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Facebook Now Deletes Posts That Financially Endanger, Trick People (techcrunch.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: It's not just inciting violence, threats and hate speech that will get Facebook to remove posts by you or your least favorite troll. Endangering someone financially, not just physically, or tricking them to earn a profit are now also strictly prohibited. Facebook today spelled out its policy with more clarity in hopes of establishing a transparent set of rules it can point to when it enforces its policy in the future. "We do not, for example, allow content that could physically or financially endanger people, that intimidates people through hateful language, or that aims to profit by tricking people using Facebook," its VP of policy Richard Allen published today. Web searches show this is the first time Facebook has used that language regarding financial attacks.
Normalization of censorship - done by the big tech mega corp.
If Facebook is promoting a certain candidate or party, then it can run afoul of campaign finance laws. If it is shown they are acting in a political manner, they open themselves up to being prosecuted for illegal contributions. If they are running ads, for the benefit of political entities it is clear cut that they are making in-kind contributions to the political entity. If they are suppressing one side of political speak it is less clear cut, but the same argument could be made. How much is exclusive advertising worth? The value in the commercial world is real. A bank could sign and exclusive contract with the local newspaper to be the only bank that runs ads in the newspaper. This generally requires significantly more money than a normal ad buy, since the newspaper is forgoing the opportunity to receive ads from competing banks.