Just to make sure we're all up to speed here, @aoc's question to Mark Zuckerberg is *on the exact subject* that @Schwartzesque is suggesting @andymstone told him untruths about.
And it's *STILL* the key question we need answered.
Totally normal for a leading human rights lawyer & ex-Labour PM’s wife to be advising a spyware firm accused of facilitating horrific abuses of human rights. theguardian.com/politics/2021/…
The point is that so many academics, experts, civil rights groups were warning of exactly this.
The insurrection wasn’t some sort of black swan event impossible to predict. Facebook’s failure to take essential measures to protect against violence was pointed out *repeatedly*
I’m with @jason_kint. The stench coming off the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica SEC settlement is only getting stronger. And this relationship between Zuck & Thiel is only the half of it. Big Theranos energy
I keep thinking about what one of the earliest Facebook whistleblowers @sandyparakilas told me in 2018: pay attention to the financial filings. ‘The SEC has real powers. You can get away with most things in America,’ he told me. ‘But you can’t fuck with our capitalism’
Facebook has helped elect authoritarians & incited an insurrection & actual genocide all with zero consequences. But…In last 2 years, an increasing body of evidence suggests it may have gone a step too far & *gasp* misled investors: America’s only true sin
Criticise the behaviour, not the individual, they say. So here goes:
1) The abuse of children is morally repugnant & wholly unacceptable.
2) Online abuse *is* abuse. It must be called out. And it should be reported. It is subject to laws that can & must be enforced.
1/
3) Everyone has a right to be protected from harassment, abuse and hate speech. Victims shouldn't have to speak up for themselves. You can report it on their behalf.
4) It is a misconception that what happens online is somehow above and outside of the law. It is not. 2/
5) Organisations that employ individuals who engage in targeted hate speech, abuse and harassment have a responsibility to the victims.
6) 'Blue-ticked' or verified accounts or individuals who have a public profile play an outsized role in inciting violence online.
3/