As most users of social media platforms are already familiar with, Facebook has seen its share of controversy over the last several years. Having been dragged in to testify before various congressional oversight committees, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has been accused of illegally sharing personal data of users and just generally attempting to posit himself and his mammoth company as the political powerhouses of their time.
By: David Ben Hooren
Since joining Facebook many years ago, the Jewish Voice has made note of a number of crucial observations about the perilous road that the social media giant has taken in suppressing free speech against perceived political adversaries.
The Jewish Voice has been lumped into the mix of a literal panoply of political and religious conservatives that are feeling the deleterious effects of Facebook’s suppression of free speech and as a result, are now limited in the dissemination of their news and other relevant information.
Case in point: When the Jewish Voice first entered the Facebook “universe” the number of people they were reaching had exceeded millions on a monthly basis. Moreover, the number of followers who were actively engaging in the compelling and thought-provoking content on the Jewish Voice Facebook page were also increasing significantly with each passing day.
The facts were clear. The Jewish Voice was exceptionally successful in attracting an eclectic following of intellectually curious people from across the globe. Clearly, that kind of formidable social media presence represented a serious threat to those at Facebook who are designated with the task of assiduously working behind the scenes to quash any form of freedom of expression as they feverishly pursue their self-assigned agenda of morphing into the ‘thought police’ of the social media age.
Just as any student of history is cognizant of, in the 1930s and 40s, the Nazi regime engaged in routine book burnings to suppress free speech and to permanently vanquish any thoughts or theories that did not support their fascist and anti-Semitic agendas. It was at this juncture in history when iconic novelist George Orwell presented a chilling notion of a futuristic society in which those who were deemed to be a political nemesis were summarily silenced on a permanent basis.
This conflation is not far-fetched or outside the realm of reality.
In 2012, it was reported that Facebook purchased Instagram for $1 billon. Previously, Zuckerberg’s penchant for building a monopoly of power manifested itself in his purchase of the popular text messaging service known as WhatsApp. In 2017, it was reported that Zuckerberg plunked down $19 billion for the texting service, beating out Tencent CEO Ma Huateng who was close to finalizing a deal. Moreover, let’s bear in mind that Facebook purchased close to 100 companies and if you are familiar with the term “Catch & Kill” then you will get some idea about what the fate of those companies were. Essentially, they have been blotted out of existence.
Addressing increasing concerns about glorifying hate and bigotry, comedian Sacha Baron Cohen (in his powerful remarks delivered on the recent occasion of being honored by the Anti-Defamation League) touched upon the fact that social media giants are not only accruing astronomical power and influence, but they have succeeded in creating a cyber fiefdom of sorts as self-appointed gatekeepers of the proliferation of information.
Cohen specifically addressed his oft repeated perception that Facebook, Twitter and the rest have morphed into modern day megaphones for an enormous selection of hate groups that have a created a humungous and frightening presence in cyberspace and on all social media platforms. Cohen said that he finds social media to be a “sewer of bigotry” and a place where “vile conspiracy theories threaten democracy and our planet.” He added that he believes that “it’s time for a fundamental rethink of social media and how it spreads hate, conspiracies and lies.” Watch Baron Cohen’s full address at: http://thejewishvoice.com/2019/11/22/sasha-baron-cohen-slams-silicon-six-at-adls-summit-on-anti-semitism-in-nyc/
Concerning the seemingly intractable dilemma that the Jewish Voice finds itself in as it pertains to the campaign waged against it by Facebook, history has recorded that governmental attempts to silence news publications, organizations, businesses and people whose ideas they consider anathema have in the end, failed abysmally. Facebook should take a profound lesson from this.
Because of our constitutional protections of free speech and the ability of a free press to exercise its rights, the Jewish Voice and others can continue their mission of objective and accurate reporting. The shocking level of power and influence that Facebook wields, however, can put the Jewish Voice out of business.
In July of 2017 through March of 2018, the Jewish Voice was in record breaking mode and the newspaper’s digital footprint began to significantly expand in a multitude of ways. In March of 2018, however, things began taking a turn for the worse literally overnight when it was revealed that the Jewish Voice’s numbers of followers and those engaging with our content stayed frozen at 94,200. It should be noted that since that time, 300 to 400 people try to join the Jewish Voice each month as followers on Facebook, however, the numbers have not changed. The numbers (94,200) are the same yesterday and they will be the same tomorrow. Feel free to look into it for yourself.
In addition, the Jewish Voice social media team makes it their business to post brand new content several times a day; every day. So, the Jewish Voice has increased the volume of content that it posts on a daily basis which has clearly attracted many more people.
Having taken note of the Jewish Voice’s previous success on Facebook, it has become abundantly clear to us that the powers that be at the social media giant made the decision to “take the bull by the horns” and eradicate any opportunities that the Jewish Voice would have in continuing to attract the interest of readers and followers. Read more at: http://thejewishvoice.com/2017/08/02/jewish-voice-stats-on-social-media-break-new-record-reaches-close-to-10m-people-on-fb-over-the-last-week/
Recently, Facebook’s Director of News and Communications, Adam Isserles, responded to my request to provide an explanation as to why the Jewish Voice’s number of followers were frozen and why viewer engagement had been limited. Isserles claimed that nothing out of the ordinary was happening to the Jewish Voice page and did not provide reasons for the obvious change in the Jewish Voice’s numbers.
Moreover, it has been recently reported that the Federal Trade Commission has launched an investigation against Facebook as part of an anti-trust probe, on the grounds that the policies that is adheres to are anti-competitive. The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal also reported that the FTC is possibly weighing an injunction against Facebook to stop it from integrating WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger into its own services.
It appears that the FTC’s primary concern is that Facebook’s acquisition of rival apps like Instagram has served to significantly decrease competition amongst social networking platforms. The commission believes that if Facebook tightly integrated those apps into its own infrastructure, it would become much more difficult to break up.
Last year, Facebook owned around 66 percent of the global social media market, compared to 11 percent each for Pinterest and Twitter. In 2018, the company earned a net profit of $22.1 billion.
In April 2019, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) also called for federal regulation of social media companies. He echoed repeated charges from President Trump and other top officials that Facebook, Google and Twitter target the political speech of those who hold a right-wing political stance and take concrete measures to limit their online reach.
In September 2019, Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri told reporters he met with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and “challenged him to show that Facebook is serious about bias, privacy and competition.” The senator said he told Zuckerberg to sell WhatsApp and Instagram “to prove you’re serious about protecting data privacy,” adding that Zuckerberg told him “it wasn’t a good idea.” Hawley criticized Facebook for moving personal data from properties such as WhatsApp and Instagram to the core Facebook platform.
Below, please find a list of articles about the agenda of Facebook. These articles appeared on the Jewish Voice website. Throughout the course of the last two years, the Jewish Voice (most astoundingly) has not received any response from Facebook.
2) http://thejewishvoice.com/2018/12/16/shame-on-facebook-for-silencing-the-jewish-voice/
4) http://thejewishvoice.com/2018/04/25/facebook-censorship-ideology-information-age/
5) http://thejewishvoice.com/2018/04/13/immediate-call-congress-step-plate-monitor-facebook/
6) http://thejewishvoice.com/2019/10/24/are-we-witnessing-the-downfall-of-facebook-2/
7) http://thejewishvoice.com/2019/10/08/ag-barr-to-take-on-facebook-to-gain-access-to-whatsapp-texts-2/
9) http://thejewishvoice.com/2019/09/25/facebook-incites-violent-war-on-ice/
10) http://thejewishvoice.com/2019/09/19/stop-the-fatah-facebook-terror-promotion-partnership/
In conclusion, I would respectfully request of all those reading this article to give serious consideration to the ominous effects that Facebook will have in the years to come if left to their own devices. For those who cherish the profundity of the bill of rights, for those who exalt and laud the concepts of free thought and expression, for those who wish to create a society and culture in which we can all participate without the threat of retribution, I ask all of you and everyone you know to join me in boldly voicing your objections to what Facebook is doing; not only to the Jewish Voice but to anybody that chooses to exercise their G-d given freedoms.
Now, before it is too late, let’s all summon up the moral strength to declare a resounding “NO!” to any form of fascism.
