Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for April 26, 2022

Facebook is not a news site. It’s where people gossip and BS.

Now Twitter and Elon will fix all the problems.

same problems, different delivery systems…

You can post stuff on Facebook for free. If multiple lawsuits were filed against Facebook over user content, then Facebook would shut down user content. That might be why Zuckerberg is pushing virtual reality. He may see that Facebook is doomed. This website has to worry about the same thing.

That’s actually an interesting thought. Our local paper is now completely written by stringers. There still is editorial oversight, but they could fire the editor and then it would be entirely “other people” writing… and perhaps the company that owns that (and dozens of other) papers could argue that they’re just supplying a platform… Hmm.

As much as I dislike Facebook, I agree with the point. Facebook shouldn’t be any more responsible for what people send through it than the post office is responsible for what people send in the mail.

It isn’t just a Facebook problem. Almost nothing anyone posts anywhere on the internet is vetted for accuracy.

Everything posted to social media should be required to have the following disclaimer added in big lettering:

WARNING: NONE OF THIS IS VERIFIED. IT IS ONLY OPINION. DO NOT CONFUSE WITH FACTS OR NEWS.

Maybe I will add this to all of my posts from now on.

Nah.

Can we hold facebook responsible for all the targeted scam ads?

Yes! Pastis’s vendetta against social media continues! Good luck, dude!

So, someone uses the phone (old style 70’s phone) to prank call, make an obscene or threatening call …and Ma Bell is responsible?The other difference is real time vs planned and prepared media. Even radio has enough lead time (the ten sec delay) to exercise due diligence, to a degree.

Newspapers’ content is determined by editors who report to management.

Facebook’s content is censored by “editors” who report to management.

There’s a difference, but it’s a matter of degree, not either / or.

Wikipedia is a good source for some info but it has some wrong information as well!

On Facebook, if anybody doesn’t like what you said for any reason whatsoever they complain and you can’t use any account feature for 30 days.

I find that rather asinine. So I left.

My sons tell me that ‘only old people are on facebook’.

If it doesn’t match your beliefs then you will not read it.

Facebook recently posted a request on my FB page. It requested I take their survey. After exploring the request, I agreed. Most of the questions wanted my opinion about my view of their social responsibility for everyone’s postings. If you have a fb page, have you seen this request?

I can’t tell which news is fake and which is real.

What’s a newspaper? :-)

The difference being that nothing published in a newspaper was put there randomly. The publisher and editor chose to publish the content. Twitter is more like the free bulletin board where anyone can post.

Twitter is going to be the next great wasteland!! Truth Social is definitely doomed now as Twitter will take up the slack!!

An’ that’s why I seriously curtailed my FB activity, clowns like Friedbird waterpistol, patrick murphy, loony squiggles, montana bill, rikitikirussianbot, klemubermoron, ammosexuallydysfunctional, opspecial ed, JAwholikesbluegrass, jane b thinkin’ VERY ignorantlee, 60 rottenbuzzardbrains adhered to a scorching sidewalk, sammy ugly avatar, leonarddonk have unfettered access to it……………Clownland?:

Blame Section 230

Actually – there are two classifications of content. There is curated content (newspaper) where the material is vetted. They are responsible for what they post because it goes through a vetting process. Sites like Facebook are not liable for what is posted specifically because they say they are not curating content – they allow people to freely post. They cannot be held responsible for what people post because they are supposed to be an open forum. They can remove actual illegal content, but should allow everyone to post apart from that.

The problem is the supposed “open forums” actually curate content and restrict based on their own views and opinions. They want their cake and eat it too. They want the legal immunity of an open forum as well as the ability to curate ideas they don’t like.

Open debate is the key to a healthy society. If you have fact checkers pre-determining what is misinformation you end up loosing free speech and stifle dialog and discussion. We need to be able to disagree, debate, and tear apart bad ideas. The truly terrifying part is that you are giving that ability over to someone who could misuse it. You may agree with the fact checkers today, but what happens tomorrow when the people in power change and suddenly what you consider truth is being banned?

Someone has trouble distinguishing between the purpose of newspapers and social media.

The wise ass on the hill, offered NO solution to the misinformed and the sites who provide lies and conspiracy theories…..so much for being a wise ass…..

Im

Im still worried about rats halitosis. Pastis has tricks like paris

With Musk in charge of twitter, I expect a lot more of this type of thing from him. Maybe he’s just trying to arrange things so that it’s twitter that is found at fault and pays the penalties for libel rather than from his own personal wealth: https://apnews.com/article/thailand-north-america-lawsuits-international-soccer-courts-4f4ddea4fa0c43ae984447fae85cf644

But the news can say that “an anonymous source said” something they know to be a lie and they are not in trouble.

That is basically where Facebook is. They are not saying “X”. They are saying “someone else said X”

i would never rely on one or even two news sources

When do we meet “The Dumb Ass Who Lives underground”?

Pig is on to something. He really is smarter than we all think.

Section 230 would disagree with this. Not defending the utter, stupid hellpit that is Facebook, but it’s not how things work. Protection of the content of online services is a double-edged sword.

Is the first panel true? Serious question looking for honest responses. I know that the newspaper is held responsible if they write something false or misleading. But if I send in a false and misleading piece to the Letters to the Editors column, is the newspaper held responsible? I thought that that was the whole reason that you couldn’t hold Facebook et al responsible… they are providing a platform, but not the content, as opposed to a newspaper, that is dedicated to providing content.

So do I.

Folks who provide articles in newspaper work for paper. Whereas folks on Facebook do not… Is that the same thing?

Ask Sarah Palin how easy it is to hold a newspaper accountable for false or misleading content.

How many people get their wisdom from the comics or from a wise a__ on a hill? Just spotted another problem.

Facebook posts are not worth the paper they are printed on.

Are you near Western New York? Mr. Pastis will be appearing in the Buffalo area Friday evening. Announcement in PBS in the Buffalo News.

Does the Wise Ass get Facebook via wireless?

When a certain prominent individual said, a few years ago, that ‘fake news is the enemy’, the reaction among news organizations was ’he’s talking about us’. I laughed and laughed, and am still laughing of how they unwittingly acknowledged their own dishonesty.

Thereupon, no crazy POTUS of late.

Unfortunately, few people have developed any independent critical thinking skills, and have intelligence enough to look at MULTIPLE sources of information, including (and maybe especially citizen journalist on-scene reporting), and be able to DECIDE FOR THEMSELVES what is most likely the truth on any given matter. Otherwise, you just have arrogant mindless people parroting mainstream news, or on the other end of the spectrum, just somebody making up stuff. I actually appreciate Musk for buying Twitter, and the fact he just tweeted that he wants his biggest critics to continue to stay and tweet there. Dialog, even if it gets heated, hopefully not just name-calling, is a good way to get to the truth of any given topic. Censorship always discourages dialog, and leads to only hearing propaganda. We have to allow for people to make up their own minds, and not let some “elite” people tell them what to think.

Newspapers and the “traditional” media pay the people who write. Social media doesn’t.

Actually, nobody gets their news from Facebook; they get their daily dose of BS.

Sorry Pig – your revelation is a few years too late.

That’s a feature, not a bug.

There are a lot of problems.

And the Wise Ass is not so wise, IMO, that being one of them….

Does the person on Facebook work for Facebook?

kind of a false analogy. look, i hate fb as much as anyone but if you want to put it in terms of a “newspaper,” fb is the “letters to the editor section.” anyone can write one with their own opinion. reporters are paid professionals & newspapers are sources of official record. fb is just people throwing stuff out there.

This is a false equivalence. In the newspaper case, the reporter works for the newspaper. In the second case, the person does not work for facebook. It’s a fairly simply difference. It’s facebook’s private property to do with as they please, and you are on their private property. Ethics and fomenting violence and hatred are totally different, and if they have signs on their private property telling you what you can’t do on their private property, then they can kick you off their private property.

It’s worse — the newspaper may be responsible, but they’ll never admit they were wrong, or they’ll print a small notice somewhere after the Help Wanted ads.

good point

This is simply not true. Thanks to the much-maligned S230, the same rules apply to newspapers and Facebook. Newspapers and FB face exactly the same liability for user generated content. If a newspaper publishes a “letter to the editor” that contains false and defamatory content, then the liability falls on the letter writer, not the newspaper, exactly the same as FB. If you’re going to criticize social media, at least try to be honest and get your facts straight.

Blaming Facebook is like blaming convenience store at which you bought the newspaper. FB isn’t publishing posts like a newspaper is publishing articles. This is silly