![[Paul Lismore] FB is now an active supporter of dictators and corrup regimes around the world](https://www.zinfos-moris.com/photo/art/grande/49585128-38528299.jpg?v=1599316224 "[Paul Lismore] FB is now an active supporter of dictators and corrup regimes around the world")
![[Paul Lismore] FB is now an active supporter of dictators and corrup regimes around the world](https://www.zinfos-moris.com/photo/art/default/49585128-38528299.jpg?v=1599316228 "[Paul Lismore] FB is now an active supporter of dictators and corrup regimes around the world")
I am not saying this because Facebook has once again banned me without any warning. I knew that possibility was always on the cards every time I highlighted some criminal activity of our serviteurs du pays which our 'free and independent press' choose to ignore.
A few hours after I wrote about the corruption and commissions at the MBC, my screen went blank and then a message appeared saying that I had been banned. That was it! In the absence of any other evidence, I was forced to conclude that 2 things were at play here:
Either 1/ The thieves at the MBC, in conjunction with the Sun Trust, had exploited Facebook's rather silly "Community Standards" ruling, and complained en masse,
Or 2/ As Facebook has various administrative zones around the world, the one covering Mauritius has been infiltrated by our lovely government, and some Facebook administrator with filthy Rupee notes in his mouth now does their dirty work readily for them.
Ask yourselves this question: if you think that no one in Mauritius interferes with Facebook, how come posts written in Creole are almost immediately flagged up by Facebook, esp if they contain criticisms of this evil government?
But this is not a new phenomenon. Facebook's collusion with the corrupt wealthy and the dictators around the world has been happening for many years now. When Jair Bolsonaro was inaugurated as the crazy new president of Brazil, the crowd chanted " Facebook, Facebook, Facebook, Facebook!", and "WhatsApp, WhatsApp, WhatsApp!". They were thanking Facebook and WhatsApp for enabling the victory of their dictator.
During the campaign, a conservative pro-business interest group funded a massive disinformation campaign on WhatsApp, which is also owned by Facebook....
False and damaging information about Bolsonaro’s left-wing opponent, including fake news mocked up to look like neutral fact-checks, spread like wildfire in the runup to polling day. Many people were swayed by the Fake News which Facebook was happily spreading...
Brazil's unfortunate experience is the second example (the first one being Donald Trump's victory in the USA Presidential elections of 2016, helped by the Russians' online activities and non stop Fake News about his opponent...) of how social media, once seen as a profoundly democratic technology, is increasingly serving the needs of authoritarians and their allies.
It has not gone unnoticed that entrenched authoritarian states, like Russia and China, have become very good at manipulating these platforms to marginalize domestic dissidents and destabilize democracies abroad. But we must not forget how authoritarian factions inside democratic states — far-right politicians and parties that are at best indifferent to democratic norms — benefit from the nature of modern social media platforms. Does this remind you of our lovely government in Mauritius, where people very close to the Prime Minister are in charge of our main Telecoms company, MT, and of the supposedly "independent" institutions like ICTA, and the IBA who are mandated by law to regulate any excesses or bias?
A few hours after I wrote about the corruption and commissions at the MBC, my screen went blank and then a message appeared saying that I had been banned. That was it! In the absence of any other evidence, I was forced to conclude that 2 things were at play here:
Either 1/ The thieves at the MBC, in conjunction with the Sun Trust, had exploited Facebook's rather silly "Community Standards" ruling, and complained en masse,
Or 2/ As Facebook has various administrative zones around the world, the one covering Mauritius has been infiltrated by our lovely government, and some Facebook administrator with filthy Rupee notes in his mouth now does their dirty work readily for them.
Ask yourselves this question: if you think that no one in Mauritius interferes with Facebook, how come posts written in Creole are almost immediately flagged up by Facebook, esp if they contain criticisms of this evil government?
But this is not a new phenomenon. Facebook's collusion with the corrupt wealthy and the dictators around the world has been happening for many years now. When Jair Bolsonaro was inaugurated as the crazy new president of Brazil, the crowd chanted " Facebook, Facebook, Facebook, Facebook!", and "WhatsApp, WhatsApp, WhatsApp!". They were thanking Facebook and WhatsApp for enabling the victory of their dictator.
During the campaign, a conservative pro-business interest group funded a massive disinformation campaign on WhatsApp, which is also owned by Facebook....
False and damaging information about Bolsonaro’s left-wing opponent, including fake news mocked up to look like neutral fact-checks, spread like wildfire in the runup to polling day. Many people were swayed by the Fake News which Facebook was happily spreading...
Brazil's unfortunate experience is the second example (the first one being Donald Trump's victory in the USA Presidential elections of 2016, helped by the Russians' online activities and non stop Fake News about his opponent...) of how social media, once seen as a profoundly democratic technology, is increasingly serving the needs of authoritarians and their allies.
It has not gone unnoticed that entrenched authoritarian states, like Russia and China, have become very good at manipulating these platforms to marginalize domestic dissidents and destabilize democracies abroad. But we must not forget how authoritarian factions inside democratic states — far-right politicians and parties that are at best indifferent to democratic norms — benefit from the nature of modern social media platforms. Does this remind you of our lovely government in Mauritius, where people very close to the Prime Minister are in charge of our main Telecoms company, MT, and of the supposedly "independent" institutions like ICTA, and the IBA who are mandated by law to regulate any excesses or bias?
![[Paul Lismore] FB is now an active supporter of dictators and corrup regimes around the world](https://www.zinfos-moris.com/photo/art/grande/49585128-38528348.jpg?v=1599316283 "[Paul Lismore] FB is now an active supporter of dictators and corrup regimes around the world")
![[Paul Lismore] FB is now an active supporter of dictators and corrup regimes around the world](https://www.zinfos-moris.com/photo/art/default/49585128-38528348.jpg?v=1599316285 "[Paul Lismore] FB is now an active supporter of dictators and corrup regimes around the world")
Many studies have found that supporters of extreme right wing governments are many times more likely to share Fake News on Facebook than liberals. Researchers at the University of Oxford found that right wing users were overwhelmingly more likely to spread “junk news” and that " Extreme hard right Facebook pages share more junk news than all the other audiences put together.”
The Philippines’ President, Rodrigo Duterte, has cultivated an online fan base — even bringing popular social media influencers into the government — that’s known for “patriotic trolling”: sending hate messages to his critics and spreading smears about them.
The Philippine news site Rappler has identified a network of more than 12 million pro-Duterte propaganda accounts on various platforms, a reporting that led to a concerted smear campaign against the site from Duterte’s fans. An #UnfollowRappler social media campaign cost the site tens of thousands of Facebook followers, a huge hit for an online publication that depends on clicks to stay profitable.
Those who think that all of this is just sour grapes and that Facebook is a wonderful, unbiased, politically neutral media outlet had better think again. We saw during the last electoral campaign how many who criticised the government saw their Facebook pages either blocked or funny things happening to them, like restricted coverage or various warnings re their stupid "Community standards". And how the most vile, racist propaganda was allowed to be shared as long as they were written in support of the government. We are seeing the same phenomenon now where Bruneau Laurette's singular success in galvanising the nation has led to many blatantly racist posts against him...and to less blatant but just as dangerous posts from failed zourlanus now in search of a ministerial arse to lick.
The pages of these idiots are safe as houses, because history shows that Facebook loves and supports those offensive posts as long as they criticise the opposition and support the government and the little Hitler in power...
Social media and their platforms by their very nature allow far-right politicians to marginalize opponents, consolidate their base, and exacerbate the social divisions that helped them rise to power. It helps them act like authoritarians even inside the confines of a democratic political system. In Mauritius, it is now known as the "Katori" phenomenon, where the most "UnHindu" type of individuals present themselves as fervent defenders of the Hindus...Same for the other vile individuals purporting to speak on behalf of their respective communities, whether Creoles, Muslims, or Chinese.
It is hard to believe that in its early days Facebook was actually an earnest digital democracy, in which policy changes were put forward to its users to vote on. How has it become the dictatorship that it has become today, where it can restrict access to anyone who presents facts about the huge level of corruption in this government?
In other words, how has it been so easy for Facebook to become the friend and active supporter of corrupt regimes around the world? Has the lure of filthy lucre from thieving despots now superseded its original statement of purpose of being digital democracy at its best, most enlightened, and free of bias?
What is the role of the opposition in all of this?
As usual, nothing but stupid press conferences or even sillier videos where they tell you they have 'received disturbing info' about some shenaningan of the government and then never telling us the details of their so called 'disturbing info'. They have become the parasites eating away at Bruneau Laurette's straightforward dialectics in the hope that some of it will rub on to their rather pale, putrid, and antiquated methods. Currently, none of us know how a government led by them will be any different to the one that has been killing us since 2014.
Unfortunately, the evidence would suggest that at least in Mauritius, Facebook is now massively influenced by the government and by the crooked individuals at its service. I am afraid the worst is yet to come, esp with an opposition so passive and catatonic that Facebook must feel it is too easy to actively support this vile government ...
Re : Facebook Used the Philippines to Test Free Internet. Then a Dictator Was Elected.https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/09/how-facebooks-free-internet-helped-elect-a-dictator.html
The Philippines’ President, Rodrigo Duterte, has cultivated an online fan base — even bringing popular social media influencers into the government — that’s known for “patriotic trolling”: sending hate messages to his critics and spreading smears about them.
The Philippine news site Rappler has identified a network of more than 12 million pro-Duterte propaganda accounts on various platforms, a reporting that led to a concerted smear campaign against the site from Duterte’s fans. An #UnfollowRappler social media campaign cost the site tens of thousands of Facebook followers, a huge hit for an online publication that depends on clicks to stay profitable.
Those who think that all of this is just sour grapes and that Facebook is a wonderful, unbiased, politically neutral media outlet had better think again. We saw during the last electoral campaign how many who criticised the government saw their Facebook pages either blocked or funny things happening to them, like restricted coverage or various warnings re their stupid "Community standards". And how the most vile, racist propaganda was allowed to be shared as long as they were written in support of the government. We are seeing the same phenomenon now where Bruneau Laurette's singular success in galvanising the nation has led to many blatantly racist posts against him...and to less blatant but just as dangerous posts from failed zourlanus now in search of a ministerial arse to lick.
The pages of these idiots are safe as houses, because history shows that Facebook loves and supports those offensive posts as long as they criticise the opposition and support the government and the little Hitler in power...
Social media and their platforms by their very nature allow far-right politicians to marginalize opponents, consolidate their base, and exacerbate the social divisions that helped them rise to power. It helps them act like authoritarians even inside the confines of a democratic political system. In Mauritius, it is now known as the "Katori" phenomenon, where the most "UnHindu" type of individuals present themselves as fervent defenders of the Hindus...Same for the other vile individuals purporting to speak on behalf of their respective communities, whether Creoles, Muslims, or Chinese.
It is hard to believe that in its early days Facebook was actually an earnest digital democracy, in which policy changes were put forward to its users to vote on. How has it become the dictatorship that it has become today, where it can restrict access to anyone who presents facts about the huge level of corruption in this government?
In other words, how has it been so easy for Facebook to become the friend and active supporter of corrupt regimes around the world? Has the lure of filthy lucre from thieving despots now superseded its original statement of purpose of being digital democracy at its best, most enlightened, and free of bias?
What is the role of the opposition in all of this?
As usual, nothing but stupid press conferences or even sillier videos where they tell you they have 'received disturbing info' about some shenaningan of the government and then never telling us the details of their so called 'disturbing info'. They have become the parasites eating away at Bruneau Laurette's straightforward dialectics in the hope that some of it will rub on to their rather pale, putrid, and antiquated methods. Currently, none of us know how a government led by them will be any different to the one that has been killing us since 2014.
Unfortunately, the evidence would suggest that at least in Mauritius, Facebook is now massively influenced by the government and by the crooked individuals at its service. I am afraid the worst is yet to come, esp with an opposition so passive and catatonic that Facebook must feel it is too easy to actively support this vile government ...
Re : Facebook Used the Philippines to Test Free Internet. Then a Dictator Was Elected.https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/09/how-facebooks-free-internet-helped-elect-a-dictator.html
