EVER since the release of “BANNED: How Facebook Enables Militant Islamic Jihad ” (September 1, 2016), it has become impossible to ignore its truth-telling, irrespective of discomfiting revelations. As always, a segment prefer to remain in the dark – deaf, dumb, and blind. But never mind. To each his own.

BE that as it may, the book’s thesis has dual prongs – zeroing in on the platform’s enabling of Jihad, in concert with revealing its underbelly through the deployment of various methods of censorship. Silencing techniques.

IPSO facto, conservative voices are muted, leftist viewpoints are empowered, and Islamic Jihadis run amok. Simply put, it is a recipe for disaster, that is, for westerners who value freedom and liberty. On the other hand, Zuckerberg let it be known, as to where he stands, in relation to said liberties!

In an interview published Wednesday at Wired Magazine, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg let the cat out of the bag, telling the tech outlet that he basically wants to trade free speech and free expression for “safety” and an “informed community,” Breitbart reported.

“I think at the heart of a lot of these issues we face are tradeoffs between real values that people care about. You know, when you think about issues like fake news or hate speech, right, it’s a tradeoff between free speech and free expression and safety and having an informed community.  These are all the challenging situations that I think we are working to try to navigate as best we can,” he said in response to a question about “philosophical changes” that have been going through his mind in the previous few days….

IN fact, said knock-on effects are pin-pointed and targeted in an “Open letter to Mark Zuckerberg from a frustrated, fed-up conservative.” It is a devastating, searing indictment.

NOW, before moving forward, it must be internalized: Many who are currently  (emphasis placed) on board within Congress (in tandem with so-called elites) to rein in Facebook through legislation are incensed because President Trump “may have” benefited from Cambridge Analytica – the very same company, with the very same analytical techniques, which catapulted their “favorite son” to the Presidency, HUSSEIN Obama!! So, fair-minded folks may be forgiven for inquiring: Where were they during the ascendancy of the aforementioned POTUS? Hide nor hair. Asked and answered.

ALAS, as always, every dark cloud has a silver lining…blow-back, if you will.

Facebook Inc. is drawing scrutiny from the main U.S. privacy watchdog and half a dozen congressional committees over how the personal data of 50 million users was obtained by a data analytics firm that helped elect President Donald Trump.

Facebook said it would conduct staff-level briefings of six committees Tuesday and Wednesday. That includes meetings with the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, as well as the commerce and intelligence committees of both chambers.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is also probing whether Facebook violated terms of a 2011 consent decree over its handling of personal user data that was transferred to Cambridge Analytica without users’ knowledge, according to a person familiar with the matter. The FTC will be sending a letter to the company, another person said. Facebook slumped on the news, extending Monday’s decline.

The FTC is the lead U.S. agency for enforcing companies’ adherence to their own privacy policies and could fine the company into the millions of dollars if it finds Facebook violated a 2011 consent decree. New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced on Tuesday that he and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey had sent a demand letter to Facebook as part of a joint probe stemming from the fallout. Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen announced his own probe Monday.

Amid the scrutiny, Facebook will be confronting immediate demands by Congress. In addition to the briefings, Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he wants to hear testimony from Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg, as well as Twitter Inc. CEO Jack Dorsey. Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, chairman of the Intelligence Committee, said any decision about calling Zuckerberg to appear before the panel is farther off.

Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who also serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Tuesday that she has “grown increasingly concerned as we’re learning more and more about the manipulation of data, the harvesting of data from Facebook, the ads that were placed to sow the seeds of discord in this country.” The panel has previously heard testimony into Russia’s use of Facebook to attempt to meddle in the 2016 election.

“I believe that Facebook, Twitter, the other social media platforms have a lot of questions to answer,” she said….continue reading….

MIND you, reportedly, while high-level meetings at Facebook are going down, Zuckerberg, his “Lean-In” #Me Too woman, Sheryl Sandberg, are no-shows. Delicacy aside, one pu**y deserves another! So much so, even loyalists are getting antsy, querying: Where the hell are they? And, why are they “MISSING-IN-ACTION?”

INCONTROVERTIBLY, “we frequently hear politicians speak of companies not being too big to fail. But is Facebook too big to be regulated? Is Facebook so big that it can freely operate as a government unto itself?” (pg. 23, BANNED)

INDEED, said queries have proven to be more than valid! Dare I say it, prescient?

FINALLY, blessedly, with all of the brouhaha surrounding Facebook in specific and tech giants in particular, how many know what Zuckerberg said to BBC in 2009: “We won’t sell personal information.” Liar, liar, pants on fire!

“Politicians like to pound their chests and call for common-sense legislation. Yet when presented with a very real problem, they shy away. This is the point where individuals need to step up and tack action.” (pg. 138, BANNED)