Pallone Takes on New Torrents of Social Media Hatred
EDISON – Social media can be evil.
Many agree, but doing something about it is another story.
With the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel ratcheting up tensions in the Middle East, across the country and all over social media, Frank Pallone is trying to control some of the madness.
Like what?
The veteran congressman spoke Monday at a press conference about postings across social media that are “doctored,” outright false and in some instances, just vile.
He cited the video of the murder of an Israeli grandmother reportedly posted by her Hamas killers on her Facebook page.
The issue at hand may have just surfaced, but there is nothing new about the overall problem.
Congress has talked about trying to reel in the excesses of social media, but so far to no avail.
Pallone, who was joined today by local officials and Jewish leaders from Middlesex County, wants social media platforms to, more or less, control themselves.
“I am calling on all social media companies – including X, Meta, YouTube, TikTok, and Telegram – to vigorously enforce their terms of service, immediately remove content that violates those terms, and permanently ban any user that intentionally attempts to spread or broadcast acts of terror, violence, or extremism,” Pallone said. “Social media companies must not allow their platforms to become agents of terrorist propaganda and violence. …”
He added, “This situation underscores the need for social media platforms to maintain a robust and fully supported content moderation staff as well as clear, enforceable policies that prohibit the use of their platforms to advance terrorism.”
Voluntary restraints, of course, can be limited.
More importantly, what happens if social media platforms refuse to do anything?
This is a major free speech issue of our times. Their excesses, notwithstanding, there would be something chilling about government trying to control content on social media platforms.
One speaker at Monday’s event suggested social media companies were “hiding behind the Constitution.” That can be, but in truth, the U.S. Constitution grants rights to all citizens. It really is not something people hide behind.
That is not meant to minimize the problem.
One of Pallone’s points was about misinformation. He cited a post of alleged Israeli military action in Gaza that he said was taken from a video game.
Then, there was a doctored video that showed President Biden sending billions in aid to Israel when he was actually speaking about Ukraine.
Back in the “old days,” when the media were basically newspapers, radio and TV, the thinking was that truly outlandish and false reports would not get very far, because most people would simply dismiss them.
Not anymore.
As more and more people ignore so-called “legacy media” for Facebook, X and the like, the tendency to believe phony reports seems to have risen exponentially.
Hard to see that changing.
But there was even more unsettling news today.
Assemblyman Sterley Stanley was saddened to report that following the Hamas attacks about 10 days ago, he has seen a torrent of vile and offensive comments on social media from some of those who are his neighbors.
“There’s so much hatred out there,” he said.
If social media is going to have restraints on them, then government needs to get out of the business of censorship of any information. The nonsense of vitriol and hate is just that–nonsense. Democrat commenters are full of false/fake statements, vitriol and hate towards Trump, Republicans and Conservatives, and I don’t see them suspended, terminated or censored on any website. In fact, because social media sites are largely run by leftists, the hate, vitriol and fake/false statements are encouraged.
Any attempts at censorship because of the Israeli-Hamas war is a canard for government to stick their noses into social media again just in time to manipulate the election in their (Democrat-Socialists) favor. I say let the idiots have their say about the Israeli-Hamas conflict, and let the respondents counter it. Otherwise, allowing government-types to interfere, obstruct and, indeed, censor social media is bad for freedom and bad for America.
How does a “nonpartisan website dedicated to political news” that targets an audience of policy makers, elected officials, political journalists, communications strategists, and campaign consultants attract a surprising number of rando commenters who practice so much name calling that they can remind you that you need a new label maker?
Richard Grant says this is a “nonpartisan” website. I don’t know which one he’s talking about, because Insider NJ is not “nonpartisan” by virtue of the leftist, Democrat-Socialist political pundits and commenters on this website. Grant rails against the “rando commenters who practice so much name calling”, yet what he’s doing makes him one of those “rando commenters”.
I would remind Congressman Pallone that his own Democrat leader in the U.S. Senate, Chuck Schumer, spewed hate-filled rhetoric against U.S. Supreme Court Justices for overturning Roe v. Wade–but that was O.K. in the eyes of Democrat Socialists. I remind Pallone that Schumer’s comments resulted in threatening demonstrations in front of U.S. Supreme Court Justices’ homes, with one Democrat-Socialist operative demonstrator arrested for making death threats against a Conservative Justice. But, this is considered acceptable by the Democrat-Socialists like Pallone.
Pallone needs to stop talking out of both sides of his mouth and denounce Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, instead of befriending them.