From December 22, 2016
A German newspaper, “Suddeutsche Zeitung,” has been examining the labyrinthine rules and formulas by which Facebook decides what to delete as “hate speech” and what to let stand ( http://international.sueddeutsche.de/post/154543271930/facebooks-secret-rules-of-deletion ).
Please don’t expect a detailed explanation from me! It has to do with hate speech creating “an environment of intimidation and exclusion in which people don’t want to share.” There are, as usual, “protected categories” of people, about whom it is not permitted to say anything not nice–unless it’s combined with an “unprotected category.” Or something like that. The example used in the article is… Forbidden: “Irish women are dumb.” Allowed: “Irish teenagers are dumb.” Because women are a protected category but teens are not. I think. It gets kind of complicated, and more so because of certain “bizarre mathematical formulas” employed.
The problem here is that, in our age of political correctness, nobody’s allowed to say anything that might offend somebody else–which rules out almost anything you might ever say. But at the same time, Facebook needs to make money, which it can’t do if its customers aren’t allowed to express an opinion.
The bigger problem is that in the absence of any immutable standard (a Biblical standard, for instance) of morality, no one can ever be quite sure of what is right and what is wrong. And we cannot look for immutable standards of morality from wordly-wise numbskulls who go around prattling about “your truth” and “my truth.”
Again we see a simple truth: there is no Heaven without God at the center of it.
The whole concept of hate speech has gone over the top. These days, if you express dislike for anything, people will accuse you of hate. I don’t care for banana flavored ice cream. That’s not hate, but instead an expression of personal preference. Yet, some would accuse me of “hating on” banana flavored ice cream. A common figure of speech, but it corrupts the very meaning of the word hate.
Trying to police hate speech is ridiculous, because what one person sees as hate might not seem that way to another person. If I express disdain for drug abuse, is that hate towards drug abusers, or concern for their well-being and safety? It depends upon who you ask.
Well, my opinion of Facebook is not particularly high, so I certainly don’t worry too much about this, except that it might foster unrealistic expectations in some Facebook users.