Bonum Certa Men Certa

GAFAM-Funded NPR Reports That Facebook Let Millions of People Like Trump Flout the So-called Rules. Not Just “a Few”.

Guest post by Ryan, reprinted with permission from the original

THE GAFAM-funded NPR reports that Facebook let millions of people like Trump flout the so-called rules. Not just “a few”.



Editor’s note: Facebook is among NPR’s recent financial supporters

NPR article


This problem with NPR and their corruption is getting worse by the minute.



Facebook and Bill Gates pay so much to corrupt the news, that imagine how much worse things would get for them if we had an independent press that didn’t depend on them for money, like we did before George W. Bush defunded the Corporation for Public Broadcasting….



We’ve been hearing less about the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation lately, in the wake of the publicity and the Gates-Epstein scandal (associating with the most prolific pedophile in all recorded history in pursuit of buying a Nobel Prize), but interestingly there’s been an uptick in “DuckDuckGo for Privacy” shout outs. Today, it got so bad in my car that the woman on NPR was telling me where to go download their apps.



As we’ve said (Techrights, and myself, on this blog…), DuckDuckGo has been outright lying about how private they supposedly are.



DuckDuckGo is pretty much a Big Tech honeypot to lure people into using Bing and Azure. (It also depends on Apple for maps.)



Both Bing and Azure are owned by Microsoft.



Bing is where the searches come from, and Azure is where DuckDuckGo is hosted. Microsoft’s ad network is where the ads come from. Anyone with an ad blocker is likely to notice a tracker called Improving DuckDuckGo, which you’re not supposed to see. (One pixel image.)



My guess, although I could never prove this, is that Microsoft is totally propping up DuckDuckGo, and since their finances are not public, we’ll never really be able to see any of this on paper. All we know is that at least much, if not most of their money, is Microsoft’s money. How much do you think they can be trusted?



Meanwhile, DuckDuckGo suddenly has all of this money to have ads on every major radio station in Chicago (guessing other cities) and to get hourly mentions on NPR?



It’s very interesting to me, that they have the money to do all of that, and also to corrupt various projects and organizations like the Tor Project and the EFF.



I can’t imagine what it is that DuckDuckGo actually does. Why are they hiring people? I haven’t seen them do anything that Bing doesn’t.



My main point here is that NPR can’t and won’t investigate and report on this.



If they do, the money will end. And as we all know, NPR likes money.



Despite being crooked and burning through this pile of corporate dirty money at an alarming rate (on top of what they still get from John Q. Taxpayer), they’re always out bumming more every time you flip it to their station!



But jogging back to Facebook, NPR never once mentioned on the radio, what the Oversight Board actually is to Facebook. They mention Facebook created it, and that it’s funded by “an independent trust”.



But who can set up an “independent trust”? Anyone can. Facebook set up an “independent trust”, with Facebook money, and Facebook can go back and add more money later so it’s always true that an “independent trust” funds the “oversight board”. And Facebook only has to do what this board says, because it chooses to.



This is called “Industry Self-Regulation”. And it’s been a disaster every time. In fact, it’s the reason behind pretty much every governmental regulatory board we have now, even if they are no longer performing the job they were designed to do (due to regulatory capture and sabotage).



Facebook is essentially saying that they need no review and regulation, because “We’ve got this!”.



In the mean time, everything from child pornography to your parents posting hate directed at gay people and religions they don’t like and fake political information designed to create a badly misinformed public still goes on, and pretty much nothing is ever done about any of it.



The social rot that Facebook causes and/or amplifies continues.



Oddly, someone on the far-right that I was reading made an excellent point.



Facebook had way more to do with the January 6th Trump terrorists organizing than Parler ever did.



In fact, Parler actively removed those types of posts, while Facebook was letting people vandalize Congress while livestreaming it.



They used “deplatforming” to get rid of a potential competitor. Now all of these idiots like the January 6th people are still on Facebook, and nothing happens. Something like that may happen again and it’ll, again, be due to Facebook taking no action.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Tons of Anti-Linux 'Articles' Published by Bots (LLMs), Maybe Microsoft's
Upon closer inspection, all this FUD turned out to be LLM garbage
Ubuntu Desktop Director of Engineering Has Only One Blog Post. It Promotes Microsoft Windows.
Remember that even 15 years ago (more or less, maybe 16 years ago) Canonical appointed a a 'former' Microsoft manager (Spencer) to lead Ubuntu on the desktop
IBM Red Hat on "era of cloud computing", pushing "hey hi" (AI) hype in Microsoft Azure
LLM slop might actually be more benign than Microsoft promotion
Corruption and Rule-Breaking Prevail at the European Patent Office (EPO), Europe's Second-Largest Institution
The law does not really exist at the EPO; it can be perceived as merely a "recommendation"
404 Media Says "Workers at NASA Told to Drop Everything to Scrub Mentions of Indigenous People, Women from Its Websites" But There's Also Accessibility in the Firing Line
In the case of abandoning accessibility, everyone stands to be hurt and proprietary software can be brought in to replace standards
 
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, February 06, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, February 06, 2025
Richard Stallman (RMS) Confirms Next Week's Talk in Europe
He gave at least 2 talks in Europe last month
Nationalism As A Service (NaaS) by Microsoft Azure, Gutting the US Government for Profit
Will Microsoft be receiving bailouts as a reward for all this?
Rumours of IBM Layoffs Apparently Confirmed Yesterday, IBM Canada Consulting Impacted (as Rumoured)
when IBM has layoffs we must also read it as Red Hat layoffs
Gemini Links 06/02/2025: Voicemail Sucks and Night of Lights
Links for the day
Links 06/02/2025: YouTube Takedowns Out of Control, 'DOGE' Breaking Laws
Links for the day
statCounter: More Countries Where Windows is Around 1% "Market Share" (People Have Moved to Android/Linux)
in some nations Windows is already 1% or less
When BetaNews Writes Real Articles About "Linux" They Promote Windows
The Web is in a bad state. We need to at least try to correct this.
Gemini Links 06/02/2025: Cynicism and "Real Magic on the C64"
Links for the day
Links 06/02/2025: New Sanctions, Layoffs, and Executive Orders
Links for the day
Distros and Desktop Environments, Devices
GNU/Linux focused
New Rumours of IBM Layoffs in 2025, IBM Consulting Still Struggles, Based on Management
"Hey hi" (AI) has been a common excuse for business failure
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, February 05, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, February 05, 2025
Links 05/02/2025: Kessler Syndrome and News Online
Links for the day
statCounter: Monaco Now 7% GNU/Linux ("Proper")
GNU/Linux, not counting Chromebooks, is on the rise
Many Parts of Google Lose Money
It's quite apparent that many parts of Google - even some that rely on ad revenue or push ads - aren't profiting
European Internet Forum (EIF) is Dominated by American Corporations and Microsoft Lobbyists, Staff Take the Lead
Should the officials over here or the European Parliament pay attention to these people?
Links 05/02/2025: Connection without Connectivity and Unionised Grocery Workers
Links for the day
Just Because People on Top of the Microsoft Pyramid Made a Lot of Money Doesn't Mean Microsoft is Wealthy
The bigger they are the harder they fall
Gemini Links 05/02/2025: Learning, Madman Ruling a Mad Country, Back in Geminispace
Links for the day
statCounter Shows "WIntel" Chasing a Dying Market
Microsoft acts as if it's running out of money
Free Software Foundation, Inc. (FSF) Still Raising Money, Richard Stallman Contributes
total exceeding $430k
A Lot of Stuff About "Linux" in Google News is LLM Slop, Fake 'Articles'
It seems to be getting worse
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, February 04, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, February 04, 2025