Tuesday, April 10, 2018

IN THE RIGHT-WING PARALLEL UNIVERSE, FACEBOOK IS BAD, BUT NOT FOR ANY OF THE REASONS YOU THINK IT IS

If you're a normal American, this is what you think was the point of today's Senate hearing featuring Marc Zuckerberg:
Mr. Zuckerberg’s appearance, his first before Congress, turned into something of a pointed gripe session, with senators attacking Facebook for failing to protect users’ data and stop Russian election interference, and raising questions about whether Facebook should be more heavily regulated....

Senator Richard Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, zeroed in on the central issue of the hearing, asking Mr. Zuckerberg whether he would be comfortable sharing aloud the name of the hotel he stayed in on Monday night, or whether he would be comfortable sharing the names of the people he has messaged this week.

“No. I would probably not choose to do that publicly here,” Mr. Zuckerberg said.

“I think that may be what this is all about,” Mr. Durbin said. “Your right to privacy. The limits of your right to privacy. And how much you give away in modern America in the name of, quote, connecting people around the world.”
But if you're a right-winger, this is what you think is Facebook's greatest sin:



Your hero right now is Ted Cruz.



Texas Sen. Ted Cruz ... asked several times whether Facebook is a neutral forum or whether it is simply engaging in its First Amendment right to political speech.

"There are a great many Americans who I think are deeply concerned that Facebook and other tech companies are [engaging in] a pervasive pattern of bias and political censorship," Cruz said.

Cruz said there have been instances where conservative or right-leaning thoughts or pages have been suppressed.

He mentioned posts about the IRS scandal in which former employee Lois Lerner was accused of targeting conservative groups for additional review, posts about Gov. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.), radio host Glenn Beck, and the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland.
Yes, that's the burning issue right now, in 2018 -- alleged suppression of posts about Lois Lerner, Mitt Romney, and Glenn Beck.

As for all the issues the rest of us care about -- flagrant violations of our privacy, subversion of democracy -- well, the fuss over all that is just a liberal plot, according to the right.
On [Fox's] "Outnumbered," Lisa Boothe said she thinks this entire controversy is a bunch of "baloney."

"The only reason this is an issue is because Facebook got caught up in Trump's orbit, which anyone that gets caught up in his orbit gets destroyed by the mainstream media and those on the left," Boothe said.
Really, this is what they think. Right-wingers don't seem to live on the same planet as the rest of us.

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