News and New Zealand Democracy
How do we prevent the decline of broadcast tv news being a deep wound to our democracy?
Media
facebook
This is awkward
Chris Luxon’s public commitment not to negotiate with the Wellington protestors has been called into question by a Facebook from Maureen Pugh claiming that members of the National Party were talking to the protesters on an almost daily basis.
The right to protest
Complaints that the police are unnecessarily interfering with the Wellington Convoy’s right to protest appear to be vastly overstated.
Hang Facebook
The decision by the Oversight Board of Facebook to continue banning Donald Trump is one of the biggest moves against free speech and the modern definition of its limits that the world has seen.
Zucked in
For a while the Australian Federal Government has been proposing legislation requiring Facebook and Google to compensate Australian media interests for posting links to local media stories. Facebook has just replied by giving the Australian Government the middle finger.
Regulate big tech now
If we had seen our Prime Minister fall from power because three companies decided that their dominance in society should be used to bring her down, we would be outraged. Yet that pretty much just happened in the United States.
The million MAGA muppet march
America is in some trouble. Covid19 is surging. The third wave is hitting hard. Suddenly 100,000 daily new infections is not a scary possibility, 200,000 is. And a group of Americans have been persuaded that Trump has had the election stolen off him.
Left wing twitter is the worst *
* but you should see what Judith Collins’ husband has been posting.
Back in the U.S.S.A.
The onslaught launched against Trump from sections of corporate media and liberal institutions will look as nothing next to the unified onslaught that will be unleashed against a President Sanders.
The Fourth Estate struggling in the social media world
Originally posted on Nick Kelly’s blog
Ahead of the 2020 General Election in New Zealand, Labour Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced that her party is committed to run a factual election and has signed up to a social media tool to help prove it. The 2020 NZ election will be an interesting case study of whether in the social media age there can be honest political debate free of misinformation and manipulation of facts.
Labour is signing up to Facebook transparency tool
Jacinda Ardern has announced that Labour will abide by Facebook Ad Library Report rules which allow voters to see where campaigning money is being spent on Facebook ads. And that it will have its major policies independently costed.
Sacha Baron Cohen – greatest propaganda machine in history
A must watch video of Sacha Baron Cohen where he has launched an all out assault on Facebook and Twitter and has called them “the greatest propaganda machine in history”.
Social Media – A force for good?
Nick Kelly on the role of social media in the UK election.
Twitter announces end to paid political advertising
Jacinda Ardern’s campaign against harmful social media has had an effect with Twitter deciding to ban political advertising on the grounds that internet advertising brings significant risks to politics.
Truth, boomer memes and the next election campaign
Thanks to Facebook’s lax attitude to fact checking it appears that the next election campaign is going to be a rough one.
Elizabeth Warren on Facebook and the US presidential election
“They’re allowing Trump to spend over $1 million a week right now for ads on their platform—including ones that air the same lies that TV stations won’t.”
Every day New Zealanders
Simon Bridges thinks that Jacinda Ardern’s international campaign to change the way that social media handles hate speech and terrorism a big talkfest that will achieve nothing, even though Facebook has as a result announced significant changes to its platform.
Simon Bridges Going Blue in the Face Barking at Green Cars
Simon Bridges is barking madly at green cars.
Death tax fake news
Social media was responsible for the repeated broadcasting of the claim that Labor in Australia intended to bring in a death tax. What should happen when claims that are clearly wrong are made?
Jacinda achieves international commitment to social media change
Jacinda Ardern has shown true international leadership by achieving considerable international consensus to effecting change in the way that social media operates.
The Herald paywall
The Herald is getting ready this week to install a paywall.
Should white supremacists be preferred over ISIS?
According to media sources in the United States Twitter won’t autoban white supremacists because too many GOP Politicians would be banned.
Regulating social media
Is it possible that the zeitgeist for global social media regulation is peaking at the right time, and the big tech giants will accede?
Confirmation bias
The internet neatly divides us into separate isolated tribes with polarised views of what are the issues and what is reality. How do we engage in a civilised discussion to educate each other and reach a consensus of what we should be doing?
The trouble with Facebook
The Government and some major corporations have called for changes to Facebook in the way it operates.
Digital Corporations: Pay Us What You Owe Us
The Government has indicated that it will seek to tax digital companies from overseas.
New Privacy Law for 2019
A new Privacy law is in the process of being enacted. But in a world where privacy breaches are rampant and the consequences potentially devastating will it be enough?
Censorship again.
I’m not a great fan of George Monbiot. And Alex Jones is rubbish. But …
Censorship
It seems that if you’re the right person, harbour the correct thoughts, have the right connections, and you don’t like whatever the political opinion, news or information that’s floating about is, then you can get it banned.
Wool. Eyes. Pull.
As though politicians with a social democratic bent don’t have enough to contend with…
Algorithms are threatening our democracy
Algorithms are a form of fascism – yet a fascism from data manipulation rather than from the state. Are they a threat to our democracy?
NRT: A lawless multinational
Idiot/Savant at No Right Turn on Facebook and the Privacy Commissioner.
Facebook is in trouble
A whistleblower, Christopher Wyllie, has explained how Cambridge Analytica managed to secure the data of 50 million Americans and how it was used in the last US Presidential election.
Break Up Social Media Itself
It is time to regulate the power of cyber criminals and cyber monopolies.
Facebook Bullshit
A very cursory glance at Facebook, Palantir Technologies, Cambridge Analytica, AggregateIQ, click bait, targeted ads…and what the hell is the FBI playing at?
The Great Australian Bight honest Government ad
The Australian Government just released this ad about the Great Australian Bight and it’s surprisingly honest and informative. 
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