Slashdot Mirror
Facebook Forced To Block 20,000 Posts About Snack Food Conspiracy After PepsiCo Sues, Says Report (gizmodo.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: There is a rumor that Kurkure, a corn puff product developed by [Pepsico] in India, is made of plastic. The conspiracy theory naturally thrived online, where people posted mocking videos and posts questioning whether the snack contained plastic. In response, PepsiCo obtained an interim order from the Delhi High Court to block all references to this conspiracy theory online in the country, MediaNama reports. Hundreds of posts claiming that Kurkure contains plastic have already been blocked across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, according to LiveMint, and the court order requires social networks to continue to block such posts. According to MediaNama, PepsiCo petitioned for 3412 Facebook links, 20244 Facebook posts, 242 YouTube videos, six Instagram links, and 562 tweets to be removed, a request the court has granted. PepsiCo's argument is that these rumors are untrue and defame the brand -- though it's evident that a number of the posts are satirical in tone, poking fun at the rumor rather than earnestly trying to spread misinformation.
coke is much better anyway
Seriously, India needs to be kicked off the internet till it gets its shit together. When one tweet is all it takes to assemble a religious flash rape mob, something is really wrong.
sorry, I digressed. Anyway...
Your entire rant is so filled with digressions that it is painful to read. But finally you seem to be trying to make a point ...
For any government, especially one like India's, (let's not forget they style themselves as "the world's largest democracy,") to reach its giant, government hand into the conversation and pluck voices out of it and silence them on PepsiCo's behalf is straight-up bullshit.
Even when you actually get around to trying to make a point you insert needless digression. But anyway ... it is not bullshit. Freedom of speech does not mean you have the inalienable right to spout deliberate lies intended to cause others harm. It's called either libel or slander, and just because PepsiCo is a multinational company doesn't mean you can try to damage them by lying about their products. You can express your opinion ("this tastes like plastic") but not post lies about it ("it's made of plastic"). This is case law, even in the country of the First Amendment.
Swallowing anything that your body can't break down is generally not very good for you. Plastic, metal and anything it can't really process might eventually come out, or it might not. And while it's in there you would have to have a PhD to speculate about what kind of interactions it might have with your body and the other food, your gut bacteria, and of course the dye and other crap they put in there to make it more appealing to you.
I guess these rumours are more powerful in places like India where there is less enforcement of food safety standards. In the west we are used to just assuming anything on a supermarket shelf or restaurant menu is safe and has been tested and monitored. Having said that we did have the horse meat scandal, which is a shame because I actually liked the horse meat.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC