{"id":1779037,"date":"2022-12-20T02:05:32","date_gmt":"2022-12-20T07:05:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metanews.com\/?p=490644"},"modified":"2022-12-20T02:05:32","modified_gmt":"2022-12-20T07:05:32","slug":"meta-sued-for-1-6bn-over-facebook-hate-speech-in-ethiopia-conflict","status":"publish","type":"station","link":"https:\/\/platoaistream.net\/plato-data\/meta-sued-for-1-6bn-over-facebook-hate-speech-in-ethiopia-conflict\/","title":{"rendered":"Meta sued for $1.6Bn Over Facebook Hate Speech in Ethiopia Conflict"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elon Musk launched a poll on Sunday asking users whether he should quit as Twitter CEO. It follows a decision by the company earlier in the day to ban tweets promoting rival social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, which Musk reversed a few hours later.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Also read: Haptic Gloves Let People Touch Each Other in the Metaverse<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The billionaire said he would \u201cabide by the results of this poll.\u201d As of writing, 14.3 million Twitter users had taken part in the poll with 57% voting in favor of him stepping down. There is about three hours left before the poll closes later today, Dec. 19.<\/p>\n

\n

Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Musk did not give details of when he would leave his position should the vote go against him. Elon Musk took over as CEO in October after paying $44 billion to purchase the social media firm. However, his short reign has been marred by issues of alleged policy inconsistency, abuse of power and impromptu employee sackings.<\/p>\n

No more free promos of Facebook and others<\/h2>\n

The poll follows a change to Twitter\u2019s \u201cpromotion of alternative social platforms policy\u201d on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Twitter said it will specifically \u201cremove accounts created solely for the purpose of promoting other social platforms.\u201d Content that contains links or usernames for rival social media firms including Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Nostr and Post, is banned.<\/p>\n

\n

We recognize that many of our users are active on other social media platforms. However, we will no longer allow free promotion of certain social media platforms on Twitter.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) December 18, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Twitter threatened to delete tweets from accounts that violated<\/a> its new policy. It also said accounts may be temporarily locked or permanently suspended.<\/p>\n

Critics described Twitter\u2019s decision to ban mentions of competitors on its platform as an attack on free speech.<\/a> Elon Musk\u2019s acquisition of the giant social media company has been framed in this way, as a victory for freedom of speech.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is incredibly shortsighted,\u201d shouted<\/a> Justin Amash, libertarian and former U.S. member of Congress. \u201cTwitter should strive to be a more open environment, not less open.\u201d<\/p>\n

Journalist Ashton Pittman pulled<\/a> up a screenshot of an old  tweet by Elon Musk. In the tweet, the billionaire explained that only a \u201cbad socio-economic system\u201d would build a wall to keep a rival at bay. Pittman pointed to the irony in that Twitter, championed by Musk as the citadel of free speech, is now behaving like the \u201cbad\u201d competitor.<\/p>\n

\"Elon<\/p>\n

Twitter may be kicked out of the EU<\/h2>\n

\u2018\u201dThis [Twitter rivals ban] most certainly goes against EU regulations though. It will either be reversed or Twitter will be fined heavily in Europe or kicked out,\u201d explained<\/a> Maynard Manyowa, a Zimbabwean journalist based in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n

The European Union\u2019s (EU) Digital Markets Act<\/a> \u201caims to ensure that large online platforms [also referred to as gatekeepers] behave in a fair way online.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Act demands that firms such as Twitter do not treat their own \u201cservices and products more favorably in ranking than similar services or products offered by third parties on the gatekeeper\u2019s platform.\u201d It also says that big social media companies may no longer \u201cprevent consumers from linking up to businesses outside their platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n

No successor<\/h2>\n

Elon Musk later reversed the policy update. He then launched the poll and apologized. \u201cGoing forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes. Won\u2019t happen again,\u201d he said in tweet. However, he also revealed that \u201cthere was no successor\u201d to run the company as CEO after him.<\/p>\n

\n

No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 19, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Twitter\u2019s official account later started<\/a> a separate poll asking users if the social network should have a policy stopping accounts from advertising competing social media platforms on Twitter.<\/p>\n

Jack Dorsey donates to Twitter rival Nostr<\/h2>\n

Social media firms have been politically weaponized in the service of American interests, according to observers.<\/p>\n

In a recent investigative article<\/a>, The Intercept detailed how the U.S. government is secretly working with leading tech companies to monitor and moderate content. The firms include Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Discord, Wikipedia, Microsoft, LinkedIn, and Verizon Media. The plan is to filter out content the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) considers \u201cdangerous speech\u201d.<\/p>\n

Now other emerging decentralized social media networks are betting on taking back control of individual privacy and freedom of speech. They intend to phase out compliant, centralized firms as the de facto medium of online social interaction.<\/p>\n

On Dec. 16, Twitter founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey donated<\/a> 14 Bitcoin worth about $240,000 to Nostr Protocol, a new decentralzed social network that challenges Twitter directly. Twitter banned the protocol.<\/p>\n

According to a Github post<\/a> by developers Git-sgmoore and Fiatjaf, Nostr is an \u201copen protocol that is able to create a censorship-resistant global \u2018social\u2019 network once and for all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t rely on any trusted central server, hence it is resilient; it is based on cryptographic keys and signatures, so it is tamperproof; it does not rely on P2P techniques, therefore it works,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Dorsey has since added his Nostro public key to his bio on Twitter. It is not clear whether this constitutes a violation of Twitter\u2019s new policy on alternative social media platforms.<\/p>\n

Nostr is one among a number of emerging decentralized social networks intent on giving users both the personal and financial freedom to act according to their conscience rather than under political instruction.<\/p>\n

Right side of history<\/h2>\n

Jack Dorsey recently expressed disappointment with issues of content moderation at Twitter and how this had curtailed free speech. \u201cThe Twitter when I led it and the Twitter of today do not meet any\u201d of the principles of resisting \u201ccorporate and government control,\u201d he said a blog post.<\/a><\/p>\n

It is perhaps not surprising that he has set his eyes on building truly independent platforms. The Twitter billionaire founder is also backing Bluesky, a new decentralized social media protocol.<\/p>\n

Bluesky<\/a> is building the AT Protocol, a foundation for social networking which frees developers from corporate and government control. Large-scale distributed social applications can be built using the protocol.<\/p>\n

It aims to come up with a protocol that grants users portability, scale, and trust, it says. Portability allows users to switch between apps without losing their data; scale, allows apps to handle more traffic and then trust, preventing algorithms from profiling users.<\/p>\n

Dorsey is planning<\/a> to spend millions of dollars in donations to other emerging privacy-focused protocols.<\/p>\n

\n

working on granting $1mm per year for @torproject<\/a> now<\/p>\n

\u2014 jack (@jack) December 15, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Over the years, key figures in Bitcoin and web3, entities predominantly on the receiving end of U.S. government intrusion, have either disapprovingly reassessed the monopoly of dominant social networks or started to delink their relationships.<\/p>\n

The loss of confidence is symptomatic of the political entanglements of entrenched social platforms like Facebook or Google. This places decentralized crypto assets like Bitcoin<\/a> and, by extension, decentralized social networks on the right side of history.<\/p>\n

\/MetaNews<\/a>.<\/p>\n