They have launched a new method to harm small websites

Facebook and the EU are taking down non-commercial blogs: a call for help

This Tuesday, checking your Facebook walls, you may have noticed that all the previews of the entries in this blog have disappeared.

Twitter's complicity with Russia: it censored Trump but gives free rein to the Putin regime
The harsh statement of the Prime Minister of Poland against censorship in social media

It has not happened only with this blog: also with many other websites, especially non-commercial blogs. Counting Stars does not earn money for advertising or any other means. It is a non-profit website. Previews only appear if you're using Facebook's Meta Business Suite and domain verified, but even then, when sharing the post you have to check a box to share the original post. Otherwise, the preview disappears, something that does not happen in large media.

An EU directive as an excuse to limit the diffusion of blogs

This morning, when going to post a post, Facebook told me that the image selected for preview "could not be rendered due to an EU news domain license restriction" . On the Facebook page where they explain this they indicate that it is due to a "European Union Copyright Directive (EUCD)", which Facebook has chosen to interpret in its own way as follows: "links to press publisher domains shared by someone other than the press publisher on Facebook or without their permission will only be shown with the hyperlink and the headline of the Page linked to it."

I have done tests and in large media this does not happen, but it does with this and other blogs. The domain of Counting Stars (www.outono.net) is verified by Facebook, following the instructions indicated by this social network. But now that is not enough. I'd have to turn this blog into a news site (commercial, that is) for those previews to show up. As these previews do not appear, the articles of this blog will see their diffusion reduced.

A process that is leading to limit the freedom of information

The EU and the main social networks have long used all kinds of excuses to harm websites that are not commercial media. The obsession generated in certain areas with "fake news" after Trump's victory in the US and as a result of the pandemic is leading to the erosion of freedom of information, in an effort to control who is the one who publishes what things that reminds more and more of an authoritarian regime.

How to help this blog cope with this new censorship

For all these reasons, I am writing this entry to inform you of what is happening and also to ask for your help. No financial aid. Thank God, I can afford the expenses generated by this blog and I assume them as my small contribution to the defense of Spain, freedom and human dignity. The help I ask you for is to support other ways of disseminating this blog:

All the contents of the blog are published daily in these newsletters and on these social networks. In particular, the great advantage of free newsletters and Telegram is that you don't miss anything published, since the algorithms of networks such as Twitter and Facebook decide on their own which publications they serve and which readers. The best way for no one to decide what you should read is not to depend on networks where an algorithm makes all that decision. Thank you all in advance for your help.

+UPDATED 22.10.2022 2:26h: It seems that Facebook has reversed some of these changes. Specifically, it has restored the previews of published posts (it had been deleted on October 18) and now also allows you to share previewed posts without having to check any boxes. I suppose they have received enough protests for the changes they made a few days ago.

Don't miss the news and content that interest you. Receive the free daily newsletter in your email:

Opina sobre esta entrada:

Debes iniciar sesión para comentar. Pulsa aquí para iniciar sesión. Si aún no te has registrado, pulsa aquí para registrarte.