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.
competition from "Streisand" Cola
Table-ized A.I.
It's not plastic...it's people!!
Momentarily, the need for the construction of new light will no longer exist.
For all its many faults, India at least has great food, much of it vegetarian. Why would you eat processed corn crap when you have so much else available?
Just don't talk shit about Lee-Enfield ammunition.
Have gnu, will travel.
Court-mandated censorship like this sets a bad & creepy precedent. If the claims are bogus, let them be settled in the traditional manner via libel lawsuits after the fact.
What if the claims are not completely bogus (not speaking to the merits of this specific instance but a hypothetical future instance)? The public should have a right to know without the imprimatur of corporate interests.
This is India where completely bogus rumors on social media have resulted in angry hordes of people burning or stoning innocents to death. I could easily imagine stores selling these products being looted and burned or the people working in their factories being killed.
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.
Somewhere between the GIzmodo article, which correctly pointed out that the Delhi court order applied only in India, and Slashdot, which implied that all of FB is blocking all these stories, something got lost.
FIRST, Pepsi Co didn't get sued.
SECOND, Pepsi Co didn't sue anyone.
THIRD,It's an INTERIM court order, like we have here in the United States, called a temporary restraining order (TRO) and will require a hearing and proof and may be extended or completely withdrawn.
FOURTH, It only applies in India, not the rest of the civilized world
You can all relax now and quit bringing the US Constitution into it.
E
We used to not be able to say things against kings and barons. Now we cannot say things against corporations or Jews.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
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.
Why would anyone name a snack food that rhymes with mercury?
That was the turning point of my life--I went from negative zero to positive zero.
...how much Pepsico spends on advertising on Facebook. Pepsico don't need a court order. Maybe they're doing it to give Facebook an excuse/cover story.
Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.
Half of the fast food I've enjoyed over the years (like twinkles) I just assumed was part or all plastic. Whatever. I say! It just passes through then, so I can't see why a rumor like that would matter. or have any effect beyond slightly increasing sales (see: Tide Pods).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Right... so this time the boot of big money legalism is only stomping on the face of our Indian friends.
This would never happen here in America. Because we have no bad laws, our leaders always put the common good before the interests of the corporate oligarchy, and our courts are not totally corrupt from top to bottom. Riiiiiight....
If you believe that one, I've got a great deal - special for you! - on the Brooklyn Bridge.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
What does this have to do with Congress?
When one person says your food-like product is made out of plastic, that might be libel.
When millions say your food-like product is made out of plastic... well, maybe it is made out of plastic.
...maybe it is made out of plastic.
...or might as well be.
If it is easily accepted that your food is made out of plastic, and that this false claim hurts your business, then it is your own fault for making something so indistinguishable from plastic.
Meanwhile many of the candies on the convenience store shelves are really made out of sand. Really. Nobody gives a shit. The claim doesnt hurt the business because they taste good, not like sand at all.
We wont get started on the claim that Taco Bell's taco meat is really saw dust. I believe the official corporate stance on the matter was something like "No, it is only 70% saw dust!"
"His name was James Damore."
This is India where completely bogus rumors on social media have resulted in angry hordes of people burning or stoning innocents to death. I could easily imagine stores selling these products being looted and burned or the people working in their factories being killed.
Pikers - This is America where bogus rumors spread by social media resulted in the election a 70 year old reality TV star as our President. The death and destruction this will cause could potentially be of Biblical proportions.
The fact that the theories are blocked only draws attention to them and will inevitably recruit more people to believe them...
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
Back in 2001 or so I was told Taco Bell's ground beef was not meat, but a paste. I responded with: "Wow that's some good paste then I guess."
Years later I saw the lawsuit claiming their beef was 11% meat and I was surprised it had SO MUCH meat in it.
... so it's good to panic about unscientific crap when it's about "GMO", but it's bad to panic about unscientific crap when it's something about plastic food in India, and censorship is good if it's about Republicans or Indian plastic food, but bad if it's about anything else ...
How dya all keep up with this ever shifting set of rules?
Personally, if I were running a social network faced with this kind of crap from an Orwellian corporation with no sense of humor, I'd simply respond to them along these lines: "Alright. You want us to block critical comments about one of your brands? No problem -- but we can't actually afford to manually block every single post that's critical of your products... so this is going to have to be a keyword block. And just so you're aware: because of the way in which a keyword blocking feature operates, that likely means that all posts about your product are potentially subject to being blocked, real or fake."
I would then proceed to simply block the keyword "Kurkure."
And a successful one, at that.
Check your premises.
Must be true if they're trying to hide it...
Really seriously :
Environmentally-conscious European companies are actually replacing plastic packaging material (expanded polystyrene foam peanuts) with biodegradable packaging material such as corn starch packing peanuts - basically unflavored corn puffs.
(Examples of shops: Conrad, Lush, etc.)
So yeah, plastic and corn puffs *ARE* mutually interchangeable indeed :-D
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
What happens when they realize the truth of how poisonous this shit actually is? Plastic is harmless...refined flour and sugar...not so much.
I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
All of my favorite foods are vegetarians as well.
...free range Vegetarians, I hope ?
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
"This is India where completely bogus rumors on social media have resulted in angry hordes of people burning or stoning innocents to death."
Not just India. same exact thing happened in Myanmar. I'm sure it has happened elsewhere but those other countries don't have a good flow of information and facebook undoubtedly keeps a tight lid on it.
I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
Agreed. Won't stop anytime soon. Next president? Roll the fucking dice.
I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
Court-mandated censorship like this sets a bad & creepy precedent. If the claims are bogus, let them be settled in the traditional manner via libel lawsuits after the fact.
I have no idea how precedent works in India's judicial system, but in the US system, this is already a possibility. If a company believes that no reasonable amount of money would adequately compensate them, such as permanent damage to the company's reputation, then they can ask a judge for an injunction against whomever is harming them. It's up to the judge to decide if the damage to the company outweighs the harm that would almost certainly be done by restricting the behavior of the other party.
Sure but Melamine is in no way plastic, and is not inert in the way plastic is (because it's mimicking as something else). Good wholesome plastic is like someone riding by on a bicycle, tipping their hat to you and saying "Good day sir!" as they ride along never to be seen again.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Which false rumor resulted in a Hillary Clinton voter voting for Trump?
I was going to vote for socialism until I took a Russian meme to the feed.
Work Safe Porn
If you had read the actual article, (or even the damn summary) you might have realized that many of the posts were SATIRE!
That's how shitposting works. Make the lie entertaining, and people will spread it just because it makes them smile. Then once people have heard the story three hundred times in their feed, it starts to feel true even if their logic is telling them it's not.
In a free country we allow the truth to replace the falsehoods.
When have you ever seen that happen before the damage was done?
Nope, no sig
They'll just pay some more Harvard professors to blame it on black colored socks.
When millions say your food-like product is made out of plastic... well, maybe it is made out of plastic.
What a remarkable universe you live in where a lie told a million times about a factual matter becomes fact. Here in the universe where Earth is, we have a saying. "Forty million Frenchmen can be wrong." Google it if you don't recognize it.
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.
This could be gotten around easily enough in two ways I can think of right off the top of my head. First, through the anonymizing power of the internet, and second, by prepending the words, "I think" to the allegation. Not much anyone can do about that, even in a place where there are laws concerning libel, since I'd be expressing an opinion (protected,) rather than fact, (which I'd have to back up with some sort of evidence). But I've not actually promulgated any such rumor, and I don't have a Facebook account with which to do so, either here or in India, so it's kind of a moot point. I was just grumbling at length about how messed up the censorship is, and no one forced you to read the post, though I appreciate that you took the time to do so.
When I apologize for digression, (since I digress quite a bit, if you've read my other posts, you'd probably have picked up on that,) you know it's going to be bad, with even me realizing I'm doing it. I know I have a tendency to ramble, so thanks for taking the time to read what I wrote. I know these days there are many demands for peoples' time and it seems like there are never enough hours in a day and...
Damn it, I'm doing it again. Sorry. :) Thanks for reading though. Seriously.
Our reign has gone on long enough. Indeed. Summon the meteors.