| Latest revision |
Your text |
| Line 1: |
Line 1: |
| {{Infobox company|name=Meta Platforms, Inc.|image=Meta logo.png|founding_name=TheFacebook, Inc.|founding_date=January 4, 2004|industry=Social media|headquarters=Menlo Park, [[California]], United States}}
| | '''Facebook, Inc.''' is a [[United States of America|Statesian]] [[Imperialism|imperialist]] surveillance and propaganda network distributed across almost all countries worldwise. Its primary product is Facebook, a [[Bourgeoisie|bourgeois]] social media service which acts serves as censor and propagandist for [[Imperialism|imperialist]] [[NATO]] powers, through NATO's Atlantic Council think tank.<ref>Dina Srinivasan (2018). ''The antitrust case against Facebook: a monopolist’s journey towards pervasive surveillance in spite of consumers’ preference for privacy.'' Berkeley Business Law Journal. ([https://tind-customer-berkeleylaw.s3.amazonaws.com/c7685f66-f36b-4cd9-a1d9-ef9d046f611c?response-content-disposition=attachment%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27fulltext.pdf&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Expires=86400&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAXL7W7Q3XNDXVUP4O%2F20210615%2Feu-west-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Date=20210615T163852Z&X-Amz-Signature=48eae98241b98f94fcb39e59e31bb5361dfc3a696505dd7e54ff37fe48f7d30a PDF link])</ref><ref>https://www.projectcensored.org/atlantic-council-partners-with-facebook-to-censor-social-media/</ref> It was established in 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg who is the 5th richest person in the world as of 2021. Facebook has had documented ties to the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] and the [[National Security Agency|NSA]].<ref>The Guardian (2013). [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants-nsa-data ''NSA Prism program taps in to user data of Apple, Google and others'']</ref> |
| | |
| '''Meta Platforms, Inc.''' is a [[United States of America|Statesian]] [[Imperialism|imperialist]] surveillance and propaganda network distributed across almost all countries worldwide. Its primary product is Facebook, a [[Bourgeois media|bourgeois social media]] service which acts serves as censor and propagandist for [[Imperialism|imperialist]] [[North Atlantic Treaty Organization|NATO]] powers, through NATO's [[Atlantic Council]] think tank.<ref>Dina Srinivasan (2018). ''The antitrust case against Facebook: a monopolist’s journey towards pervasive surveillance in spite of consumers’ preference for privacy.'' Berkeley Business Law Journal. ([https://tind-customer-berkeleylaw.s3.amazonaws.com/c7685f66-f36b-4cd9-a1d9-ef9d046f611c?response-content-disposition=attachment%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27fulltext.pdf&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Expires=86400&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAXL7W7Q3XNDXVUP4O%2F20210615%2Feu-west-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Date=20210615T163852Z&X-Amz-Signature=48eae98241b98f94fcb39e59e31bb5361dfc3a696505dd7e54ff37fe48f7d30a PDF link])</ref><ref>https://www.projectcensored.org/atlantic-council-partners-with-facebook-to-censor-social-media/</ref> It was established in 2004, by [[Mark Zuckerberg]] who currently has a net worth of over $52 billion.<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=Forbes|title=Real Time Billionaires|url=https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#352f462b3d78|retrieved=2022-09-18}}</ref> Facebook has had documented ties to the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]],<ref name=":0">{{News citation|author=Elliott Gabriel|newspaper=[[MintPress News]]|title=Pentagon Capitalism and Silicon Valley: Google’s Drone War Project Shows Big Data’s Military Roots|date=2018-04-06|url=https://www.mintpressnews.com/pentagon-capitalism-and-silicon-valley-googles-drone-war-project-shows-big-datas-military-roots/240210/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220328183418/https://www.mintpressnews.com/pentagon-capitalism-and-silicon-valley-googles-drone-war-project-shows-big-datas-military-roots/240210/|archive-date=2022-03-28|retrieved=2022-07-06}}</ref> [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]],<ref name=":1">{{News citation|author=[[Alan Macleod]]|newspaper=[[MintPress News]]|title=Meet the Ex-CIA Agents Deciding Facebook's Content Policy|date=2022-07-12|url=https://www.mintpressnews.com/meet-ex-cia-agents-deciding-facebook-content-policy/281307/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220714063931/https://www.mintpressnews.com/meet-ex-cia-agents-deciding-facebook-content-policy/281307/|archive-date=2022-07-14|retrieved=2022-07-14}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Web citation|author=[[Alan Macleod]]|newspaper=[[MintPress News]]|title=How the CIA Has Infiltrated Social Media Companies, with Alan Macleod|date=2022-08-26|url=https://www.mintpressnews.com/how-the-cia-has-infiltrated-social-media-companies-with-alan-macleod/281824/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220826163307/https://www.mintpressnews.com/how-the-cia-has-infiltrated-social-media-companies-with-alan-macleod/281824/|archive-date=2022-08-26|retrieved=2022-08-26}}</ref> and [[National Security Agency|NSA]].<ref>The Guardian (2013). [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants-nsa-data ''NSA Prism program taps in to user data of Apple, Google and others'']</ref> | |
| | |
| == Platforms ==
| |
| | |
| === WhatsApp ===
| |
| With over 2 billion users worldwide in over 180 countries,<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Statista|title=Most popular global mobile messenger apps as of January 2022, based on number of monthly active users}}</ref><ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Fortunly|title=WhatsApp statistics: revenue, usage, and history|date=2022-01-06|url=https://fortunly.com/statistics/whatsapp-statistics/}}</ref> WhatsApp has a monopoly of instant messaging services in many [[Latin America|Latin American]] and [[Africa|African]] countries, such as Kenya (97%), South Africa (96%), [[Argentine Republic|Argentina]] (93%), Colombia (92%) and [[Federative Republic of Brazil|Brazil]] (91%).<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=Verint|title=What countries are the biggest WhatsApp users?|date=2021-12-22|url=https://www.verint.com/blog/what-countries-are-the-biggest-whatsapp-users/}}</ref>
| |
| | |
| == Imperialist connections ==
| |
| | |
| === U.S. government ===
| |
| [[Edward Snowden]] proved in 2013 that the FBI and NSA have direct access to Meta's internal servers.<ref name=":0" /> Facebook has partnered with the U.S.-funded [[National Democratic Institute]], which was chaired by [[Madeleine Albright]], and the [[International Republican Institute]] chaired by [[John McCain]], to censor [[Anti-imperialism|anti-imperialist]] content.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Stansfield Smith|newspaper=[[Multipolarista]]|title=US national security state censoring anti-imperialists to control ‘compatible left’|date=2022-07-02|url=https://multipolarista.com/2022/07/02/censorship-anti-imperialists-compatible-left/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220830195608/https://multipolarista.com/2022/07/02/censorship-anti-imperialists-compatible-left/|archive-date=2022-08-30|retrieved=2022-09-10}}</ref>
| |
| | |
| ==== CIA ====
| |
| Meta's senior product policy manager for misinformation, [[Aaron Berman]], worked for the CIA until 2019 and prepared and wrote the U.S. president's daily brief.<ref name=":2" /> Meta Trust and Safety Product Manager [[Deborah Berman]] worked for the CIA for ten years as a data and intelligence analyst and was a specialist on [[Syrian Arab Republic|Syria]]. [[Bryan Weisbard]] was a CIA agent who led global "counter-terrorism" investigations and is currently Director of Trust and Safety, Security and Data Privacy for Meta.<ref name=":1" />
| |
| | |
| === Israel ===
| |
| [[Jordana Cutler]], who has worked as Facebook's public policy director for [[State of Israel|Israel]] since 2016, is also Israel's minister of strategic affairs and previously worked for Israel's embassy in [[Washington, D.C.]] For years, Facebook has censored and restricted [[State of Palestine|Palestinian]] content.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Jessica Buxbaum|newspaper=[[MintPress News]]|title=Facebook's Jordana Cutler|date=2023-01-27|url=https://www.mintpressnews.com/facebook-jordana-cutler-israel-ministry-sparking-censorship-fear/283445/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230128073415/https://www.mintpressnews.com/facebook-jordana-cutler-israel-ministry-sparking-censorship-fear/283445/|archive-date=2023-01-28|retrieved=2023-01-28}}</ref>
| |
| | |
| == Controversies ==
| |
| | |
| === Censorship ===
| |
| Facebook deleted hundreds of pro-[[Sandinista National Liberation Front|Sandinista]] accounts and pages less than a week before an election in [[Republic of Nicaragua|Nicaragua]].<ref name=":1" /> Five of the nine fact check organizations used by Facebook are funded by the U.S. government. The most well-known, StopFake, is funded by NATO's [[Atlantic Council]] and the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland|British]] government. VoxCheck is funded by the U.S. government, [[National Endowment for Democracy|NED]], and the [[Kingdom of the Netherlands|Dutch]] and [[Federal Republic of Germany|German]] governments. Other fact checkers used by Facebook include Delfi, Demagog, Fact Check Georgia, Lead Stories, Myth Detector, Patikrinta 15min, and Re:Baltica.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Alan Macleod|newspaper=MintPress News|title=Most of the "Fact-Checking" Organizations Facebook Uses in Ukraine Are Directly Funded by Washington|date=2022-08-02|url=https://www.mintpressnews.com/facebook-fact-checking-organizations-ukraine-funded-washington/281618/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220804210112/https://www.mintpressnews.com/facebook-fact-checking-organizations-ukraine-funded-washington/281618/|archive-date=2022-08-04|retrieved=2022-08-06}}</ref> Meta also censors [[State of Palestine|Palestinian]] content criticizing [[State of Israel|Israeli]] genocide and [[settler colonialism]].<ref>{{Web citation|newspaper=Al Mayadeen|title=Gag rule on Palestinians continues, TikTok joins ban policy|date=2022-10-15|url=https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/gag-rule-on-palestinians-continues-tiktok-joins-ban-policy|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221015212601/https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/gag-rule-on-palestinians-continues-tiktok-joins-ban-policy|archive-date=2022-10-15|retrieved=2022-10-19}}</ref>
| |
| | |
| === Fake whistleblower incident ===
| |
| In 2021, an ex-employee of Facebook was brought before US congress to testify about the company. Her testimony was basically a demand for increased censorship and government control over the social network. This so-called "whistleblower" was hailed by the US [[Bourgeois media|corporate media]], unlike [[Julian Assange]] and [[Edward Snowden]] who actually risked their lives to expose the truth.<ref>[https://thegrayzone.com/2021/10/21/facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen-us-intelligence/ Facebook ‘whistleblower’ Frances Haugen represented by US intelligence insiders] by Alexander Rubinstein on [[The Grayzone]]</ref>
| |
| | |
| === Promotion of violence ===
| |
| In July 2009 the [[Turkistan Islamic Party|East Turkestan Islamic Movement]], a terrorist group based in the [[Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region|Xinjiang region]] of [[People's Republic of China|China]], used Facebook to organize the [[7-5 riots|Ürümqi riots]]. After the Chinese government requested Facebook to restrict the terrorists from organizing on their platform, Facebook responded by asserting the ETIM's right to "freedom of speech". The Chinese government then banned Facebook from being used in China.<ref>{{News citation|date=July 10, 2009|title=80 pct of netizens agree China should punish Facebook|url=http://en.people.cn/90001/90776/90882/6697993.html|newspaper=People's Daily}}</ref>
| |
| | |
| In 2021, right-wing [[Republic of Cuba|Cuban]] exiles used Facebook to attempt a color revolution against the [[Communist Party of Cuba]].<ref name=":1" />
| |
| | |
| Meta's social media Facebook is "temporarily" allowing users to voice hate speech and support for violence against Russians during the ongoing [[2022 Russo-Ukranian conflict|2022 Russo-Ukraine conflict]], which would have otherwise been against the platform's terms of service.<ref>{{News citation|journalist=Munsif Vengattil and Elizabeth Culliford|date=2022-03-10|title=EXCLUSIVE Facebook temporarily allows posts on Ukraine war calling for violence against invading Russians or Putin's death|url=https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/exclusive-facebook-instagram-temporarily-allow-calls-violence-against-russians-2022-03-10/|newspaper=[[Reuters]]}}</ref> As a result, Meta is under a criminal investigation in the [[Russian Federation]] for the promotion of extremism.<ref>{{News citation|date=2022-03-11|title=Russia opens criminal investigation of Meta over death calls on Facebook|url=https://www.reuters.com/world/kremlin-says-meta-would-have-cease-work-russia-if-reuters-report-is-true-2022-03-11/|newspaper=Reuters|retrieved=2022-03-11}}</ref>
| |
| | |
| Since January 2023, Meta has removed the status of "dangerous organization" from the [[Far-right politics|right-wing extremist]] [[Neo-Nazism|neo-Nazi]] militia [[Azov Battalion]], which will allow member of Azov to publish content in support of their organization.<ref>{{Web citation|author=Daryna Antoniuk|newspaper=The Kyiv Independent|title=Meta: Azov Regiment no longer meets criteria for dangerous organization on Facebook, Instagram|date=2023-01-19|url=https://kyivindependent.com/tech/meta-azov-regiment-no-longer-meets-criteria-for-dangerous-organization-on-facebook-instagram|retrieved=2022-01-20|quote=U.S. tech giant Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, no longer designates Ukraine’s Azov Regiment as a “dangerous organization.”
| |
| | |
| This means that Azov Regiment members will be allowed to have accounts on Meta platforms, while content posted by other users about Azov Regiment will no longer be removed, Meta’s spokesperson told the Kyiv Independent in an emailed statement.}}</ref>
| |
|
| |
|
| == References == | | == References == |
| <references/> | | <references/> |
| | |
| [[Category:Imperialist companies]] | | [[Category:Imperialist companies]] |
| [[Category:Censorship in the United States]]
| |
| [[Category:Companies based in the United States]]
| |
| [[Category:Megacorporations]]
| |
| [[Category:Big tech]]
| |
