Yeah, "Free speech" is nothing but a code word for "speech that pleases fascists". You get the freedom to call trans people mentally ill, compare immigrants to vermin, and designate women as property, nothing more. Oh, and the T&S team will be moved to Texas, on the pretext that workers from a red state will be "less biased". In reality, it's because labor is cheaper, the relocation can help Meta lay off their entire California-based team at once, and oh, there's a law in Texas that restricts platforms' ability to moderate extremism. That might backfire against them, though, as such laws often do.
Beyond the lofty free-speech language, there's nothing more going on than Zuckerberg kissing Trump's ass some more.
If you have a Facebook or Instagram account, you should start shuttering it as soon as you can. They are worthless garbage, and useless for any real-world purpose.
WhatsApp is admittedly harder to get rid of, but I'm limiting my exposure to and reliance on that app anyway, with some success in the last 24 hours.
Yes this is making rounds this morning. Fascinating timing. I’m not optimistic though! Spain and British federations have already had their posts sharing the open letter removed by Facebook today!
Even if meta ignores it, the fact that it represents such a large scale collaborative effort among nudist orgs is amazing! If we get a little press, it’s a win, even if Meta does nothing.
Facebook is a hopeless mess. That's because its primary purpose is to ensure that its managers and shareholders make as much money as possible. Allowing more "free speech" full of lies and calumny means more subscribers who want that stuff and will boost ad revenues. On the other hand, allowing free expression regarding naturism and other marginalized lifestyles is opposed by the same segments of the population that want more freedom for their dodgy opinions.
The "service" known as "X" (née "Twitter") has done the same thing for the same reasons. Bluesky is a far better service, and in particular, as already suggested, provides categories for posting content that allows people to access what they want and avoid what they don't want. It's far from perfect, but it helps a little in a world where most people have difficulty dealing with inherently controversial viewpoints (like politics and religion, not just niche categories like naturism).
Aside from the impossibility of having policies that all users can accept, Bluesky and most other systems - lacking the benefit of incumbency - can't offer the full spectrum of "services" (such as discussion groups, marketplaces, etc.) provided by Facebook and other things under the Meta umbrella.
This may have started occurring with the switch from human moderators to "AI." It's what happens when you indiscriminately pick a bunch nude pictures as training samples and label them all as "bad." What should have been used is a set of photos showing genitals and "public hair" (Yes, you wrote that.) labelled bad and a set of tasteful, acceptable nudes labelled as "good."
When you see AI being blamed for discrimination of certain classes (like this), it's because someone did a bad job of selecting/labelling the training samples.
This morning, Meta announced they were removing or revamping its censorship policies to allow uninhibited speech. What does this mean to the nudist movement?
I would not trust what Facebook says. They are desperate because they are a dying platform and alternative social media platforms are popping up and competing against Facebook. They know their days are numbered and they are trying to stay relevant because they know they are very close to becoming the next Myspace 2.0
While I applaud the effort, and can easily see why people feel they are treated unfairly, I wouldn't expect change. In corporate social media, it's important to remember that you are the product. So complaining we're being treated unfairly is a little like the Kraft Dinner complaining that it should be on the same shelf as the premium macaroni and cheese. The store will make the decision based on what they think will net them the highest profit*. This is why it's important to take control of social media into the social space. Look into Mastodon and the Fediverse if you want to know more.
*Yes I'm aware that Kraft can pay to get their product placed on a better shelf.
I was going to tell you about a YouTube video featuring a German TV film from 1998 about naturism on the island of Rügen in the Baltic Sea. But unfortunately it has been deleted for 'violating community guidelines.'
To me the film was entirely innocent. It showed full frontal nudity but there was no hint that it was for the 'sexual gratification' forbidden by YouTube. There were a few children on the fringes of some of the scenes but again I couldn't see any way these images infringed the guidelines.
YouTube appeared to be ignoring their own rules and condemning entirely harmless material.
I went on line to see if I could find out more about naturism on Rügen. Sadly I found that the video deleted by YouTube had been posted on a porn site.
Yeah, "Free speech" is nothing but a code word for "speech that pleases fascists". You get the freedom to call trans people mentally ill, compare immigrants to vermin, and designate women as property, nothing more. Oh, and the T&S team will be moved to Texas, on the pretext that workers from a red state will be "less biased". In reality, it's because labor is cheaper, the relocation can help Meta lay off their entire California-based team at once, and oh, there's a law in Texas that restricts platforms' ability to moderate extremism. That might backfire against them, though, as such laws often do.
Beyond the lofty free-speech language, there's nothing more going on than Zuckerberg kissing Trump's ass some more.
If you have a Facebook or Instagram account, you should start shuttering it as soon as you can. They are worthless garbage, and useless for any real-world purpose.
WhatsApp is admittedly harder to get rid of, but I'm limiting my exposure to and reliance on that app anyway, with some success in the last 24 hours.
Yes this is making rounds this morning. Fascinating timing. I’m not optimistic though! Spain and British federations have already had their posts sharing the open letter removed by Facebook today!
Even if meta ignores it, the fact that it represents such a large scale collaborative effort among nudist orgs is amazing! If we get a little press, it’s a win, even if Meta does nothing.
Facebook is a hopeless mess. That's because its primary purpose is to ensure that its managers and shareholders make as much money as possible. Allowing more "free speech" full of lies and calumny means more subscribers who want that stuff and will boost ad revenues. On the other hand, allowing free expression regarding naturism and other marginalized lifestyles is opposed by the same segments of the population that want more freedom for their dodgy opinions.
The "service" known as "X" (née "Twitter") has done the same thing for the same reasons. Bluesky is a far better service, and in particular, as already suggested, provides categories for posting content that allows people to access what they want and avoid what they don't want. It's far from perfect, but it helps a little in a world where most people have difficulty dealing with inherently controversial viewpoints (like politics and religion, not just niche categories like naturism).
Aside from the impossibility of having policies that all users can accept, Bluesky and most other systems - lacking the benefit of incumbency - can't offer the full spectrum of "services" (such as discussion groups, marketplaces, etc.) provided by Facebook and other things under the Meta umbrella.
This may have started occurring with the switch from human moderators to "AI." It's what happens when you indiscriminately pick a bunch nude pictures as training samples and label them all as "bad." What should have been used is a set of photos showing genitals and "public hair" (Yes, you wrote that.) labelled bad and a set of tasteful, acceptable nudes labelled as "good."
When you see AI being blamed for discrimination of certain classes (like this), it's because someone did a bad job of selecting/labelling the training samples.
This morning, Meta announced they were removing or revamping its censorship policies to allow uninhibited speech. What does this mean to the nudist movement?
I would not trust what Facebook says. They are desperate because they are a dying platform and alternative social media platforms are popping up and competing against Facebook. They know their days are numbered and they are trying to stay relevant because they know they are very close to becoming the next Myspace 2.0
WIRED had a long article on behind-the-scenes operation of the Facebook/Meta moderation oversight board. It's quite enlightening. https://www.wired.com/story/inside-metas-oversight-board-two-years-of-pushing-limits/
Good for INF. It's high time we took proactive advocacy to legalize body freedom on-line and in public places.
While I applaud the effort, and can easily see why people feel they are treated unfairly, I wouldn't expect change. In corporate social media, it's important to remember that you are the product. So complaining we're being treated unfairly is a little like the Kraft Dinner complaining that it should be on the same shelf as the premium macaroni and cheese. The store will make the decision based on what they think will net them the highest profit*. This is why it's important to take control of social media into the social space. Look into Mastodon and the Fediverse if you want to know more.
*Yes I'm aware that Kraft can pay to get their product placed on a better shelf.
I was going to tell you about a YouTube video featuring a German TV film from 1998 about naturism on the island of Rügen in the Baltic Sea. But unfortunately it has been deleted for 'violating community guidelines.'
To me the film was entirely innocent. It showed full frontal nudity but there was no hint that it was for the 'sexual gratification' forbidden by YouTube. There were a few children on the fringes of some of the scenes but again I couldn't see any way these images infringed the guidelines.
YouTube appeared to be ignoring their own rules and condemning entirely harmless material.
I went on line to see if I could find out more about naturism on Rügen. Sadly I found that the video deleted by YouTube had been posted on a porn site.