Friday, May 13, 2016

Does Facebook Have To "Like" Conservatives?

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Former Facebook employees are claiming the company regularly rigs its "Trending Topics" section to eliminate "conservative news and conservative sources."

The guy in charge of this function, Tom Stocky has, along with his wife, already given the maximum political donations to Hillary Clinton, they point out.

The US Senate Commerce Committee has sent a letter this week to Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg asking him to explain.

He has responded.

The Washington Post says all newspapers are accused of the same thing.





With all its new "reaction buttons," Facebook apparently has not found the perfect emoji to accurately and fairly capture the news.

Former employees of Facebook are claiming that the social media giant---as of the first quarter of 2016 Facebook claims 1.65 billion monthly active users---has rigged their "Trending Topics" section to ignore conservative news stories and conservative news sources.

They claim Tom Stocky, the guy in charge of the section, and his wife have both given the max to Hillary's campaign. And the records show they have.

This week, the Senate Commerce Committee sent a letter to Facebook founder and chief Mark Zuckerberg asking him to explain what's going on. This link includes a copy of the Senate Committee letter and Zuckerberg's response.

The short of the matter is that the Senate Committee is asking if Facebook is suppressing news and Zuckerberg says no, they're not.

President Obama, who cannot resist inserting himself into almost any issue, said, "Well that settles the question."

The Washington Post worried in print that all newspapers and most all news sources are always accused of selective news coverage---or even suppressing certain news stories.

The Post says, "The question of whether Facebook is 'suppressing' conservative points of view, itself is a loaded issue because many mainstream news organizations are also accused by some of the same conservatives."

They explain that Facebook [and others like themselves] use, to some degree, news aggregation, representing itself as a data point.

"It looks like a neutral platform," they say, "and, to some extent, allows its users to interpret it as one---but humans play a role in what you don't see."
I think most of us have already figured that out.

The real issue here, in my view, is not whether or not Facebook, the Washington Post, the Seattle Times or whomever, pretends to be as Fox used to say "fair and balanced."

All news sources are selective. And biased.

Facebook is, as are most newspapers, secular Left progressive in their ideology.

And that will manifest itself in all aspects of the source.

In the case of Facebook---if you don't like or trust their "Trending Topics" or disagree with their ideology, you can simply hit the "Deactivate" button.

And cancel your newspaper subscription. Or be well informed enough to ignore them when you clip or print your coupons.

The real issue is the degree to which the government is inserting itself into all aspects of our lives.

I hate Facebook and don't like its founder, but should the government be launching an investigation into any private (publicly traded) company over whether their news (or views) is progressive Left or conservative?

It should not matter to the government whether Facebook even has links to conservative news, or progressive Left news, or whatever. The old government "Fairness Doctrine" applied only to broadcast media, not print media or the Internet---and fortunately Ronald Reagan disposed of that a long time ago.

The Obama administration would love to bring it back---with his people deciding what is "fair."

What is really "Trending" and has been for some time in my mind, is the fact that the secular progressive Left is trying to install a progressive, New Age cultural Marxist utopia and are attempting to silence and even criminalize any thoughts of those who are not in lock step with them.

And they are using government as a weapon in their war.

The GOP controlled Congress should stay out issues like this one. They do not need to be reviewing whether or not Facebook has the right "trending" stories or not. Neither should they be involved in steroids in baseball, concussions in football or fairness in bathrooms---or what a pharmacy should and should not carry.

US Attorney General Loretta Lynch is, this week, threatening North Carolina that should they not play nice with the government on the issue of bathrooms and gender confusion, she will cut off government funding, including to the University of North Carolina.

Lynch has admitted that her office has considered taking civil action against those who question or dare to criticize man-made climate change.

Richland's (WA) Barronnell Stutzman has seen the government's heavy hand come down on her and her flower shop because her biblical beliefs about marriage are in conflict with the government's beliefs about marriage.

Bakers and cake makers have been sued, put out of business, bankrupted and are in court across America today because their biblical beliefs conflict with the government's beliefs.

Photographers, venue owners and others are also being punished for not getting in line with the government beliefs.

The Stormans family in Olympia, Washington has been in court for years because they are pro-life and can not in good conscience sell abortion pills in their pharmacy. State government says the Stormans are required to sell abortion pills.

The government has forced them to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars---perhaps by now more than a million dollars---simply to defend their right to religious freedom.

So blatant is the effort by the progressive movement to conform the people to their belief system, A Harvard professor, (I wrote about this earlier), is calling progressives to treat conservatives and Christians as Nazis were treated after they were defeated---punish and banish them.

This is not a new phenomenon. This pattern has manifested itself in all Marxist and cultural Marxist movements---from Bolshevik-Soviet Russia to Nazi Germany to Castor's Cuba.

There's no question Facebook is bias, but that's not something the government should explore, it's something freedom loving citizens should see for what it is.

Forget Facebook. It's a symptom, not a cause.

But it reflects the effort being made by the secular progressive Left to conform a society to its own "New Age ideology."

While the notions of freedom, equality, tolerance and fairness are used as tools---the Left wants none of it.

They only want absolute ideological conformity.

It is written to Christians: "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

It is also written: "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

The gospel is the "Good News." Share it. Live it. Overcome evil.

Be Blessed.