[governance] Biggest Social Media Sites Censor Alternative News

[Riaz K Tayob]

  Biggest Social Media Sites Censor Alternative News
  <http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/12/biggest-social-news-sites-censor-alternative-media.html>

Posted on December 14, 2012 
<http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/12/biggest-social-news-sites-censor-alternative-media.html> 
by WashingtonsBlog <http://www.washingtonsblog.com/author/washingtonsblog>


      censorship on Social Networking Biggest Social Media Sites Censor
      Alternative News


      "Unreliable News Source"

The mainstream media skews the news to defend the status quo 
<http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/12/its-not-the-mainstream-media-its-the-old-media.html>, 
and serves the interests 
<http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/09/3-time-emmy-award-winning-cnn-journalist-mainstream-media-takes-money-from-foreign-dictators-to-run-flattering-propaganda.html> 
of the rich and powerful 
<http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/07/mainstream-media-presstitutes-for-the-rich-and-powerful.html>.

But at least web news sources are free of censorship ... one would hope.

Unfortunately, that's not true.

Facebook pays low-wage foreign workers to delete certain content based 
upon a censorship list 
<http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/22/low-wage-facebook-contractor-leaks-secret-censorship-list/>. 
For example, Facebook deletes accounts created by any Palestinian 
resistance groups.

Digg was caught censoring stories which were controversial or too 
critical of the government. See this 
<http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/news/2007/03/72835> and this 
<http://web.archive.org/web/20070311084954/http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=20587>.

Many accuse Youtube of blatant censorship 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_by_Google#YouTube>.

Reddit -- the 133rd most popular 
<http://www.alexa.com/search?q=reddit.com&r=site_siteinfo&p=bigtop> 
website worldwide on the Internet -- is also censoring.

I'm not talking about censoring specific websites (For example, I was 
informed today that Reddit's News category censors all stories from this 
website.  But that's just an example).  I'm talking about censoring 
entire /categories/ of news media.

Specifically, Reddit's WorldNews category has 2.5 million 
<http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/> subscribers.  Most tv news shows 
have less than 
<http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/fox-news-2011-tops-in-cable-news-top-13-programs-in-cable-news-but-down-from-2010_b104224>2.5 
million daily viewers. So that means that Reddit's WorldNews is /itself/ 
a mainstream media source in terms of numbers.  And many more people see 
WorldNews stories on the front page of Reddit, even if they are not 
subscribers to the WorldNews subreddit.

(Reddit is owned by the 46th largest 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance_Publications> company in the 
United States -- Advance Publications -- which owns a number of 
mainstream newspapers and magazines 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance_Publications#Publications>.)

Yet WorldNews censors blogs, and doesn't consider them real news 
sources.  Here's a discussion I had recently with WorldNews moderators:

Clipboard02 Biggest Social Media Sites Censor Alternative News 
<http://www.washingtonsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Clipboard02.jpg>In 
fact, the top independent experts in every field -- economics, business, 
foreign affairs, military, science, energy, etc. -- have their own 
blogs, making blogs one of the best sources of information, a good way 
to fact-check the mainstream news, and the best way to read the experts' 
insights direct and unfiltered.  See this 
<http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/07/%E2%80%9Cblogs-are-best-at-debunking-myths-that-can-slip-through-a-lot-of-the-traditional-media-outlets.html>, 
this 
<http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2009/09/are-financial-blogs-trustworthy.html> 
and this 
<http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/03/blogs-crucial-or-a-waste-of-time.html>.

Indeed, the /whole reason/ that news blogs have become popular is that 
they get around the censorship which is ubiquitous in the mainstream 
television news. And social media is popular as a news source -- 
especially among youth 
<http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121210080736.htm> -- 
because it /pretends/ that it provides uncensored news, where a free 
market of popularity governs.

That's obviously not the case, where specific websites -- and entire 
/classes of media/, such as blogs -- are barred.

Reddit holds itself out as a young, hip, progressive news source.  But 
if it is censoring blogs, it fails to live up to any of these claims.

The government already censors and manipulates social media 
<http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/03/government-power-being-used-to-stifle-dissent-not-to-keep-us-safe.html>. 
More proof here 
<http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/07/pentagon-seeks-to-manipulate-social-media-for-propaganda-purposes.html> 
and here 
<http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/02/you-know-those-obnoxious-posters-who-almost-seem-like-alter-egos-of-the-same-person-they-actually-might-be.html>.

It is sad that the moderators of the social media sites themselves are 
doing the same thing.

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