unleashed a Machiavellian seven-point plan to eradicate the very small amount of false information read: all opinion not in lockstep with the establishment narrative from the newsfeeds of Facebooks billion-plus users. Because, apparently, we cant be trusted to think for ourselves. The bottom line is: we take misinformation seriously, Zuckerberg wrote late Friday evening, apparently forgetting what he posted exactly one week ago. Our goal is to connect people with the stories they find most meaningful, and we know people want accurate information. Weve been working on this problem for a long time and we take this responsibility seriously. Weve made significant progress, but there is more work to be done. Curiously, the head of the Facebook Ministry of Truth neglected to explain how the 65 corporate presstitutes and myriad mendacious mainstream outlets exposed in WikiLeaks Podesta Files for colluding with the Clintonite establishment were awarded a free pass to spread propagandic disinformation and, frequently, flagrant lies. Worse, what Zuckerberg wrote next should send chills down the spines of anyone who has ever been forced to deal with fallout from the social media platforms already-rampant and oft-inexplicable censorship via erroneous and revenge reporting on posts, arbitrary unpublishing of pages, ghosting, and newsfeed suppression as well as those who look to Facebook for alternatives to vapid mainstream media: Historically, we have relied on our community to help us understand what is fake and what is not. Anyone on Facebook can report any link as false, and we use signals from those reports along with a number of others like people sharing links to myth-busting sites such as Snopes to understand which stories we can confidently classify as misinformation. Similar to clickbait, spam and scams, we penalize this content in News Feed so its much less likely to spread. Snopes? Really? The same Snopes that took it upon itself to debunk an inside joke in meme form that happened to go viral? In just those three sentences, Zuckerberg does more to expose the innate perils of censorship than any scholarly tome on the subject ever could personal opinion always operates the censors heavy hand. Its inescapable fact that what one individual deems devoid of value, another may find sacrilegiously offensive while another may laugh off as innocuous. Dismissing that scripture or, perhaps, forgetting it formed the foundation for First Amendment protections of free speech, press, and expression Zuckerberg laid out his plan to combat the relatively small percentage of misinformation, encompassing the following points: In other words, apart from spam detection, which other websites and platforms have effectively combated for years, Facebooks plan to detect misinformation will be based on what any idiot says. Although the people of this planet generally operate from a place of honesty and integrity, lets face it, humans have nasty penchants for retribution, revenge, sanctimonious arrogance, self-righteousness, misjudgment, mischaracterization, hyperbole, and most imperatively making mistakes. Relying on peoples personal assessments of possibly-false news items as the primary driver of what deserves to be branded with a Scarlet Letter F is a system destined to fail everyone before it even begins. Facebook still does not provide the means to rebut post and link removals or the sudden unpublishing of pages the platform has, in essence, a shoot first, ask questions later attitude when it receives a report something violated its Community Standards. This has already imperiled owners of perfectly legitimate pages with millions of fans to the arduous process of challenging unjustified reports and coping in the meantime with devastating loss of revenue. Nowhere in Fridays announcement does Zuckerberg address those concerns which will exponentially increase if and when the plan begins. With little to no recourse to defend against what will undoubtedly be an explosion of posts erroneously flagged as false information, Facebook is brazenly handing over the censors black marker to a populace already too lackadaisical to bother investigating questionable news items. Therein lies the greatest threat to a free press and free speech this country has seen since Red Scare McCarthyism Facebook, backed by a polarized public, will be the arbiter of acceptable thought and those who dare question or criticize that thought will pay with their livelihoods. Far worse, everyone will pay the price of lost access to information. Were already starting to. Responses to Zuckerbergs announcement post seemed largely ambivalent, and many took the opportunity to question the validity of the authoritarian plan. Please just be a neutral platform that display original voice from people as long as the content are not illegal. Do not try to treat your users are idiots and need somebody to tell them what is right whats wrong. Fake or non-fake, people will figure it out. Its dangerous such decision or filtering will be done by your company or any other power. This will be called censorship if it happens in China or Russia, user Chen Li implored. Others chided the head of Facebook for the disingenuous failure to apply the same standards to the mendacious corporate media. Mark, will you also fight government sponsored propaganda of the United States? asked user Jiri Klouda. What about articles where unnamed government officials intentionally share false information with journalists, often with grave consequences. Like for example in the lead up to the Iraq war, or many other wars. Wed like to know that if you are going to fight against disinformation that it will be applied evenly and not just in one sided way as the mass market US media companies do. Some noted how the platforms censorship and arbitrary suppression already irreparably harms honest businesspeople. You advertised Facebook as a great place for businesses to have pages, small businesses did well, like mine did. My 783k page that took years to build was unpublished, thousands of people have had their pages removed without reason, businesses are suffering, you are taking food off the table, heat from peoples homes and kids presents away from under the tree. The Sad thing is you dont seem to care; you wont listen to us. I hope you have a great Christmas Mark Zuckerberg because lots of people wont be able to because of you, wrote Laura Holmes. Facebooks plan might, indeed, rid the platform of misinformation but, to be sure, it will also rid the platform of dissenting voices, the debate of controversial topics, editorial opinions provoking new thought, and alternative news outlets whose integrity proved the corporate media worthless. This plan will, in short, rid Facebook of the truth that beautiful diversity of thought we once celebrated, rather than snuffed. Claire Bernish writes for TheFreeThoughtProject.com, where this article first appeared. Image Credit: Anthony Freda Art Step 1 should be to shut down Facebook. Fixing this is simple. Just unplug from Sheepbook. Ive never participated in that info gathering scam, and I never will. But for the sheep that do participate, now is the time to tell sheepbook to F-off and die. If youve never participated, what interest could you possibly have in this issue? Rather a condescending attitude on your part. Im pretty sure I flushed you this morning, but apparently not. Ill have to go check the toilet again to see if youre still soaking in there. I probably need not respond, as with every phrase you utter you show your true colours. Im guessing by some of those phrases you are one of our murican cousins. You accuse me of being a big mouth hiding behind a computer, yet you are the one flexing your invisible muscles. You seem to be very upset about something, which is odd as you are not one of the sheeple. I had just finished a bottle of rather fine Pinotage when I commented last night and I was not bellicose; possibly you need to lay off the milk? Happy to report I never fell for Sheepbook either, and I dont Twit and never have. And unlike the blue person below, I get that its not just about this one entity, this is just the beginning of something that will shift the entire paradigm of this nation and others from the illusion of freedom to outright in-your-face state mandated behavior control where we will have no rights at all, only privileges for which we must first pay. Of course, well also have to comply with certain guidelines of content and behavior or suffer consequences, be they legal, financial, professional, or social. Theyre also going to ramp up the third-party snitch roles because theyre too cowardly and too cheap with their mega-billions to come after us themselves through any ethical means because lets face it, there is no room for ethics in a totalitarian society. Sheepbook = SheepHook. I did-2 yrs ago. Feels great! Time for a Facebook alternative. A long time coming. Peer-to-peer if possible to remove the monetary incentive that invites bags of money and temptation to channel attention toward well-funded accounts Facebook and this creep Zuckerberg will be defendants in an upcoming class action lawsuit regarding collusion with the Clinton campaign/Foundation fraud and the named media sources. It may bring his entire operation to a halt as well as Google and all the MSM corporations. What they did was illegal/unconstititutional and has caused irreparable harm/hardship and financial loss.It is a multi-billionaire dollar (over $400 billion so far but may be increased significantly) class action being written right now. Sources have named Zuckerberg/Sandberg as named defendants among many others. Schmidt and Cohen are also named. This is all well documented in the Wikileaks information as well as some other unnamed sources which will soon be revealed. The information they have is devastating and he cannot defend these actions. He may end up in prison according to my sources as will many others. In other words censor. Because you people are to small minded to distinguish truth from fiction yourselves, well do it for you. This IS the slippery slope to full regulatory global press censorship personified by Zuckerthe Rockefeller nephew that had this all placed in his lap.nothing to see here folksjust move along move alongjust placing a bridle saddle on the Trojan Horse we already wheeled up to the gates the last frontier is between our ears the last place we thought to look.its called Perception Facebook is a private company and it can do whatever it wants Always be a light that is shininginthedark yay, just what we need, more regulations. Let me get this straight, freedom of speech is now censorship for our own good, and the truth is what the rich people, er, government says it is. Got it. Makes perfect sense considering they wage war so we can live in peace, right? Sound familiar? It should, because now apparently ignorance is strength, too. Never mind that black is now white (Rachel Dolzal), man is now woman, left is now right (whats the difference?), and green is now brown (kill the earth to save the earth). Fiction (most msm or the news) is now truth, truth is now fake, and even Satan/Lucifer is now God, and you can be, too! So to sum it all up, evil is now good, and good is now evil. Theyve managed to turn the whole world upside down and convince most that its right-side up. We should have seen this coming considering the opposite of progress is Congress. Everything is now backwards inverse upside down Zuck: Are you going to apply these standards the the Original Fake News sources? NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN? They and their fake news is the the reason for The New Voice!! In a word:no. Facebook is nothing but a Mossad/Jew data mining operation! Could be the beginning of the end for FB. http://time.com/3722915/best-social-networks/ The alternative media left, center or right has to develope an alternative to FB so the profits of Zukenberg get affected whats a facebook? Perhaps its time we dropped those dual citizen social media snake-sites and had a real-live U.S. Goim fire up a site, guarantee his fellow Americans he will NOT violate their privacy w/o a court order and all open accounts there? How much did that snake Zuck have to fork over to the dear friends he screwed? Obviously idiot culture learned nothing about dealing with dual citizens in spite of Jonathan Pollard, Chertoff, Polanski et al. Pretty obvious this society is the poster child for the statement; Snopes hahahaha. No different than tmz. Roaches on junk I got out of Facebook a few years ago as it seems more like a legal spy school where people tell what they had for breakfast which really is just a gossip column. Time for someone to create the Anti FaceBook. This hypocrite IS the source of false information. He has an agenda and will continue with his agenda in spite of the face he puts on for the public. Authenticity and accuracy are nearly impossible to determine when information is provided by humans. As soon as Trump won I deleted my FB and will never return.No one will control me ! FAZEbook?! Is that thing STILL around?! If one couldnt smell the stench of this coming years ago, they deserve to be ruled by the likes of Zuckerberg. Turn the accursed thing off and walk away from itthats the best way to get Zucks attention. 