Discussion
  • Read More
    SparkleGlitterDeathMichael Harriot
    11/30/18 1:34pm

    Is it impossible to simply stop utilizing Facebook at this point? It seems the effectiveness of an old-fashioned boycott is gone now. 

    Reply
    • Read More
      BiturbowagonSparkleGlitterDeath
      11/30/18 2:02pm

      I have never subscribed to Facebook. I do not and never have had my own account. On a few occasions I have clicked on a link to a Facebook page, usually to get the URL for the website for the host of the page (such as a restaurant). That is the limit of my usage of it.

      So yes, it is entirely possible to simply stop utilizing it, or to have never used it in the first place.

      Reply
    • Read More
      Creflow DollarsSparkleGlitterDeath
      11/30/18 2:05pm

      I quit almost 5 years ago and I literally havent missed a thing, its only as invasive as it is because people want it to be the center of their socialsocial universe

      Reply
  • Read More
    HereComeOmarMichael Harriot
    11/30/18 1:26pm

    A) It was not at that exact moment

    B) I am pretty sure a potential fatality is against FB standards. Regardless of who kills whom, FB is not going to broadcast a murder if they can prevent it

    Reply
    • Read More
      MandlebrotSetHut1HereComeOmar
      11/30/18 2:09pm

      The mental gymnastics it must take to defend police while appreciating The Wire. Omar would be looking for you.

      Reply
    • Read More
      HereComeOmarMandlebrotSetHut1
      11/30/18 2:25pm

      I am not defending the police. I am just pointing out a demonstrable inaccuracy in his article, and applying common sense by saying FB is not going to air someone getting killed if they can help it. If that constitutes mental gymnastics to you, I don’t know what to tell you. I just call it logic/common sense. 

      Reply
  • Read More
    MajorBurnMichael Harriot
    11/30/18 1:20pm

    “Ruby’s account is that Gaines did not point her weapon at a police officer during the six-hour standoff. But the moment Facebook and Instagram shut off her feed, at that exact moment, Gaines—with her son beside her—lowered her gun and aimed it at the cops, so he killed her.”

    That does seem shady.

    Fb also works with Israeli officials to silence Palestinian journalists and citizens. I’m sure some of what was removed was designed to incite violence. However pointing out abuse and rights violations by Israeli Government is now being included under that umbrella, and that’s bad for everyone in the long run.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-palestine-facebook-activist-journalist-arrests-censorship-accusations-incitement-a7377776.html

    Reply
    • Read More
      capeoMajorBurn
      12/02/18 2:08pm

      That does seem shady but that’s not what Ruby or any of the audio you can listen to at the linked Baltimore Sun says. The unnecessary escalation by the police was cutting the power to Gaines’ apartment about 10-15 minutes earlier. It was that that made negotiations break down entirely. It was then that Gaines stopped talking and when she took up a defensive position in view of one of the police teams and started making threatening remarks. I would assume she thought cutting the power meant the police were readying to try to rush the apartment, though they weren’t. They were actually trying to connect Gaines to her family at that point so they could maybe talk her down, but cutting the power effectively ruined any chance for that. It was a bafflingly stupid move that could achieve nothing but enflame the situation.

      Listening to the police audio the other glaring failure is not having a proper negotiator take the lead. After six hours that’s unforgivable. There were multiple teams that weren’t very coordinated. At the same time one team had just gotten a recording from her child’s father to send to her, and were arraigning direct communication with other family members, the SWAT team was following a totally different protocol in asking for the power to be cut. A proper negotiator would’ve declined that request as unhelpful in the current situation. Isolation was not the right move there, at all. 

      Reply
  • Read More
    VincentPriceLostHisLaughMichael Harriot
    11/30/18 1:29pm

    Facebook has to play nice with the government and we all know it runs on 100% unleaded white supremacy.

    Reply
    • Read More
      FlamingFeministaVincentPriceLostHisLaugh
      11/30/18 2:43pm

      Facebook has maintained that it’s above governmental regulation and oversight all along and deigns to answer questions (from anyone) when and if it damn well pleases.

      Zuckerberg, sooner or later, is going to be found to be an alien from The Twilight Zone bearing gifts at an unimaginable price. 

      Reply
    • Read More
      VincentPriceLostHisLaughFlamingFeminista
      11/30/18 2:51pm

      My guess is that people at the top saw how instrumental Twitter was in Arab Spring abroad and then Facebook Live in the murder of Philando Castile domestically. They decided it was time to use it for their own purposes and told Zuckerberg/Dorsey to play the parts of clueless CEOs so that Trump could have an unmoderated platform to get elected in America.

      Reply
  • Read More
    Quantum Jimmies of Pangaean Are Both Russled And Not RussledMichael Harriot
    11/30/18 2:43pm

    Thanks for writing out the FB shenanigans, Michael.

    FB is worse than the DoJ in attacking black activists.

    Reply
  • Read More
    bun_up_tun_upMichael Harriot
    11/30/18 2:08pm

    My mouth was hanging open readinf this article... I don’t even know what to say just happy I don’t have a facebook account

    Reply
  • Read More
    BiturbowagonMichael Harriot
    11/30/18 2:03pm

    This is yet another reason not to belong to Facebook. For years, friends thought I was eccentric. Now, more and more of them are coming around to my way of thinking, and are quitting it.

    Reply
  • Read More
    AyawisgiMichael Harriot
    11/30/18 2:59pm

    Thank you for this, Michael.

    Please forgive me as I speak to my family for a bit.

    To my family (you know who I am talking to because I enlightened you about The Root): This is why I will never be on FB. It is why I advocated for communicating with the family and keeping updated utilizing something like Black Planet. We have to have our own, although it might be smaller and not as profitable.

    I will not help FB harm my people even if it is just in my own little way. 

    Zuckerberg has told us from the beginning exactly what an uncaring, uninformed, supremacist POS he really is.

    Reply
  • Read More
    whatamithinkingMichael Harriot
    11/30/18 4:57pm

    Wow, I almost feel shattered. I was not into Facebook but found Mark Zuckerberg a cool guy, not just for his talent but mostly because he didn’t appear to be a rank capitalist. He gave a huge chunk of change to New Jersey’s public schools and was generous to some African countries. He also smartly defended the Black Lives Matter movement when some reactionary nerds posted shit about them on office walls etc. Plus he was secularist to the point of being an atheist, which is right down my lane.

    This article and some of the commenters have certainly enlightened me. Really Facebook? really Mark?

    Reply