Was Congress Hard Enough On Facebook CEO?
With all the hoopla about Facebook over the past week, I wanted to get your take on questions from Congress. Some of the lawmakers did a great job. Others threw out some pathetic softballs.
Generally, the older Republicans seemed the softest on their questions, almost so much so that you wondered if they even knew what they were talking about.
That aside, one thing seems certain, we really need to look into the βconsent decreeβ Facebook entered into with FTC and the trove of underhanded abuses the company engaged in leading up to that in comparison to what we see now.
We in the veteran community have noticed Facebook has come down hard with some veterans groups including my own, which are politically agnostic in nature. Over the past two months, weβve noticed significant throttling in the group by way of shutting down notifications to other group members of comments and Facebook Live seminars.
RELATED: Facebook Deletes Viral PTSD Veteran Awareness Group
One thing to note about our group is that I am highly critical of fraud schemes orchestrated by VA employees and speak about those schemes in my βliveβ seminars. Last summer, during the run-up of the post-Trump election hysteria, I noticed Facebook deleted my βliveβ sessions whenever I was more critical of the government, so I had to tone down my discussion of criminal endeavors the agency engages in regularly.
Our Facebook Complaint
Last week, I lodged the following complaint yesterday and will continue to do so until we see movement – – potentially filing a complaint with the DOJ Civil Rights Division:
My name is Benjamin Krause. I am a reporter and veterans rights attorney. We believe your Facebook product is violating ADA standards.
Our group is a non-political, issue-centric group https://www.facebook.com/groups/VocRehab/ a group of 26,000 members – these are disabled Americans and Veterans seeking benefits who also are ADA qualified.
When your website fails to function as advertised, it results in these disabled veterans becoming distressed and anxious. The vast majority of members are no longer receiving notification of any kind that we are holding Facebook Live sessions. Many group members are also no longer receiving notifications of new posts or comments.
Will you please fix the notification error so that your website functions in the manner advertised? I committed a substantial amount of time creating this group Facebook receives profits from. Failure to maintain the code for this group amounts to a legal breach of contract. Please report to me as to what the error is that’s causing group members to no longer receive regular notifications.
We ask that Facebook fix the error and comport to ADA standards related to website functional standards. Mr. Zuckerberg indicated your company is committed to building communities. We ask that you comply with ADA standards when directing notifications to group members.
Facebook simply responded:
Your feedback will be used to improve Facebook. Thanks for taking the time to make a report.
Highlight Clips
Here are some highlight clips I wanted to share. Democrats did a better job than I thought they would given how Facebook seems to be favoring liberal platforms right now.
Republicans were okay but some were downright too cozy with the Zuck. It was almost like watching two people on a first date kind of awkward.
What do you think?
My take? For years I have talked about how naive people are/were to think that Google and Zuckerberg became giants out of genius and/or hard work…
Both of them are and have been selling our information without proper permission and/authorization…it only became an issue when the snake decided to eat its own tail….in other words, they didn’t count on this whistleblower exposing Trump’s political campaign doing the same thing Obama and other politicians do…And, when Trump is doing it, it becomes a crime to humanity.
So now here comes DC with the trick and pony show to get all the masses calmed down so they can go back to Zuckerberg giving them our information without anyone becoming the wiser.
If Facebook wasn’t in bed with the government it would have had the same fate as MySpace…
I barely go on there and never liked it. I really became suspicious when at one of my previous government employers it was sorta “encouraged” for us to use our govt computers to access Facebook during lunch/breaks (probably so .gov can do additional monitoring of our Facebook because regardless of you using a govt computer on breaks, you still consent to monitoring.
I think people need to wake up. All this Alexa, Google Maps and all these modern and unnecessary conveniences come with a cost – the loss of our privacy/freedoms.
I mean, this week I think I saw a commercial where Google has some “Google Assistant” thing to link your a
Alexa and this and that…..so now they can monitor everything you do and sell it to .gov behind your back…
I mean seriously, you need Alexa to turn off your TV, make a shopping list, adjust the temperature in your home? Ok, whatever. When you get regulated by Big Brother on how much energy you use to keep your home warm and/or how many eggs you consume then don’t be surprised…
At this point in time it doesn’t matter if you have a Facebook account or not. If you visit a website that has a facebook like button then chances are you have a facebook cookie on your computer and facebook is sucking up your data to sell anyways. That’s the real problem. It’s like if back in the day Sears sent a guy out to your house to poke around and take notes about your business and personal info whether you where a Sears customer or not. Can’t complain about a stranger being in your house because he’s a Sears rep is what the cops tell you. That’s a completely bizarre situation right? Facebook is doing the exact same thing and congress is just agog and aghast ie pants down no real solution in sight.
I have a 4th amendment right to privacy. If the government is incapable of preserving my rights then it falls back to me to do so.
TaB, WC, good points both of you, This has gotten to the point of now we are being censored through intimidation, watch what you say or DHS will come knocking, how dare you say this or that, that’s un American, etc etc etc. Believe everything we tell you and shove down your throats or your not a good American, etc etc etc. Oh, I really like the part about land of the free,, ain’t that a hoot? and let’s not forget, slavery has been abolished lmaoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo sure it has, now they just import the slaves from Mexico and India. Etc etc etcccccccc. Fuck it all…
WC, some of us use an app called the “Wire” app. let me know if you decide to use it.
OMG– If I hear the loud-assed spokesperson for all Arby’s commercials *once more* I think my cable provider is going to be in need of a new customer care window in due time. PTSD has it’s ugly pals and one of them can be anger, and for some damn reason those commercials have me grabbing the remote and by time I get it way too late and I need to go chew a handful of roofing nails to cool down! WTF? Is it just me?!!
Great…now I’m in the mood for a couple of Arby’s gyros…
Did y’all notice Zuck’s stock rose while he testified!
In my opinion, if anyone believes Facebook’s 20,000 liberal ASSHOLES, or Zuckerberg, will change the “algorithm” to accommodate conservative viewpoints, I got some bridges in England I’ll sell real cheap!
VA Factoid; Problem – VA gets more excited on Ice Cream Day, and Kiddie Day more than getting excited about a Veteran overcoming, that is with good med support, their health challenges.
What should the VA do to fix this?
a) not a damn thing, cause VA employees and their family come first
b) get the names of the Veterans that complain, reduce their treatment, ignore them, don’t return their calls
c) put these Vets on the DBC List, and get a bonus for doing so
d) put in what you think
I just reviewed my personal medical notes dated back to the later part of 2015. And I’m still dealing with the same issues today, and these issues haven’t been properly addressed to even be close to what, how, and the effectiveness in care that I was receiving in the Private Sector. This was before when I walked into my local VA (biggest mistake I ever made in my life, worse than enlisting during a time of undeclared and corrupt War).
And, if other Vets med records, experiences, and the lack of, and the reneging of VA services are like mine, plus there are inaccuracies in your medical records, falsifications that doesn’t benefit the Veteran, and they are of the younger Vet group, I totally understand how they feel. And, especially like their cries and yelling out for help have been ignored like their less than a being, and if the Vet flipped out and had enough of the corruption, then they decided to administer only what they know what and how too, and caused harm to the VA healthcare scumbag workers, then I absolutely understand how and why they did it.
The VA, Committee overseers, and the VA protectors of VA employees, need to know and understand this simply thing, and this has been going on for decades. There has been a lack of trust between the Veteran and the VA, and the VA is the medical provider, so I tend to hold the VA a lot more responsible than I do a Veteran. And, I’d go as far that if a Veteran causes harm to a VA employee, and it could be proven that that the harm was life-threatening, then I’d side with the Veteran.
Plus, if a Veteran was arrested, charged, and jury trialed, and if I was one of the Jurors, and the Defendant (Veteran), has proved that the situation was life-threatening, and the VA Providers were told ahead of time before the incident, then I’d side with the Veteran.
The VA can take a proactive role in the trust factors, and supplying Vets with Precision Medicine (like VA likes to tout), and then there would maybe be a positive impression on Veterans starting to trust the VA. Especially, if Veterans were posting and making comments that the VA is changing, and their medical care, claims filing process has been dramatically influenced by the VA’s new behavior.
So, VA wake the fuck up. All the turmoil that you’ve caused can cease, and it should. VA, you’re playing Russian roulette, and you don’t know how to even play the game. This equals to stupidity. I post this so that you VA, have no excuse in not knowing (or hiding behind not knowing), why and how a Veteran acts as they do towards you.
VA it’s always been your move to make changes, so fucking move, or you’re going to have more Vets to make a move on you.
Again, don’t shoot the messenger. I’m just relating to what I read on some other blogs, and for the life of me (which is in a life-threatening mode by VA), I can’t understand why the VA with all their monies, why they don’t make positive changes. Especially since an Obama appointed (Shulkin) not to long ago, admitted that the VA is adversarial to Veterans. Now how dumb can one be to not make positive changes? Pretty damn dumb I suppose.
No threat here, just relaying information out of concern for the lives of VA corrupted employees. That’s because the VA doesn’t deserve these types of problems or to worry about their jobs, or welfare. Hey, Vets deal with this on an ongoing basis when receiving VA medical care.
My gf received two jury summons this year so far. I have yet to receive one in my life. I would actually love to be on a jury.
The Dems we are just a little Bit More Progressive in Tech and the Overall use of it most of the Senators are Stuck in the Dial up Era even with their Policies in the Gov. so what the Dems asked comes at noooo Surprise compared to the Stuck in Stupidity for Senior Citizenship Softball Republicans….
Trouble: 44 House Dems waived Pakistani IT aides’ background checks
Wednesday, April 4, 2018
Michael F. Haverluck
“Congressional documents reveal that all 44 House Democrats hiring Pakistani IT aides β who subsequently gained βunauthorized accessβ to confidential information β exempted them from background checks.
Included in the scores of Democrats who waived background checks for Imran Awan, his family and other Muslim hires is former Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who defiantly defended her politically correct decision last year to keep the subsequently arrested employee six months after other members of Congress fired him.”
________________________
Dems are so far ahead in IT they used Pakistani Intelligence service to play Guccifer 2.0 to leak info on their own Congressional personal. In an attempt to put Keith Ellison in charge of the DNC.
Of course all of the Zuck congressional personal are now compromised with their own secrets now in the hands of the Pakistani Intelligence Service. Such fools!!!
Let the Black Mail continue.
The bottom line, there is *NO JUSTICE* at the Justice dept. Spying on US citizens, selling information not only for marketing, but God only knows what else. He didn’t answer direct questions about how facebook censored conservative voices and organizations, yet didn’t on progressive. Bias, its the same *BS* that happened when conservatives were targeted by the IRS, and nothing was done.
One more thing.
In October of 2016 Eric Prince “founder of black water” went on Breitbart news, and said that the NYPD had Anthony Weiners lap top, and that they found hundreds of thousands of clinton emails, many classified, and among those emails, were damning emails that confirmed many things, sex trafficking, under age sex with minors, videos of this, and that the NYPD was going to go forward with the indictments that they had, and arrest warrants, less than 2 weeks before the election.
However, when they gave this information to the FBI, Loretta Lynch, the head of the Justice dept, stopped them by threatening to lock up and throw away the key on officers who had been involved with the heart attack death of the black man, who had been selling cigarettes 2 years prior.
So, we know the democratic party rigged their election, the FBI covered up crimes by the clintons, money laundering, alleged sex trafficking, under age sex with minors, mishandling of classified emails, selling of Uranium, the list is so long, its mind boggling.
So your question was Congress tough enough,,, until our nation returns Justice to the Justice department, the crooks and money launders, sex traffickers, and arrests all those members of congress, the fbi, justice dept, this nation not only will be without justice, but myself and all my fellow veterans, will continue to be an after thought of a broken and corrupt govt.
When you have cancer in one of your extremities and the doctor informs you he can’t tell good tissue from bad do you let the cancer spread and kill you? Or do you make the decision to cut into healthy tissue in a bid to stop the cancer from consuming you?
The evils are no longer sufferable. The list of usurpations grows longer daily. It is far past time for a changing of the guard.
Yep, time to start a new USA grafted from the left testicle of uncle sam after the fall-out settles.
Whole heartily agree! All this “Q” nonsense about white hats within the govt fighting black hats, is just more *BS* , passifing the right, so they sit on their hands and asses while the 5G network is implemented, further enslaving us to a technocratic marxist future, where they control us at every level.
They have divided the indivisible, so all they have left to do is clamp down further and erode what little rights we have left.
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coded
..-. ..- -.-. -.- / ..-. .- -.-. . -… — — -.-
Too many question marks and stops.
@Seymoure Klearly:
.– …. -.– / – …. . / …. — … – .. .-.. .. – -.– ..–..
yes your code does have to many Question marks and stops.
It Translates to “??????e?????ili???”.
Your using the wrong translator, it actually says: Why the hostility.
@Seymore: Seymore, never mind, I too used a bogus translator, and misunderstood your first code post, My apologies.
Instead of just reading your first code, I pasted it into a fucked up translator, because I was being a lazy ass bastard, and it spat out “fuck face?” , of course, I should have also caught that second word as much too long to only be a 4 letter word, that is two mistakes on the same code I made. I agree completely with your first posting of code:
Fuck Facebook.
Being a lazy ass today and it caused 6 more posts then I wanted, I wish I could delete at least 4 of these.
Just to be clear cj no hostilities meant.
With the exception of the hostilities towards toward Zuck head Fuckerberg and his data collection site.
I noticed the data collecting adware on this site is especially interested in collecting info on us today. 21 attempts to access my system in under a minute and a half. Guess they want to really leach any info they can on anyone reading this article or commenting.
Self made billionaires did not get that way except that a WHOLE lot of other humans ended up with fewer $$$ in their pockets to spend on their own iPads, iPhones, iHome, iKrapper, and spare iUSB charging cables. Now the humans who make it all possible for Opie Taylor to buy a small country are gonna try to throttle him back by using our Congress??? Talk about delusional group think!
The dude was probably calculating as he stared at each person, βI could buy off ten of her, nineteen of him, and four each of every security guard in here. If this drags on much longer I am just gonna say fuck it and poney up.β
My point is this: Just what the hell do you think anyone can even do with a guy whose net worth rose 3.1 billion dollars just as he sat in front of Congress answering question? Ben I admire your tenacious efforts on behalf of veterans and your brave letter to Facebook but….
You mention they responded only with an automated response. I say perhaps this is good? I pictured what the possible other more personal responses that a multi billionaires legal team could muster against a veteran turned lawyer who challenged them… I pictured you the valiant mouse standing on two hind legs and extending the middle finger high in one hand and briefcase in the other as the much bigger alternate personal response extended its talons and descended upon your position to address your concerns…
Just saying.
The iKrapper still has issues with the swiping hand-action user-interface. It should also be noted that the iBidet has run into a few set-backs because of aforementioned swipe-action issues, and once we peel the beta-tester’s remains from their bathroom ceilings due to apparent confusion of the Pakistani coders misinterpreted the engineer’s words for ‘Finish’ with ‘Thrust’, causing what we now at Apple are calling ‘The Old Faithful Effect’, maybe a modern cousin to an Oregonian Poop Canon.
Personally I am not into to getting Zucked in the head by FaceBook. I did play with it for a short time but found that in many cases there are numerous fake accounts run by individuals that are there for one thing and that is to Zuck people over.
I followed a controversial action in my community that had a lot of people divided on a subject that eventually ended up in court. Most of the fake accounts were those of law enforcement, social services, medical field and government employees all trying to prevent people from speaking out. When people did speak out anyway they then used the powers of their positions to destroy the lives who had spoken out.
Although I did find it rather therapeutic to dig deep and find the identities of some of the people using the fake accounts and putting their not so pure and clean backgrounds out their for everyone to see. Just like they had to others who were following the issue on the facebook account. I was able to point out a high school coach who was a serious pedifile who then lost his job, a nurse who was using multiple identities to commit mortgage and credit fraud and a Non-profit spoke-person who wasn’t the saint she claimed to be.
While for some accounts facebook can be truly a good thing. It now seems very clear that I made the right decision when I stopped using it. Given the negative emotions that it can cause a user to live with for extended periods of time. Personally I have been fucked over by the VA and to willfully go to something like facebook and get a everlasting zucking in the head just isn’t good for me personally.
Google and FB have become the defacto gatekeepers of our 1st amendment rights. My question is who voted for corporate CEO’s to have this power over our lives?
Off Topic – WC – Did you ever find out how DHS found out your contact information? Or, is your handle a common one that you use elsewhere? Just curious, because the trust with VA, and with some other Vets, has lost the luster.
I assume it was some troll that reported me here. Once DHS had my handle, and no it’s not all that common, I imagine it’s relatively easy for a government agent with a metric fuck ton of money and nothing better to do than harass a citizen on a slow day at the office, to pull up my IP and get my real life contact information. It doesn’t matter. No warrant. No arrest. No conversation. Anybody who knows anything about me whatsoever knows that I think the majority of VA employees need to be put up against the wall and shot. When that day comes, it may be me squeezing the trigger or it may be somebody just like me that’s squeezing the trigger. Like I told Special Agent Van Neil. I’m not a problem, until I’m a problem. And if that day comes there won’t be anything anybody can do about it.
I don’t think it was any of the “regulars” here that got me involved with that particular nothingburger. More than likely some troll looking to cause problems. But that’s also ok. Trolls can go up against the wall too π
As far as trust goes…I can count the number of people I trust implicitly on one hand and still have a substantial number of fingers left over. If I have your trust I thank you for it and will endeavor to keep it. Sadly not too many folks think like that anymore. Personally, I think that’s a major problem for this country.
@WyldeChylde- I only trust my cat, no longer in the trusting of walking meatsacks in this lifetime as I’ve been burned each and every time, even as recent in last year by my very own only brother, and a Veteran.
This world simply needs more cats and less asshole humans. We should feed the asshole humans to the big cat exhibits at zoos around the world…pay-per-view…$$$$$….a bit on the Roman gory side, there’s those handy hungry, hungry lions… π
It’s funny that you mention feeding folks to to the cats. I’m a firm believer in bringing back the lions for a majority of the christian folk. We could put it on PPV and solve the debt problem in a week. I’d definitely tune in to watch Pence face off against a pack of hungry cats π π π
I’d say that there’s more to worry about those that are heathen and pagan to be concerned about, then to focus on (true) Christians. And if one could study and deduct from the VA employees that are corrupt, and putting Veterans though situations that are harmful to our lives, I’d say most of them belong too, or are associated with, or declare themselves to be of a certain large group of Christian believers.
I’m basically with you and Namnibor on most of this, to where I have a great trust in my wife, but on the animalistic side, I trust my K9 PTSD Service Dog. And now, with all the VA douche bag shit that their illegally putting me through, my K9 is being trained for my personal protection as well. And yes for you trolls, he’s a high strung Terrier.
COME AND GET ME SAGGING SCROTUM SACK LAPPERS (that’d be you VA Federal Po-Po, or DHS, etc.)
I want you to stop by so I can give you about 30 seconds to introduce yourself, see why you’re at my door, then throw your commie ass out. Like I ask and tell the Police when then come to see me;
Me; hey you gotta warrant?
Then; n sir we don’t, we just want to talk.
Me; sorry, been talking too much already, get the fuck out.
The way Veterans get treated has got to stop. And I’ll not play the VA’s wicked and evil ways. Where’s the Trumpster, and all his promises, he should do something that has weight and can be measured, because even though many Vets might not say it due to being harassed, but in their hearts and minds, they expect him to do more, than lip service. like the rest of the Politicians always do.
Sorry, no empathy for that spoiled, entitled asshole brat that lives in a plastic bubble of reality…he’s been on the NSA payroll since Bell Labs first developed what the entitled brat branded and packaged for the masses…this is ALL one BIG smokescreen because FB was allowed to become, in order for Big Brother to dig it’s tendrils into the constitution a bit deeper…not a fan, never will be of likes of FB and here we are again, a huge “I told you so”, to my peers re: privacy and safety.
Friends laughed at me years ago when FB was first unleashed and being a student of abnormal human psychological behavior, when I predicted thugs would be using FB in no time to broadcast their deeds and get stupidly caught over and over by doing so.
Friends scoffed at me when I said terrorists or potential enemies will use FB to recruit right under parent’s noses.
Friends thought I was completely mad when I suggested terrorists would broadcast live executions on FB just like the local mother last summer that duct taped her infant turdler to the wall like a spider…daring children services to come…
And my unjustified favorite but dedicated to my now-dead veteran Robert, whom was told by his VA Psych shortly before being banned and escorted by DBC from property, that since he can use social media, likes of FB, his PTSD was not real and they were going to fuck with his benefits. They cut off his pain med, went to street and died of OD early days of fentynal (sp)overdoses…but by golly, he followed the VA Psych Hack’s advice and deleted his own profile from planet earth…
Zuck Off, Fuckerberg!!!!!!!!!!! Whiny Bitch got off easy because THEY want it just the way it is…$$$$$$$.
π ^(fun with dyslexia)^ π
It sounds like this is an added verse of follow the (stocks) money.