In light of the MeWe import tool just announced, I'm curious if this changes anyone's thinking re: MeWe being a...
In light of the MeWe import tool just announced, I'm curious if this changes anyone's thinking re: MeWe being a Nazi/alt-right/deplorables communications and mobilization hub?
If this tool pulls in great numbers of unsuspecting G+ refugees - and MeWe gets more attention in the tech press - anyway to use that attention to shame Mewe for providing nourishment and shelter for Nazis and alt-right terrorists?
I'm guessing the last thing Mark Weaslestein wants if a bunch of negative press and news of thousands of people leaving.
I have an account so that I can right them and tell them why I'm deleting my account (hint: zero effort to curb [read that how you want] Nazis and extreme right bigots and supremacists.)
At the same time (when I delete my account), I plan on letting Engadget et cetera know why I quit Mewe - providing source materials already collected (thx Edward Morbius for the Trip Report and others for their reporting - although I'll have to put in some work to collect all those materials together...)
20 or 30 people doing this in concert could bring the facts to the attention of tech press and generate enough buzz to potentially deny comms resources to Nazis.
When money is involved, we can shame companies into doing the right thing. Sometimes. Depends on how much of a Libertarian/Randian fundamentalist Weinstein is. Hoping he likes money more than so called "free speech" absolutism (which is really just a euphemistic way for someone to say "I support hate speech and don't care if intolerant fuckwits silence tolerant accepting people.)
If this tool pulls in great numbers of unsuspecting G+ refugees - and MeWe gets more attention in the tech press - anyway to use that attention to shame Mewe for providing nourishment and shelter for Nazis and alt-right terrorists?
I'm guessing the last thing Mark Weaslestein wants if a bunch of negative press and news of thousands of people leaving.
I have an account so that I can right them and tell them why I'm deleting my account (hint: zero effort to curb [read that how you want] Nazis and extreme right bigots and supremacists.)
At the same time (when I delete my account), I plan on letting Engadget et cetera know why I quit Mewe - providing source materials already collected (thx Edward Morbius for the Trip Report and others for their reporting - although I'll have to put in some work to collect all those materials together...)
20 or 30 people doing this in concert could bring the facts to the attention of tech press and generate enough buzz to potentially deny comms resources to Nazis.
When money is involved, we can shame companies into doing the right thing. Sometimes. Depends on how much of a Libertarian/Randian fundamentalist Weinstein is. Hoping he likes money more than so called "free speech" absolutism (which is really just a euphemistic way for someone to say "I support hate speech and don't care if intolerant fuckwits silence tolerant accepting people.)
Honestly, I don't know where all this nazis on mewe stuff is coming from. I have an account over there. I've run into a few trolls, but you just block them. No big. And you get to see the profiles of people who want to contact you. If it's someone you don't know, and you don't like what you see on their profile, you have the options to deny the invite or block them. Again, no big.
ReplyDeleteI agree Heather Hult Ive veen there since October and all ive seen is the usual Nigerian scam artists and a few sex bots... Report and block just like Google. I have yet to see a nazi or nazi sympathizer. Im sure theyre there but they clearly stay in theur little corner of their own group/community.
ReplyDeleteI assist in the MeWe HELP Community where today while assisting someone finding a specific interest, there were many liberal leaning groups and pages as well as LGBT communities.
I speak for myself but it is more diverse in its people than ANY of the seemingly one-sided alternate platforms. Im sorry people are so in hate with MeWe.
Mia Dees for me, I neither love nor hate it. I feel kind of neutral. But many of my friends are there, so that makes it somewhat bearable. I'm mainly using it as a place holder, to see if something better comes along.
ReplyDeletewe go to MeWe to see the friends we won't much longer see here
ReplyDeleteif we who don't want to share space with Nazis or any other political bias, we don't (just like here)
if we move en masse enough of those whose political bias we agree with, we can get together as a greater force to dilute those we don't
Heather Hult Just because you don't see it doesn't mean that MeWe isn't providing a safe haven for Nazis and extreme right wing bigots to organize - to give them a platform from which to launch trolling and campaigns of hate.
ReplyDeleteMewe is turning a blind eye to the problem.
I've started to like the Mewe phone app but I've already had a couple of run-ins with alt-right apologist on my political public posts.
I also followed a BBC news feed and those Mewe posts are littered with Nazi apologist making comments (using the n-word and other overtly racists comments) and there is no way to specifically report hate speech - it's not one of the reportable categories. That is telling.
You can ignore it you want to, but the problem is real.
See: Mewe - A Trip Report and scroll down to the Political Groups section
old.reddit.com - MeWe: A trip report
Heather Hult Likewise. I must say though, since October they have catered to G+ migrants by adding improving features to create more comfortable place. They continue to do so. In the pipeline to come next week is sharing improvement of a post that mimics the way gplus does;
ReplyDeletegiving credit to the original post. Also, they are in discussion on implementing some API accesses to enable " global posting", outside the " closed garden"
They want to do it without compromising the security they campaign on. 👍✌💃
Thom Thomas perhaps but that said, Diaspora pods cater and provide safe haven to the extreme left and turn a blind eye to all the "hate" speech over on that end. Providing a safe haven for the anti government , the proud abortionists and anti vaxxers. At least theres a variety of topics and posts including LGBT COMMUNITIES on MeWe not just an overwhelming political news stories like the others.
ReplyDeleteThom Thomas Mia Dees as I said, I'll stay...for the moment.
ReplyDeleteThat being said Thom Thomas , don't ever question me about who I support. I'll happily run the the alt right into the ground if given half a chance.
And I have...more then once.
This conversation might help too: plus.google.com - On the MeWe front: We have an answer about the Nazi haven issue and it's not...
ReplyDeleteThom Thomas as was pointed out, both in that article, and by me, you pick and choose who you contact.
ReplyDeleteDo I think it's right that they have nazi scum there? No.
But until I can find someplace 100% safe from that trash, where my friends and I can gather, there aren't a ton of options out here...no matter what anyone says.
Mia Dees Diaspora isn't funded by venture capital. Nazi's have to pay for their own infrastructure.
ReplyDeleteI still have my account. I like the Mewe phone app - and the web interface, while busy, is tolerable.
If I do delete my account, it will be because Mewe did little to nothing about providing infrastructure to white supremacist, Nazis and other right wing extremist that believe it is okay to terrorize my friends and family.
Heather Hult - no place is safe. What really bothers me about Mewe is that at the moment, they seem to be ignoring the fact that they have a Nazi cesspool problem. Like I said, I've already had run-ins with them on BBC public posts.
There are also reports of alt-right trolls targeting more liberal and moderate political people that are posting publicly on Mewe and gaming the inappropriate post reporting tool to get people suspended or banned algorithmically.
The fact that there is no sexual harassment or hate speech category to select when reporting inappropriate posts/comments tells me that Mewe does not think those are legitimate concerns.
This is a common point of view for Silicon Valley Brogrammer libertarian types - the same types of guys that end up being on 4chan and in MRA groups/GamerGate and those Reddit Trump troll army mofos.
In my experience, MeWe has fewer Nazis than Google+, and Terms of Service that disallow hate speech.
ReplyDeleteBrian Holt Hawthorne have you taken an inventory of political groups?
ReplyDeleteIf MeWe was serious about their Terms of Service why do they allow all the Nazi and white supremacists groups with dog whistle Nazi jargon in the descriptions?! It's like they aren't even trying. The Nazis are in plain view advertising exactly what they are and MeWe does nothing.
Just because you bury your head in the sand and don't see them doesn't mean they aren't there.
From comments on a public post of a BBC article - a tiny taste:https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/d-I_2XGMhfL1QNyXnIcFprM2eAgxIQ8SGOf_qbOSTwER7x5HAzZILR4EetpbToi4S4-2t2dEJAk7EJv-vDbJMrKGjN9YshoPxTB0=s0
ReplyDeleteFrom comments on a public post of a BBC article - a tiny taste:https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/SFTHFIxRRUj2NPXL8Mnuv5G1h8vaOtBavjn32jUiYXDI96K6Xigc1q4feMI9WT_GxkhH4AeeF_akUcMhkRj2KhWARL5EGuJzVZCT=s0
ReplyDeleteFrom comments on a public post of a BBC article - a tiny taste:https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_gsRgEimXUKxTJKA9dP8KLdWE0q0PnKvr_KtJzkRsqR2sJe-Rpc7teBmid5rqu-E0VCNiOOBlQ4M5-keH1tycqQ9v-Pdl6ReHIVb=s0
ReplyDeleteFrom comments on a public post of a BBC article - a tiny taste:https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/bgpLioyXQQ1hAm3Dco-vPtsAbKyuIAntxP_8w06sG0_1SgRU9BmHCMYbfevva-bvVtjZCVUhIxt1bgUywiEUqwxrxwsvxLwdR4cl=s0
ReplyDeleteFrom comments on a public post of a BBC article - a tiny taste:https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ph7Rn9nzL-kx33eNE0PGBe5Fcgrbkz4Kvi6M1Mm8iJ2R4VUq72hhD7r6Wl5VIV7ZPAN5BW-Zc4DSrM92O1tWmJiYlg0ubLTCgAHx=s0
ReplyDeleteFrom comments on a public post of a BBC article - a tiny taste:https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/eC7U3ViFZSYjz7yo0oPyErrc_BPvPp8KUfb0K1DN56ClbN1N1Gt0ykt9jCZafPXaMTfmDd_5b9uI3Nwqr8CpJDxoncGBv0m41hhl=s0
ReplyDeleteFrom comments on a public post of a BBC article - a tiny taste:https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/U1vVq2kBT2ll7wpKQ8wF3ecssmMvsbp-RXaf_L-MP9zG93gqtJTn_n2JczpDAYKNH7778JdvY9VhAAkYQ8uNzS5q96RWaBU8AMiQ=s0
ReplyDeleteFrom comments on a public post of a BBC article - a tiny taste:https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/xb6pW68gZnjPVs-NSbMl6g_R6G_sHnGUiUxCvFLlod4JinFMX14uPOG4iD2Q4Sy9hTLxOG68LJEAo3dKHgiMitCsb5VKECiCy10y=s0
ReplyDeleteFrom comments on a public post of a BBC article - a tiny taste:https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/uKzpCisiLXgiatf6sbNUsmyoM_WJloU6aFnSV8WCbxper7v0AGZjKWh6L7zo5Hf52NFTYwcNgqaJ7-cSXpRRpoyYFbMlRLh2l-Ni=s0
ReplyDeleteFrom comments on a public post of a BBC article - a tiny taste:https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/xT9q8J6FkrzlZpHwv9Ly73GX_kLJ1Giz3MsOnvLE5BMXlgYoqLPgZeDrcmRyo6EIinysIdPJ4e2RDseMXgvIW69EhFV3_S9-a7OS=s0
ReplyDeleteFrom comments on a public post of a BBC article - a tiny taste:https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/vcRu9NuYNFp51Yjzb2_hdRjnag1e6U72VA6EUCNUlc3TpvGfqmXRP-McWbfVN8uyoDL6A6dEP7LHCpilmsL7BzGcdfjBHJFVonH_=s0
ReplyDeleteFrom comments on a public post of a BBC article - a tiny taste:https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/6LajYa-hFAox8eeYiHxJgoKf_nYBmK2lvhU_Lx6WEVxyecf6z08BPtTPnndRVDn5qpX4bBpMi8nIGpp3-JAAdCDy1-fkh2IaUywf=s0
ReplyDeleteFrom comments on a public post of a BBC article - a tiny taste:https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/WUENOQRhS9-QBpiVJD4psKgvgvs9WippjPpveQtiAuuCj1JGjXG4FIX2jN0AmXc2zDcmGRovTHPu-G-t5juMX6DC79Fjjo7imWsl=s0
ReplyDeleteFrom comments on a public post of a BBC article - a tiny taste:https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/jloes1qTFI5NWSx9TsKm2iQ74qqdT0NrOMgAPhWMQb33yCahTi6mpBw85aPikoMrGxb9dHrJ56TmfZ0Ydro7gYqsO607JeWAqBTX=s0
ReplyDeleteFrom comments on a public post of a BBC article - a tiny taste:https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/v4EBbhXM7kntN1bMTkt5ibaoqa3YTptqwDj22kjT6wvz0IaE0PvuuJXTLvyxpEEkp8dFQb6Av36lDQh14dzOfLH5YHHgKF_BQlu_=s0
ReplyDeleteFrom comments on a public post of a BBC article - a tiny taste:https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/qYBweDKzSM_tDeK5KT7jF5KEd_vvXjtnSmgYWISBOt7oWlOjbxeVWqDFaODiM3HNw77fKAlGRS_-yuTxdcc6HP0mX-vnSAzv8woh=s0
ReplyDeleteFrom comments on a public post of a BBC article - a tiny taste:https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Kwt7hab_rRCI0CmYYWcB7ZF7fPd1Q2xp0_EniOnUETzbU9-RIP1L7aDVRoPLl_XExPnoXxKFKQpv6a6KSN2saAIhVzlk923H6MjW=s0
ReplyDeleteFrom comments on a public post of a BBC article - a tiny taste:https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/xfYNrAOunstilk2abyRlgAdkU2CcFffYaQgFhc-ePh7o03xlwp_Uho1C1mpDwh6UAywjeZTOixoL8VLOq6XQmkc3zoXUSKSlkQtI=s0
ReplyDeleteFrom comments on a public post of a BBC article - a tiny taste:https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/QwbdhG6andZYe26hIosP6Dh-15rpROSHGfSjBaR3oK1PpP2w967XP31A3C2aVpsENRTXDtXfdUTR-3_HleDdPbZDQ9rApsXLel8Z=s0
ReplyDeleteFrom comments on a public post of a BBC article - a tiny taste:https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/NJbq1GmEM8uh0ejlo2vOC2kjgMX5mDcB-2heeT7nWNqBXbHI7Ve3MhqmzyFTWEekhbMvKhcQDa5n_ZhtNL9uktHZbMsOIZQOVAhT=s0
ReplyDeleteThom Thomas Google, with their billions of dollars and thousands of employees were unable to rid Google+ of Nazi groups and Nazi users. You will have to forgive me for cutting the 30 employees at MeWe a little slack for not having succeeded in a year what Google failed to accomplish in nearly eight years.
ReplyDeleteBrian Holt Hawthorne Google at least tried. My point is that MeWe isn't even trying and that is a conscious choice
ReplyDeleteThom Thomas That is blatantly false. MeWe has been taking down Groups and accounts that engage in hate speech or otherwise violate their TOS. They are reliant on people the report the violations, and then have limited staff to review all the reports.
ReplyDeleteWhat evidence do you have that they aren’t trying?
Heather Hult The Nazi, antivaxxer, conspiracy-theory, woo, white-nationalist, and other distinct and unbalanced bias of MeWe are patently evident and easily found with even casual exploration.
ReplyDeleteWhen I began writing the Trip Report Thom Thomas has linked, I simply wanted to flesh out some information on a site/platform that had ... been mentioned with exceeding frequency but almost equally prominent vagueness, though the site's commitment to free speech was prominently mentioned.
Given that content isn't visible without making an account, I created one, and started taking notes, beginning with a basic outline of the business and its principals, then policies and self-descriptions, and a rough assessment of its size -- there are on the order of a million registered users, best I can tell, but the largest groups have fewer than 20,000 members. This is a small fraction of G+ membership or activity.
It wasn't until I started looking at the open groups that I started getting some idea that things were wonky, and the more I looked, the wonkier they got.
The first listed groups for "Activism" are QAnon+++ (2,572), PATRIOT PREPPERS USA (2,430), Deplorables Republic (2,48), The War Drummer (1,898), Patriots for a United America. (1894), Anonymous (1,700). For Alternative Energy: Reiki, Crystals, and alternative healing (2,114), 💜Starseeds & Empaths💜 (345), Living in Colour (365)
Under Education: Q-Anon Patriots (1,616), InfoWars.com (1,217), Constitutional Liberty for All (907), Prepping, Homesteads skills and Community (887), Shamanic Community (756), Truther Talk (665).
For Fraternities: Freemasonry (1072), Brotherhood of the Blade (313), Proud Boys Canada (74). That last is a white nationalist organisation, and only one of several Proud Boys chapters represented on the site.
The largest History group is 9/11, False Flags, & NWO Truth (1,872).
For Self-Directed Learning we have, again, the largest listed groups: Exposing the Matrix of Lies (997), WAKE THE FUCK UP (474), Wake the Fuck Up. The Next Dimension (287). WTFU when SHTF (126).
And among the 403 political groups listed publicly, an overwhelming right-wing to alt-right stance. Even if you see nothing wrong with the political views, the fact is that this is not at all representative of overall political views within the US. The site has, and caters to, an extreme bias.
MeWe's CEO, Mark Weinstein, has specifically reached out to a TK group driven off Facebook and Twitter to court them to join MeWe.
It's one thing to be _open to fascist views, another to invite them directly.
https://therealside.com/2018/09/still-not-running-to-mewe-but-dipping-our-toe-in-the-mewe-pool/
If you go looking for additional content, ... well, it turns up. Greg X has shared a pastebin showing results for searches on numerous Nazi, fascist, and white nationalist terms and symbology:
https://pastebin.com/gt1FUQkw
I've written directly to MeWe's own advisors. One responded to an email linking my trip report "Thank you. What I will say is that I have been unaware. This does not reflect well but is the truth."
I've written people who study online propaganda, disinformation, and hate groups. One researcher's response began "Holy moly, that’s an interesting list", and speculated as to whether this was a case of innocently repeating frequently-seen mistakes in the tech startup space, or a deliberate policy of support.
What I've seen of Mark Weinstein's responses in multiple contexts strongly suggest the latter.
ReplyDeleteOther sites are not all like this. In particular, Google+ is not like MeWe.
Given my interest in researching social media characteristics, I've got a list of all 8.1 million G+ Communities as of January 5-6, 2019, along with public/private status, membership, and most recent posting activity. I've searched that for the terminology listed in the pastebin above ... and whilst yes, there are a few results, they are small and very non-prevalent, with most of the groups long since stripped of members and posts.
(The notable exception is "Aryan", which turns out to be a very common name in India and South Asia. When filtering for obvious white nationalist references though, it also fits this pattern.)
There are a total of 40 G+ communities matching these terms. None of them appear in a casual perusal of Google Communities. 15 of these have any visible posts remaining, 8 have been active since 2018, 2 in 2019. Google appear to have actively managed and discouraged such groups from appearing at all.
(And yes, I'm deliberately not listing the groups, though I can assure you they do exist.)
There is what Google+ architect Yonatan Zunger has had to say about social media moderation policy:
I worked on policy issues at G+ and YT for years. It was painfully obvious that Twitter never took them seriously....
Twitter chose to optimize for traffic at the expense of user experience. That's why GamerGate, that's why Trump, that's why Nazis....
So what does healthy policy look like? You look for things which systematically cause people to feel uncomfortable engaging. Things that make people not post in the first place, because they know what will happen if they do. You shut down big bad things quickly and visibly, before they can pull the entire conversation to be around them. You reduce interaction opportunities for things which are known to be toxic.
You try to avoid "toxic meetings," period.
And the key to all of this is to define an editorial voice for the platform, separate from that of its users. That voice is your de facto set of rules for "No, this is not OK here; you don't like it, go somewhere else." Here's the big operational secret: 90% of what makes online policy hard is trying to do it while claiming neutrality.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/914605545490857984.html
There's the question of why this all matters
I'm working on that, but a few pretty obvious points occur:
1. Any company openly embracing and courting nationalists, nazis, fascists, hoaxsters, fraudsters, and conspiracy theorists is likely either in precarious financial shape or has itself has exceptionally twisted morals.
2. Groups intentionally heading to MeWe are putting their members directly in contact with a hive of racism, fascism, white nationalism, and other ideologies and activities. It's one thing to join a site as an individual, another to be coerced through group or peer pressure.
3. It's quite likely that MeWe will find itself subject to attention from law enforcement, its vendors and/or hosting providers subject to pressure, or other activities, all of which imperil all users of the platform. The innocent parties are being used as human shields.
4. The "free speech" arguments being made are specious if only for this reason: the speech and liberty claimed by MeWe's strongest defenders is explicitly aimed at denying basic rights or freedoms, or even life, to others. This is Karl Popper's Paradox of Tolerance:
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance
old.reddit.com - MeWe: A trip report
Brian Holt Hawthorne I don't believe you. You seem like you have a lot invested in MeWe.
ReplyDeleteI went into it rather objectively - I'm telling you, as an objective observer, MeWe chooses to ignore Nazi groups. A simple group search turns up easy targets for clean up.
So what you say MeWe does and what they actually do is observably false. Anyone with a MeWe account can plainly see.
Are you objecting so hard because you think Nazis need social media too?
Brian Holt Hawthorne See my long comment above.
ReplyDeleteGoogle rid themselves of most Nazi groups. Full stop.
Did a hell of a better job of it, with a minimum of 6 million, and more likely ~110 million active users (395 million was Google's completely implausible high-water-mark claim) than MeWe are doing with ~1 million registered accounts and maybe a few tens of thousands of actives.
In addition to what Edward Morbius detailed, I offer this as evidence, for the fact that they aren't even trying:
ReplyDeleteThe fact that anyone can do a search on groups and plainly see explicit Nazi, antivax and other extremist groups that are existential threats to society. They are in plain view.
A casual weekly review would turn up groups that are in violation of the terms of service.
You can't make excuses for that kind of negligence. It is either passive support for facism or willful ignorance in the hopes of maintaining user counts - or, as I suspect given the CEO's libertarian evangelism, a mix of both.
Thom Thomas Answering the question in your OP:
ReplyDeleteQ: How many psychiatrists does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Only one. But the lightbulb has to really want to change.
This feature may increase the number of shrinks. But I don't think the lightbulb wants to change.
I will not be using this.
ReplyDeleteThe content of communities is determined by the people in them. If you don't like the make-up of the communities on a social media platform, that's an argument for joining, diluting and challenging.
ReplyDeleteBoooooooriiinngg! Don't like it, don't use it. Simple as 1, 2, 3..
ReplyDeleteBut have a bit of mercy for us and stop crying about this "nazi-bullshit" every time something about MeWe shows up.
What's your problem btw? Sorry, but I try to understand all this case somehow.
I am on MeWe since few years now and to be honest I don't saw any of those mentioned "nazi-right-extreme stuff at all.
Why? Also is the answer simple.. Because I don't go everywhere there.
If you won't subscribe to such groups, pages etc., then you won't see this sort of news, posts or people.
So.. what is the case here? What is the clou?
From one side you all want some freedom.. okay.. there it is one.
But you need to keep in mind the other side of the coin. This "not so nice" one.
Because is a normal thing. Where "yiang is there is also a ying". Where is plus, there is minus.
So is the life.
Accept it or not. Your choice.
We all are adult ppl. We can choose our ways.
That's it.
:)
Martina Neumayer I give up on trying to counter the “MeWe is full of Nazi’s” meme. Everyone pushing it admits to not using MeWe and basing their claims on a handful of searches of the names of groups on the service or on some ad hominem remarks about the politics of the founder.
ReplyDeleteI’m not a fan of MeWe. It has all sorts of problem that make it difficult for me to use. I don’t like it’s walled garden aspect. The mobile app is good but getting worse as far as accessibility goes. The promise of truly public posts is yet to be fulfilled. Despite its small size it is already overrun by sexbots.
My only purpose in countering the false Nazi-MeWe meme is in the interests of accuracy. MeWe might be a good spot for many people, and I wouldn’t want them to discount it on the basis of these unproven allegations.
I can not say that MeWe is a shelter for new nazis because at first I have to login and I can't, it's really frustrating. Let's fix that for me and for hundreds of users that are unable to login then we will see about the tool and the new nazis thing.
ReplyDeleteBrian Holt Hawthorne once again, you are incorrect. I have a MeWe account and I use it. I'm not basing my claims on a handful of 2nd hand searches. I've seen it myself. And you can too, right now if you wanted to. Why is it that when I offered you a line of reasoning as evidence, you ignore it?
ReplyDeleteMy claim is that MeWe is doing nothing to stop their venture capital funded aiding and abetting of Nazis. If they cared at all about stopping themselves from being an accessory to hate and terrorism, all they'd have to do is look at the group names and descriptions. It's that obvious.
You've yet to counter this. Where is your evidence that MeWe does care and is working to stop letting Nazis and anti-vaxxers flourish on MeWe's platform?
I'm super willing to consider any solid reasoning you have. And any empirical evidence you can offer to support your claims of MeWe's competence with de-Nazifying their platform.
I'd really also love to hear what you have to say about the fact that there are STILL so many Nazi/white power/alt-right hate groups (Proud Boys et cetera) and anti-vaxxers groups on display.
So.. okay.. Then a simple question now:
ReplyDeletewhy not a claim directly to the MeWe support there on the page, instead of claiming here on G+?
They won't see here all those posts, they can't proper react to them.
There is a feedback page there. They are also a people from the portal stuff there to whom can anyone can write a line about some problems, issues, errors etc. And they helps.
Imho this whole situation here is for me like for example.. claiming on the Ford webpage about the BMW issues. ;)
Martina Neumayer I have. Nothing seems to change.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm wondering if more pressure might change that.
Your analogy breaks down in that an automobile is not a communications platform.
People use Twitter to discuss problems with FB. It is more than reasonable to use one platform to generate conversation about another.
Thom Thomas , I agree with you. I created a MeWe account. I went to the political groups, expecting to find some kind of balance, since there is a variety of political opinions around the globe. Overwhelmingly the groups were hard right and authoritarian. I found virtually no balance. Needless to say, I deleted my account with disappointment. I had hopes for the MeWe platform, but it is what it is. I still haven't found the platform to transition to for me.
ReplyDeleteI suspect you are being challenged by a variety of bots in this thread now Thom.
Thom Thomas I have reported every single instance of hate speech I have seen on MeWe. That’s exactly zero cases.
ReplyDeleteI have even searched and searched to try to find these mythical Nazis. I have not succeeded in finding any. Plenty of pornbots, but no Nazis.
I have seen exactly zero complaints by MeWe users on MeWe of examples of Nazis.
The only complaints I see are here on Google+.
So, this “line of evidence” offered strikes me as a flimsy attempt by supporters of other solutions to bad mouth MeWe.
Meanwhile, I see people claiming on Google+ that MeWe allows hate speech as replies to comments where the TOS is shown that contradicts this.
Feel free to add me as a contact on MeWe (see my pinned G+ post) and point me to any of these supposed hate speech occurrences or Nazis. I’ll be glad to report them.
Brian Holt Hawthorne You're grossly mischaracterising my statements and experience. Please don't do that.
ReplyDeleteOr, if I can return: the apologia and defenders of MeWe seem to be based on willful ignorance at best, open embrace at worst, of the clear failings and malignancy of the site, as well as flagrant straw-manning and misrepresentation of the exceedingly well-founded criticisms of the site and its principal agents, including Mark Weinstein.
James Kobolt Hawthorne is not a bot, or at least, has been an exquisitely crafted, multi-faceted, and long-lived one, based on my years of experience on G+.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I am disappoint.
Brian Holt Hawthorne you are either lying or lying. Any effort what so ever would turn up all kinds of extreme right-wing groups.
ReplyDeleteThom Thomas Yes.. conversations. But not in a form of claiming. Because there is a difference between them both.
ReplyDeleteBTW.. If you want some real reaction from the support ppl, please post here
and tag someone from the crew.
It will bring more positive effects and make more sense than posting here on g+ page. :)
mewe.com - MeWe: The best chat & group app with privacy you trust.
Thom Thomas I don’t know what to say. I am not lying You tell me what to search for. I have tried all sorts of search terms and don’t come up with any. I just tried again with “aryan”, “master race”, “white power”, and a bunch of other stuff. Maybe I just don’t know how to ferret out Nazis.
ReplyDeleteBrian Holt Hawthorne Which client?
ReplyDeleteBecause we know MeWe are sanitising some of search.
Desktop Web was till surfacing results within the past few days.
Then there are the open groups listings.
Brian Holt Hawthorne MeWe is hatewashing their search results.
ReplyDeleteMeWe is fully sandboxed that's why not all searches are shown exactly as they should be.
ReplyDeleteEdward Morbius iOS mobile app.
ReplyDeleteBrian Holt Hawthorne That's been specifically sanitised.
ReplyDeletehttps://old.reddit.com/r/plexodus/comments/aq2fp4/dissecting_the_mewe_ios_app_search_announcement/
Try desktop web client.
My suggestion is if you are not comfortable with MeWe (and I am not), then don't go. If you are comfortable with them, then make the switch and enjoy yourself.
ReplyDeleteI am tired of the low cost spreading of propaganda by hostile foreign actors to divide the US and Europe. Then when you throw in the hate groups on top of it, it is not worth my time. Social media companies need to have some structural regulation and oversight, just like other internet activities or other industries. The ability of foreign actors or corporations to manipulate data to segmented groups to divide or spread clear falsehoods is something that needs to be addressed. This is not something FB, Twitter, Mewe, G+ or other companies with a financial interest can be left to regulate themselves. I refuse to enable this behavior anymore.
James Kobolt Good point :)
ReplyDeleteEdward Morbius The only time I have to do anything social media related is interstitial. And the only device I have available during those times is my iPhone SE.
ReplyDeleteSo, I will take your word for it that There Be Nazis There, despite their invisibility to me.
Brian Holt Hawthorne OK. I'd think that you should be able to request the desktop view via Safari on the iPhone.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, it's helpful to realise that if you're restricted to an interface mediated by some specific entity, you're allowing them to mediate everything about your experience.
Plato's cave, except that the cave, the light, the puppets, and the shadows, all have volition as to what they want you to see and think.
There's a reason I've tag-lined my Technology, Media, and Surveillance collection "Intermediate Agency".
Edward Morbius This is why I don’t limit my life to an interface mediated by a single entity. In addition to MeWe, Twitter, Pluspora, and half a dozen other social media, I also subscribe to and read Washington Post, New York Times, Guardian, WTF, and other news media.
ReplyDelete