Post removed within seconds, while BBC allowed to claim to be arbiter of truth, as platform continues censorship campaign
Social media platform Facebook has removed a third Skwawkbox post in less than a week in what appears to be a campaign of censorship about perfectly accurate content that inconveniences the Starmer government and the media that support it.
The affected post contains a list of concrete and entirely accurate examples of BBC disinformation, published in response to a new BBC Facebook ad in which it claims to be the leader in the ‘fight for truth’. Despite the easy verifiability of the examples, Facebook’s AI supposedly decided that this was ‘misleading’, even though Skwawkbox is a formally regulated news site with a perfect reliability rating – and again, the platform gives a sinister warning that ‘Repeatedly breaking our rules can cause more account restrictions’ even though no rules have been broken in either case:
The latest censorship campaign is far from the first time that Skwawkbox has been targeted, with restrictions withdrawn and removals reversed after appeal, once an item has become ‘old news’ – and readers routinely report being unable to share, or even find, new articles.
Facebook – like Twitter – has long been on a trajectory of favouring right-wing and even extremist accounts and articles over left-wing. It was exposed in 2020 using its algorithms to target left-wing sources while relaxing fact-checking standards on right-wing pages. While much of its censorship is AI-driven, it also uses human ‘fact-checkers’ with ties to hard-right groups and news outlets.
Social media that protect genuine free speech and dissent are urgently needed, but those who wish to be sure of finding the informing that Skwawkbox uncovers should subscribe to this site’s free mailing list and to the Skwawkbox Telegram channel.
SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount as it has to be entered by us). Alternatively, if you prefer to make a one-off or recurring donation by simple card payment, please use the form below:
Make a one-time donation
Make a monthly donation
Make a yearly donation
Choose an amount
Or enter a custom amount
Your support is hugely appreciated.
Your support is hugely appreciated.
Your support is hugely appreciated.
DonateDonate monthlyDonate yearlyThanks for your solidarity so Skwawkbox can keep doing its job of inconveniencing the right and helping to build the left!
If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.
I’ve, just, posted this comment on Facebook, alongside a copy and paste of the article. Let’s see how long it lasts :
‘I do wish Facebook’s control freak geeks would educate themselves, on censorship. Skwawkbox is regulated by IMPRESS, a perfectly acceptable independent regulation body set up after The Phone Hacking Scandal, to supplement the ineffective IPSO, run by the billionaire owned UK newspapers, themselves. A few have complained about Skwawkbox articles, to IMPRESS, and, after lengthy investigation, have been found to be spurious, and vexatious complaints. Now, it’s obvious, Facebook are censoring Skwawkbox, having no real understanding of the issue – perhaps under the influence of some malign actors, themselves. This censorship is making Facebook look extremely amateur and, just, plain silly.’
When you view some of the content online, especially in my case on Youtube (I don’t use twitter or facebook) the rightwing fruitcases have free rein.
“In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
When counter-revolutionaries set themselves up as “arbiters of truth” we know they are fearful.
Today do two things to protect your freedom:
i Use Cash instead of a card payment at least once;
ii Question everything you read or hear on the BBC.
The sad thing is, when it comes to miss information the BBC are far from the worst. Bad as they are, when it comes to MSM, the BEEB are better than most.
I disagree.
They’re highly untrustworthy, establishment proponents. An arcane, esoteric old-school-tie clique, symbolic of, and concurrent with, an inherent feudalism well beyond its sell-by date, despite it’s otherwise pretences of modernism.
…And they insist they’re best placed to
indoctrinate‘teach’ your children about what constitutes disinformation.I’m very much afraid not.
The BEEB aren’t as bad as GB News, Talk TV, or the Torygraph ect
And what do they have in common? They’re privately-owned channels. Your TV tax doesn’t fund them.
I added a link to the article overnight on Facebook removed within minutes