Facebook bans pages organizing anti-lockdown rallies

[midian182]

In a nutshell: Facebook is banning event listings that organize protests against the government’s social distancing policies. Anti-lockdown rallies have taken place in many states, often attracting thousands of people, and epidemiologists predict the gatherings could cause an increase in Covid-19 cases.

On Monday, Facebook deleted listings for anti-quarantine protests in California, New Jersey, and Nebraska. The company said it would only take down events that violate state guideline, reports the BBC.

"Unless government prohibits the event during this time, we allow it to be organized on Facebook. For this same reason, events that defy government's guidance on social distancing aren't allowed on Facebook," a spokesperson said.

A rally in Olympia, Washington State, on Sunday saw over 2,000 people in attendance, many standing in close proximity. Some held signs berating the government for being too harsh in its lockdown measures, while others blamed 5G for the virus—a conspiracy theory that’s led to phone masts being set on fire in the UK.

Protests against social isolation measures have also taken place in California, Colorado, Tennessee, Illinois, Florida, Montana, Wisconsin, Texas, New Hampshire, Maryland, Nevada, Idaho, Minnesota, Kentucky, Utah, Oregon, North Carolina, Ohio, New York, Virginia, Michigan and Oklahoma.

Some have criticized Facebook’s policy, calling it a violation of people’s right to free speech.

Why is @Facebook colluding with state governments to quash peoples free speech?

Regardless of what you think about the lockdowns or the protests against them, this is a chilling & disturbing government directed shutdown of peoples 1st Amendment rights. Very dangerous! https://t.co/rnG09TSVhI

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) April 20, 2020

Dear Civil Rights Division of @TheJusticeDept:@Facebook is working hand-in-glove with tyrants in state and local governments to retaliate against Americans who are exercising First Amendment rights, by completely censoring (de-platforming) them.

Crime?https://t.co/fN7F4tH7eV https://t.co/BoI0VhBN3C

— Mike Davis (@mrddmia) April 20, 2020

Earlier this month, Facebook said it would start notifying people who liked, reacted, or commented on coronavirus-related fake news posts. The social network has also partnered with Carnegie Mellon University to launch an interactive Covid-19 map that shows how many people are showing symptoms—not confirmed cases—of the virus on a county-by-county basis.

Image credit: Sky News

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/84915-facebook-bans-pages-organizing-anti-lockdown-rallies.html

 

[VitalyT]

Anti-lockdown rallies, aka suicide rallies, run by *****s who do not understand what social responsibility means, marching people toward their graves.

 

[amstech]

Anti-lockdown rallies, aka suicide rallies, run by *****s who do not understand what social responsibility means.

I get that 100%.
Gotta be safe, lookout for others and do whats right for the greater good.
That being said, 98% of people that get COVID-19 are fine.
Before folks jump on me, I completely agree social distancing needs to still happen, and we need to still be very careful.
In the past 3 months, more people have died from the Flu then COVID-19.
One of my groomsman ownes a local pub and they need to re-open in the next few weeks or things will get squirrely. You cannot remove people's liberty when 98% of people are going to be fine.
They need to start to re-opening things slowly and safely, because for some, this is life and death.

 

[winjer]

I get that 100%.
Gotta be safe, lookout for others and do whats right for the greater good.
That being said, 98% of people that get COVID-19 are fine.
Before folks jump on me, I completely agree social distancing needs to still happen, and we need to still be very careful.
In the past 3 months, more people have died from the Flu then COVID-19.
One of my groomsman ownes a local pub and they need to re-open in the next few weeks or things will get squirrel. You cannot remove people's liberty when 98% of people are going to be fine.
They need to start to re-opening things slowly and safely, because for some, this is life and death.

The reason that there are less deaths from Covid 19 is because governments and health officials implemented strict safety measures.
If we were to allow everyone to do what they wanted, the amount of deaths would rise much higher.

 

[fps4ever]

Facebook is more dangerous than any anti lock down rallies. They only want their agenda's spread. Doomers eagerly waiting to take away peoples rights. They want you to be responsible but need to create laws to "make you".

 

[stewi0001]

My main concern is that Americans have become more self-centered and less of a sense of community. I can imagine if this was the t-virus that people would still be calling for the removal of the lock down and undead rights.

The whole ordeal is one of those darned if you do or darned if you don't. In other words if the government lax then there would very likely be more spread and thus higher chances of death and people would rant about the government not doing enough.

 

[ziffel66]

"freedom of speech violation" ??

Facebook is not bound by the 1st Amendment. That applies to gov't institutions, not private companies. FB can do whatever they please re: restrictions.

 

[candle_86]

Facebook can do what they wish, their are ways around it. As for the shutdown, making millions jobless and potentially homeless will do far worse than this virus will ever do. These lock downs have kids and adults starving, domestic violence and murder rates are rising at unheard of rates. Bussiness and economic failure will lead to a massive increase in suicide.

Protect the elderly and immunocompromised, let them work from home or get some assistance but let the ones who are safe return to work. This shutdown is senseless and moronic. The government should not have this level of control period.

Those who sacrafice liberty for security deserve neither.

 

[Nobina]

I kinda agree with both sides on certain things. On one hand, people should stay home on their own but in reality that will never happen. Those who say "it's only old people" seem to think old folks' lives don't matter cause they've passed a certain age threshold which is ridiculous. On the other hand, no government should be able to take freedom away from their citizens regardless of the situation because they can't be trusted not to abuse that power in the future.

 

[UltraModernGuy]

I get that 100%.
Gotta be safe, lookout for others and do whats right for the greater good.
That being said, 98% of people that get COVID-19 are fine.
Before folks jump on me, I completely agree social distancing needs to still happen, and we need to still be very careful.
In the past 3 months, more people have died from the Flu then COVID-19.
One of my groomsman ownes a local pub and they need to re-open in the next few weeks or things will get squirrely. You cannot remove people's liberty when 98% of people are going to be fine.
They need to start to re-opening things slowly and safely, because for some, this is life and death.

If anything, you should be mad at this administration's socialism for bailing out multi million and billion dollar businesses (which will easily withstand the hit) rather than small businesses and actual workers. Also, making number of death comparisons is as pointless as Dr.Phil saying more people die in car accidents. We won't know the true scope of this for several months.

 

[Birdomike]

I get that 100%.
Gotta be safe, lookout for others and do whats right for the greater good.
That being said, 98% of people that get COVID-19 are fine.
Before folks jump on me, I completely agree social distancing needs to still happen, and we need to still be very careful.
In the past 3 months, more people have died from the Flu then COVID-19.
One of my groomsman ownes a local pub and they need to re-open in the next few weeks or things will get squirrely. You cannot remove people's liberty when 98% of people are going to be fine.
They need to start to re-opening things slowly and safely, because for some, this is life and death.

The flu killed 34,000 people during 2018-2019 calendar year (Total). We are in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, and already, we're over 40,000 deaths (even WITH massive social distancing put into place). So, you may need to re-evaluate your data.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Pretty simple, it is a blatant freedom of speech violation, being applied to those of a certian political bent.

You know why? Because the anti-rent rallies going on at the same time that the media has conveniently ignored. If Facebook was so concerned about "Social distancing" (and to be clear, social distancing doesnt overrule the constitution and freedom to assemble) they would be shutting down anti-rent rallies too.

But they are not, because the anti-rent rallies are far left leaning, and the "open up the economy" rallies are right leaning, in the eyes of the woke crowd. Remember, a cough doesnt mean we fork over our freedoms, we need to fight for them now more then ever, as lockdowns turn from public heath issues into political power games.

And I know what some will say. "WAHH, FACEBOOK IS A PRIVATE COMPANY SO THE CONSTITUTION DOESNT MATTER". Well, if they are acting as a publisher and censoring content on their platform, they need to be held responsible as a publisher, which means when illegal content is published, FACEBOOK is held responsible, not the profile user. FACEBOOK needs to make it clear what positions they do or do not support. No more hiding behind the veil of being a "platform". Facebook is making bank during the lockdown, and has a vested interest in it continuing, that is obvious to most.

OF course, Facebook and ole' Zucky dont realize that messages can spread outside of facebook. Even in locked down communist china dissenting messages spread all over their native social media platforms. All Facebook is doing is making themselves the enemy of people who need to work to support their families.

 

[Uncle Al]

1. That being said, 98% of people that get COVID-19 are fine.
2. In the past 3 months, more people have died from the Flu then COVID-19.

You might want to dig a little deeper on your research since your figures are off more than a little:

1. Mortality figures confirm that 6.9% of those infected die. This figure does NOT include the number that are maimed or have other long term afflictions and does not reflect the disproportionate number of deaths from older patients. It also does not include ANY from retirement homes, which has not been counted.

2. Not even close. The average death rate from influenza is 32,000 to 38,000 yearly in the US alone. Right now over 40,000 have died in just less than 3 months making the annual projection over 160,000.

While small businesses, etc. are suffering from the shutdown, they will suffer more if the disease remains unchecked. When spray droplets can travel over 30 feet and we don't have a firm hold on just how long the virus can remain actively on surfaces, "social distancing" is a nice idea but isn't enough. We see what will happen when companies will resume their work, just look at the Tyson & Smithfield plants that are looking at infection rates rapidly approaching 100%. No word yet on if any of this can infect heats, especially cold cuts that are not cooked.

Doubt all you want, just keep an eye on what happens over the next 30 days from all those that choose to ignor the warnings. Keep watching, all indications are it will get worse, much worse.

 

[Luay]

Darwin Says:

By all means, go ahead.

 

[TheWatcher]

Even if businesses are allowed to open most people don't want to get out or spend money. Doing business at this time will do more harm than good.

 

[ColdDeck]

If anything, you should be mad at this administration's socialism for bailing out multi million and billion dollar businesses (which will easily withstand the hit) rather than small businesses and actual workers. Also, making number of death comparisons is as pointless as Dr.Phil saying more people die in car accidents. We won't know the true scope of this for several months.

We may never reach the level of testing needed to know the true scope/numbers. Some leaders want to keep the numbers low as to not further highlight how they've dropped the ball... over and over and over.

 

[mbrowne5061]

I get that 100%.
Gotta be safe, lookout for others and do whats right for the greater good.
That being said, 98% of people that get COVID-19 are fine.
Before folks jump on me, I completely agree social distancing needs to still happen, and we need to still be very careful.
In the past 3 months, more people have died from the Flu then COVID-19.
One of my groomsman ownes a local pub and they need to re-open in the next few weeks or things will get squirrely. You cannot remove people's liberty when 98% of people are going to be fine.
They need to start to re-opening things slowly and safely, because for some, this is life and death.

In a bad year, the flu kills about 500,000 people, world-wide. About 1,400 people/day. In the last four months, COVID19 has killed 170,000 people, and is presently killing around 4,000 people/day.

https://plague.com/

 

[3volv3d]

The reason for social distancing is simply not to have too many people ill at once.
Less stress on hopitals, beds, staff, ppe.
If they get overloaded with people, more people will likely die as unable to be treated, and staff may also catch it, die, and then you have even less staff to deal with the next lot.

We will all get it at some point, more will die, most will be fine. Overpopulated areas are like ships, petri dishes for breeding. But it is showing us there are considerate people, but also there are ahoes.

It is showing us that our world is vunerable, and we need a better infrastructure, a smarter healthier way forward, and a better plan for when this happens.

Because if we keep breeding the way are, and developing the world in the way we are "it makes money" not "thats the best smartest economical way" then, next time, it could be curtains.

I have no faith that this will better prepare us for "the next time." Nor do I have faith that we will change our ways.

 

[mbrowne5061]

Pretty simple, it is a blatant freedom of speech violation, being applied to those of a certian political bent.

You know why? Because the anti-rent rallies going on at the same time that the media has conveniently ignored. If Facebook was so concerned about "Social distancing" (and to be clear, social distancing doesnt overrule the constitution and freedom to assemble) they would be shutting down anti-rent rallies too.

But they are not, because the anti-rent rallies are far left leaning, and the "open up the economy" rallies are right leaning, in the eyes of the woke crowd. Remember, a cough doesnt mean we fork over our freedoms, we need to fight for them now more then ever, as lockdowns turn from public heath issues into political power games.

And I know what some will say. "WAHH, FACEBOOK IS A PRIVATE COMPANY SO THE CONSTITUTION DOESNT MATTER". Well, if they are acting as a publisher and censoring content on their platform, they need to be held responsible as a publisher, which means when illegal content is published, FACEBOOK is held responsible, not the profile user. FACEBOOK needs to make it clear what positions they do or do not support. No more hiding behind the veil of being a "platform". Facebook is making bank during the lockdown, and has a vested interest in it continuing, that is obvious to most.

OF course, Facebook and ole' Zucky dont realize that messages can spread outside of facebook. Even in locked down communist china dissenting messages spread all over their native social media platforms. All Facebook is doing is making themselves the enemy of people who need to work to support their families.

In order:

* Where are these anti-rent rallies?
* Newspapers are publishers, they wouldn't be publishing ads to attend anti-government rallies. Platforms are also held responsible for their content. See: The Silk Road, The Pirate Bay.
* That is the idea; what is in it for Zuck to help these people? Literally nothing but headaches, at best.

 

[Panda218]

Pretty simple, it is a blatant freedom of speech violation, being applied to those of a certian political bent.

You know why? Because the anti-rent rallies going on at the same time that the media has conveniently ignored. If Facebook was so concerned about "Social distancing" (and to be clear, social distancing doesnt overrule the constitution and freedom to assemble) they would be shutting down anti-rent rallies too.

But they are not, because the anti-rent rallies are far left leaning, and the "open up the economy" rallies are right leaning, in the eyes of the woke crowd. Remember, a cough doesnt mean we fork over our freedoms, we need to fight for them now more then ever, as lockdowns turn from public heath issues into political power games.

And I know what some will say. "WAHH, FACEBOOK IS A PRIVATE COMPANY SO THE CONSTITUTION DOESNT MATTER". Well, if they are acting as a publisher and censoring content on their platform, they need to be held responsible as a publisher, which means when illegal content is published, FACEBOOK is held responsible, not the profile user. FACEBOOK needs to make it clear what positions they do or do not support. No more hiding behind the veil of being a "platform". Facebook is making bank during the lockdown, and has a vested interest in it continuing, that is obvious to most.

OF course, Facebook and ole' Zucky dont realize that messages can spread outside of facebook. Even in locked down communist china dissenting messages spread all over their native social media platforms. All Facebook is doing is making themselves the enemy of people who need to work to support their families.

*Theinsaneperson

FTFY

 

[Hexic]

Pretty simple, it is a blatant freedom of speech violation, being applied to those of a certian political bent.

You know why? Because the anti-rent rallies going on at the same time that the media has conveniently ignored. If Facebook was so concerned about "Social distancing" (and to be clear, social distancing doesnt overrule the constitution and freedom to assemble) they would be shutting down anti-rent rallies too.

But they are not, because the anti-rent rallies are far left leaning, and the "open up the economy" rallies are right leaning, in the eyes of the woke crowd. Remember, a cough doesnt mean we fork over our freedoms, we need to fight for them now more then ever, as lockdowns turn from public heath issues into political power games.

And I know what some will say. "WAHH, FACEBOOK IS A PRIVATE COMPANY SO THE CONSTITUTION DOESNT MATTER". Well, if they are acting as a publisher and censoring content on their platform, they need to be held responsible as a publisher, which means when illegal content is published, FACEBOOK is held responsible, not the profile user. FACEBOOK needs to make it clear what positions they do or do not support. No more hiding behind the veil of being a "platform". Facebook is making bank during the lockdown, and has a vested interest in it continuing, that is obvious to most.

OF course, Facebook and ole' Zucky dont realize that messages can spread outside of facebook. Even in locked down communist china dissenting messages spread all over their native social media platforms. All Facebook is doing is making themselves the enemy of people who need to work to support their families.

Facebook is not a government entity, so there is by definition no freedom of speech violation.

They are absolutely free to censor whatever they feel, as they are not a public utility. You are correct that Facebook, among other social media platforms (and literally all of Hollywood) selectively choose to ignore certain conservative narratives while permitting more liberal ones.

But whether you agree with that common knowledge or not, that's still their choice, not any violation of freedoms. There's a huge line there that you must not ignore. Don't use it if you don't like it, or begin a petition for change.

 

[p51d007]

I look at facebook as a PRIVATE company. They can remove, ban or post anything they want.
It's a freedom of speech issue, but as I said, facebook is NOT a public company per se.
I'm sure those organizing these rallies will find ways around it.

 

[amstech]

:1. Mortality figures confirm that 6.9% of those infected die. This figure does NOT include the number that are maimed or have other long term afflictions and does not reflect the disproportionate number of deaths from older patients. It also does not include ANY from retirement homes, which has not been counted.

The issue is, how inaccurate any of those figures are.
Thousands upon thousands of people have had COVID without knowing it.
Also, many times COVID is being wrote down as the cause of death, when it was not.

The flu killed 34,000 people during 2018-2019 calendar year (Total). We are in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, and already, we're over 40,000 deaths (even WITH massive social distancing put into place). So, you may need to re-evaluate your data.

The mortality rate is not accurate, because its not counting all of the folks who haven't been tested. 6.9% is not even close to being accurate.
The important stats are deathrate when considering opening back up, in our combined counties, we have 238 positive cases, with 3 deaths, so thats 1.26%.

 

[UltraModernGuy]

Pretty simple, it is a blatant freedom of speech violation, being applied to those of a certian political bent.

You know why? Because the anti-rent rallies going on at the same time that the media has conveniently ignored. If Facebook was so concerned about "Social distancing" (and to be clear, social distancing doesnt overrule the constitution and freedom to assemble) they would be shutting down anti-rent rallies too.

But they are not, because the anti-rent rallies are far left leaning, and the "open up the economy" rallies are right leaning, in the eyes of the woke crowd. Remember, a cough doesnt mean we fork over our freedoms, we need to fight for them now more then ever, as lockdowns turn from public heath issues into political power games.

And I know what some will say. "WAHH, FACEBOOK IS A PRIVATE COMPANY SO THE CONSTITUTION DOESNT MATTER". Well, if they are acting as a publisher and censoring content on their platform, they need to be held responsible as a publisher, which means when illegal content is published, FACEBOOK is held responsible, not the profile user. FACEBOOK needs to make it clear what positions they do or do not support. No more hiding behind the veil of being a "platform". Facebook is making bank during the lockdown, and has a vested interest in it continuing, that is obvious to most.

OF course, Facebook and ole' Zucky dont realize that messages can spread outside of facebook. Even in locked down communist china dissenting messages spread all over their native social media platforms. All Facebook is doing is making themselves the enemy of people who need to work to support their families.

It is pretty simple. Don't use Facebook. I've not used it, well ever. It's always funny seeing triggered righties getting mad that a private entity is making money.

 

[Shadowboxer]

This isn’t about whether you agree with the lockdown or not, it’s about whether you agree with Facebook censoring. I certainly don’t, although I would say that if you want to organise via an online platform then no one is forcing you to use Facebook. I read once that terror cells were using a mobile game called clash of clans to communicate with each other.

Still, this is another disturbing move from Facebook. It makes me glad that the youth of today aren’t joining the platform en masse like the millennials did.