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.

Comments

Kinda wish I had a Facebook Account

[Hallux-F-Sinister]

So I could share this far and wide. Not because I believe it, but the very idea of an American company, (I know, I know, it’s PepsiCo, a worldwide multinational conglomerate that can’t really be called American any more than you could argue that there’s a meaningful difference between the water in the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic, since they meet and join and flow freely between the two and around the globe, kind of like PepsiCo and their money, I imagine,) but for a company based and started here, (as I think it was and don’t really care if it wasn’t, so I’m not going to even bother to look it up, because it doesn’t matter; it’s not really relevant to the point I’m making here,) to exploit the fact that an Indian Court of Law will grant their request and engage in censorship like this makes me want to exploit the fact that I am outside that court’s jurisdiction to help spread this rumor, even if it’s totally false, so as to help render it pointless for PepsiCo (which I’m now boycotting over this,) to have sought the order in the first place. (TBH though, I was already boycotting their products because most of them suck. Not really a boycott, more of a personal choice.)

THAT SAID, HOWEVER... The truth is that if your product is such a bizarre thing, so far removed from any resemblance to real actual food or food precursor ingredients you claim it’s based on and/or made out of, that people find themselves legitimately wondering if maybe it’s actually made of plastic, (it’s probably not made of plastic, though; it’s probably made of wood pulp, much the way most shelf-stable “Parmesan” (hahaha) “cheese” is,) people probably shouldn’t be eating it, and such so-called “conspiracy theories” are a legitimate part of the discussion. Unless you have someone certified as insane, by some competent authority to do so, any allegation that that person is insane and shouldn’t be listened to, (as the words “conspiracy theory” are shorthand for,) is, from a rhetorical and argumentative standpoint, known as the fallacy of “poisoning the well”. For those of you not familiar, when you resort to poisoning the well, you are effectively admitting defeat and lose the argument. That people regard an argument that includes, “well, my opponent is a well-known crazy person,” as automatically forfeiting is HOW we maintain civil discourse, and have meaningful conversations.

ALLOWING people (or PepsiCo) to get away with poisoning the well in the argument about whether or not their little plastic-like nightmare snack “foods” are or are not made of plastic REWARDS them for their misbehavior, and encourages others to do the same. Here’s another example I know will be popular on slashdot: people claiming “it’s all rigged,” and asserting any reporting that is not favorable, true or not, is “fake news!”

Claims by certain individuals pretending to be elected leaders, are a perfect example of poisoning the well. “Don’t listen to people who tell you I’m a liar, because they’re all liars,” can’t be used in a real, legitimate argument. You have to prove the truth of what you’re saying through independently verifiable evidence, and asserting that you should believe simply because he says, “believe me” just doesn’t cut it.

They really need to emphasize this more in schools... sorry, I digressed. Anyway...

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. It’s a steep slope, and to spray a teflon-based or teflon-like lubricant all over it makes for legitimate slippery-slope concerns.

Keep a sharp eye out, people... this is one of the things that happens when you don’t have your freedom to speak and express your beliefs protected in law, or you allow your government to walk all over that freedom.