Facebook has shut down ‘Atheist Republic’, by far the biggest page operated by the Atheist community on any social media network. The move reportedly followed coordinated ‘mass flagging’ of the page by those who believe in God.
The page was being used by over 1.6 mln Atheists to communicate, and is only one of the several such minority-oriented pages that have been targeted by religious believers via ‘mass reporting’.
Under Facebook’s ‘community guidelines’, if enough people flag a page as being harmful or promoting violence or containing illegal content, the page is automatically hidden without any manual intervention.
“I’m simply in tears,” Jackson said. “Every single day, we have helped numerous atheists.. now, without proper reason, without care, they remove us.. they have cut off our reach to the community we’ve spent years growing.”
She said that for over 6 years, Atheist Republic administrators have had their personal Facebook accounts banned and their posts removed “because people have harassed us over content they didn’t like.
Rest of article from Ultra.news.
I couldn't help but think how things are different here and how something like that could never happen on the platform. Even if everyone were to flag it, the content would still be there and the communication would not be cut like on other centralized platforms.
Here users who harass and wrongly report/flag content get a bigger consequence than just getting your account banned and easily being able to create a new one and continue the harassment.
What are your thoughts on this? How do you think the Steemit platform differs from the others regarding these problems?
Not to mention trolls becoming a bigger issue every day on most platforms.
Awesome - fakebook gets one step closer to game over every day, and it all helps Steemit grow.
Hehe, nice pic. ^^
being Atheist is a religion, because not believing in GOD should result in not having anything to say about it, they are two faced liars
I don't really understand your logic here but thanks for your comment anyway.
I don't really understand the @craig-grant logic on this one either! He'd baffle the #philosophy tag to DEATH!! :)
a declaration of being atheist is admitting belief in GOD, you have to believe in GOD to deny that GOD is real, a person who does not believe on GOD would not care to declare them-self as an atheist
A good point - Many people seem to be so into religion they even create new ones like Atheism and Consumerism. I just enjoy watching fakebook implode. I suspect fakebook is a religion too, possibly a sub-sect of zionism...
"a declaration of being atheist is admitting belief in GOD, you have to believe in GOD to deny that GOD is real, a person who does not believe on GOD would not care to declare them-self as an atheist"
ummmmmmmmmmmmm
its not a denial that god is real its an understanding that there likely is no god because there is no evidence for it at all?
to argue that there is no evidence you have to believe that it is possible, but you need evidence to prove it.
Not believing is when the word GOD is just a word that you simply don't care who says it or why they say it
its just an idea not a word*
an idea is something that requires belief, a word is just a word
"to argue that there is no evidence you have to believe that it is possible"
Unicorns are real, disprove me
oh wait
if you believe that unicorns are real, then they are real
The argument is this:
atheism is a religion because it requires faith that there is no g!d
there is no proof that g!d exists
there is no proof that g!d does not exist
a belief in either position requires faith
lmao look a retard...
"Hey guys we should shoot up a lab researching how to stop cancer because they mentioned evolution"
Atheist: "How about you don't do that,"
you:" What a fucking liar"
I love that Steemit is different. I'm an Atheist myself. And it makes me really angry that they were deleted like that.
Yeah, the censor-ship resistant nature of the platform will be one of its biggest advantages.
They were just blocked and re-opened later, but that trolls/haters/botters had the ability to cause something like that is ridiculous.
Though when I checked just now it looks to be back up and live on the book of fake.
Ah yeah, the article was at least 10 hours old, guess they decided to get it up quick before the masses heard about what had happened. ^^
For some strange reason they haven't blocked this page :)
https://www.facebook.com/theZOA/
I still don't get why people do this, modernity has good things but also bad ones, inside our computers we have build a small and narcissistic world where if we don't agree with something instead of facing different opinions we just decide to block it, it's easier and impersonal. I wonder if the people who banned the page would have had the same courage to debate with an atheist or just trash talk one of the page creators in front of their faces. It's easy to be a lion when there's only sheep around.
Very well put!
thanks
I'm still bitter at how reddit went about taking over then delisting /r/atheism from the front page.
Oh hadn't even heard of that. :S
steemit is the end of fascistbook
That's a shame. Maybe those who believe feel threatened by those who do not, but free thinking is to be encouraged. Some of us just don't feel the need for a supreme being to explain the world or to be moral.
it isnt just atheists that zuck is shutting down
Exclusive: Facebook Has Been Regularly Shutting Down Atheist and Ex-Muslim Groups
I wonder who would focus on shutting down atheists and muslim apostates?
Saudi Prince Gains Another U.S. Media Foothold With $300M Twitter Stake
Saudi’s Deputy Crown Prince meets Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg
Revealed: Saudi Arabia warns Twitter and Facebook 'rumour-mongers' they risk DEATH PENALTY in first ruling of its kind
Great group of people to welcome to steem.
Skrt
Indeed!
And we don't shut anyone down or flag automatically just because of mass reports by random accounts or false reasons.
Holy crap! Those are my people!
No one is safe!
I need a trash icon for Facebook!
You are too good! If there is a wizard in the game it is you!
I just google. :P
But you're so efficient with it!
HaHAHA!!! Perfect!
Well done!!
Ultimately, Facebook's network effects and constant product innovation will make it VERY hard to beat. Look at Snapchat. It tried, got close, but will most probably fail. Snap Inc. stock is down 25% this morning. For alternative platforms like steemit, being at the cutting edge of social media innovation is vital.
Yeah, heard its losing double the amount than last year.
Oh well, we have the big advantage not to have to rely on ads and selling user information, all the information we place here is public to anyone anyway. ^^
You don't see Atheist flagging religious pages, why'd they even bother...
Steemit FTW
You don't ? You must live a very sheltered life. An atheist is a bemused individual who goes out of their way to mock GOD and those who follow. This same repugnant cult are responsible for a lot of violence that seems to be a inherent problem with this ilk. Good ridden to them, chalk one up for facebook.
"mock GOD and those who follow"
lmao not all of us do that
good thing I do
"An atheist is a bemused individual who goes out of their way to mock GOD and those who follow. "
an atheist is just someone who likes this thing called logic and evidence btw
Hate is on both sides. Any time we would ever use the words "us" and "them", odds are there's a lot of hate towards and between.
Both "sides" see the other as acting holier than thou, and they're right to think this, because the types that they communicate with (the extremists who want to voice their opinions in an open forum) ARE EXTREMELY ARROGANT.
Jesus Christ , Superstar...
Steemit should definitely strive to be an inclusive, rather than exclusive community!
Let's contact the admins and invite them to Steemit. I'm sure they will move to Steemit and with them their following
This is fabulous news for us here at steemit.com. Let the site grow in face of constant censorship on Facebook, Twitter, reddit etc. Those sites are not run for the people, but for an agenda, and that is the great thing about steemit, it is for us to control our thoughts, speech and our kindness with our fellow man.
I don't share atheist beliefs, but I support their liberty to express them. Facebook is entering dangerous territory and if you support their actions today, it might be your views that are censored tomorrow.
wow, that's lame