Friday, October 16, 2020
Facebook shuts NZ party's page before polls over COVID-19 misinformation
Facebook shut down the page of a fringe New Zealand political party on Thursday, days before a general election, for sharing what the company called misinformation about the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The newly formed Advance NZ Party's page was taken off because of "repeated violations" of Facebook's policy on misinformation about the virus that could lead to imminent physical harm, Facebook said in a statement.
"We have clear policies against this type of content and will enforce on these policies regardless of anyone’s political position or party affiliation," it said.
Advance NZ said Facebook's action was "election interference".
“This is a cynical example of election interference by an American-owned social media outlet that has no business performing any such operation in our sovereign nation," party co-leader Billy Te Kahika said in a statement.
The party has stirred controversy with an anti-vaccination stance and has also called for an end to coronavirus lockdowns. It has said the case fatality rate of the virus is "not unlike that of seasonal influenza".
Advance NZ is seen getting about 1% of the vote, according to the latest opinion poll, which would mean it will have no impact on the election outcome.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who leads the Labour Party, is seeking a second term in the Oct. 17 polls on the back of her success in eliminating the coronavirus in the country of 5 million with lockdowns and social distancing.
US election 2020: Why Facebook, Twitter went too far censoring anti-Joe Biden report
At a campaign rally, Donald Trump called Joe Biden a ‘corrupt politician’ after Facebook and Twitter censored a bombshell US report that alleged Mr Biden met with Ukrainian business associates of his son, Hunter
The most contentious election in modern US history is only weeks away, and the decision by Facebook and Twitter to censor an article criticising Donald Trump’s rival Joe Biden has been divisive.
It started as a great day for Donald Trump, with revelations Joe Biden’s son was apparently running a “massive pay for play” racket with a corrupt Ukrainian company when his father was vice president.
But when Big Tech plunged headfirst into the US election, censoring negative reporting about Mr Trump’s Democrat presidential opponent and thereby confirming every Republican fear about social media bias, it was like Christmas and a birthday with another “miracle” COVID cure thrown in.
Ask any fence-sitting American why they might be leaning towards a Trump-vote and you are likely to hear a variation of this answer: I don’t want to be told how to think and I don’t trust the Washington establishment.
There have been few bigger irritants to the Trump White House than the “Russia Hoax”, which has become the catch-all for the repeated probes that led to Democrats’ unsuccessful impeachment attempt.
The central claim of Mr Trump’s impeachable “abuse of power” was that he had asked the newly installed Ukraine president to investigate the highly unqualified Hunter Biden’s richly paid role on the board of a corrupt energy company.
It seems reasonable to question how and why this happened, but Americans were told they didn’t deserve to know the answers.
First, the Biden 2020 camp called another early “lid” and avoided any probing questions from the press.
Then a Facebook executive smirked that the Post story was “eligible to be fact checked by Facebook’s third-party fact checking partners” and that “In the meantime, we are reducing its distribution on our platform”.
Finally Twitter stopped the story from being shared, locking Post accounts and even that of White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany.
By night-time a jubilant Mr Trump stripped off his tie and looked ready to take off even more on a rally stage in Iowa – a state where he shouldn’t have been in such a good mood given he handily won it in 2016 and is currently in a dead heat.
About the same time Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was trying some damage control, but it was widely seen as too little too late.
“Our communication around our actions on the @nypost article was not great. And blocking URL sharing via tweet or DM with zero context as to why we’re blocking: unacceptable,” he tweeted.
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