Is Facebook a Publisher? In Public it Says No, But in Court it Says Yes (theguardian.com)

From a report: Facebook has long had the same public response when questioned about its disruption of the news industry: it is a tech platform, not a publisher or a media company. But in a small courtroom in California's Redwood City on Monday, attorneys for the social media company presented a different message from the one executives have made to Congress, in interviews and in speeches: Facebook, they repeatedly argued, is a publisher, and a company that makes editorial decisions, which are protected by the first amendment. The contradictory claim is Facebook's latest tactic against a high-profile lawsuit, exposing a growing tension for the Silicon Valley corporation, which has long presented itself as neutral platform that does not have traditional journalistic responsibilities.

The suit, filed by an app startup, alleges that Mark Zuckerberg developed a "malicious and fraudulent scheme" to exploit users' personal data and force rival companies out of business. Facebook, meanwhile, is arguing that its decisions about "what not to publish" should be protected because it is a "publisher." In court, Sonal Mehta, a lawyer for Facebook, even drew comparison with traditional media: "The publisher discretion is a free speech right irrespective of what technological means is used. A newspaper has a publisher function whether they are doing it on their website, in a printed copy or through the news alerts." [...] Facebook spokespeople declined to answer questions about its insistence outside of court that it is not a publisher or media entity.

Comments

Yes.

[duke_cheetah2003]

Every website is a publication. Anyone running a website that publishes things for others is therefore a publisher.

Facebook can say whatever they want to the public, doesn't change what they and every other website is. A publication. That's the whole flippin' point of making a website. To get others to look at it. Exactly the same reason to make a book, flier, leaflet, magazine, newspaper... to get people to look at it. Same thing.

Let's take an interesting Hollywood example. Pick any of your choice, the toy of interest is the same, the newspaper of the future (Minority Report, Harry Potter) that has moving pictures, and possibly even speaks to you. Publication. Website is the same flippin' thing.

Re: Yes.

[Z00L00K]

If it is a publication it is also to be held responsible for anything published there.

Gift

[tsa]

Facebook. The gift that keeps on taking.

Re:Corporations are people...

[youngone]

There's a simple term for what you're describing: Oligarchy.
Calling it "Socialism" is just giving in to the endless propaganda you are swamped by in the US which tells you that Socialism is the worst thing you could possibly have, and the only good kind of government is the one you live under. (Land of the free and the home of the brave anyone?)
I know it's hard to look past the propaganda, but if you can you might see your world as it really is.

Lyin' under oath?

[Sebby]

It'll be interesting to see in future court action against them if they try to flip the other way, and then have the prosecution ask which version is true, and if they've lied under oath.

Re:Dear poofters

[MightyMartian]

It's also the day you should be thanking France, because without French support, you'd probably be part of Canada, and the national holiday would have been four days ago.

Re:I don't see the problem

[acoustix]

In court, they say [what ought to be] the truth. In public, they are completely permitted to lie. I do believe Jerry Springer said it best, a very long time ago.

The problem is the CEO said the opposite in his testimony to Congress. So they have committed perjury in one of these venues.

Editorial decisions

[DrYak]

It's at the "editorial decisions, which are protected by the first amendment" level that it gets more messy.

From that point of view, Facebook isn't a newspaper, it's a tabloid.

Whereas newspaper will at least try to throw some considerations about informing their readership, and about journalistic integrity (checking source, doing full analysis, etc.) in whatever mix of reasons (besides advertisement money) leads them to a certain editorial decision, tabloids will just print whatever crap (including fabricated crap) as long as it attracts buyers.

Facebook is the same. There are not even human reviewing the system and taking actual "editorial decisions" (in the classical meaning of this term). There are only machine learning algorithms and other neural nets which are simply learning whatever gets the most clicks and which ever content keeps people the longest on facebook (where Mark Zuckerberg can earn lots of money by selling their eyeballs to advertisers and their personal data to whoever pays the most).

Which eventually (due to how human psychology works *) leads to people being kept in small bubble, where they get constantly presented with whatever crackpot conspiracy theory** is the most popular in the corresponding echo-chamber.

So basically, mindless tabloids, except Facebook is driven entirely by statistics, guaranteed human-free.

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* : fear is the best drive for attention. It had some evolutionary advantage (an animal that runs away more easily is less likely to get eaten by a predator), but has the modern disadvantage that exaggerated fear-mongering is the best media strategy. See numerous studies about fear and violence on TV.

** : Which in turn can easily be abused by any (e.g.: russian, etc.) troll wanting to sow discord and infighting by throwing oil into the flame-war, and then profit from the resulting mayhem. See controversies surrounding the impact of facebook ion US' elections.