back to article Chrome extension blocks political speech on Facebook

With the US presidential election less than two weeks away, social networking users can be forgiven for having grown tired of reading online political rants. Now, thanks to a new Chrome extension, fed-up Facebook fans can nip their friends' tirades in the bud. When installed in the Chrome browser, Unpolitic.me sifts through …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Can I be the first

    to add "Apple" to that list?

    1. Ole Juul

      Re: Can I be the first

      Highly politicised topics can indeed be tiresome, so let's also add Facebook to the list.

      ... oh wait.

    2. Bush_rat
      Thumb Up

      Re: Can I be the first

      and for us aussies, "carbon", "abbot", "gillard", "ditch the bitch" and "chaff bag"

      1. Peter Murphy
        Thumb Up

        Re: Can I be the first

        Pretty good list, although you left out "Juliar" - a sure sign that the post is both political and unreadable.

      2. Robert E A Harvey

        Re: Can I be the first

        Do I want to know about 'Chaff Bag'?

        [BFO ? icon]

    3. Dana W

      Re: Can I be the first

      If I can add Windows 8. sure,

  2. The Alpha Klutz
    Megaphone

    elections r fun

    people dont know hu to vote 4 because dey both suck

  3. tkioz
    Angel

    Oh Thank God. I want this so bad, and I'm adding tons of Australia keywords to the damn thing as well... Sick to death of reading political rants.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    But what happens

    if you add "kittens"?

    1. GBE

      Re: But what happens

      If you add "kittens", then you could break the internet.

      1. LaeMing
        Go

        Re: But what happens

        Either that, or a cat gets elected president.

        1. Robert E A Harvey
          Coat

          cat gets elected president.

          Give one the nuclear button? Worrying. evil buggers, cats.

          footnote: cats are more likely to be able to pronounce 'nuclear' than recent button-weilders

  5. Eddy Ito

    But...

    There's no such thing as a relaxing photo of a cat. Especially one that looks like the fuzzy spawn of Satan that stomps up my chest to smack me in the face at oh dark fucking thirty in the morning.

    1. jake Silver badge

      @Eddy Ido (was: Re: But...)

      Learn to speak Cat.

      I'm in charge of our pride; the Wife is my queen ... The felines respond appropriately. They wait until one of us decides it's 0-coffee thirty. Including the indoor pseudo-ferals.

      When you grok the lingo of any given critter-group, they no longer present a problem.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @ Eddy

      Do you have doors in your house?

  6. jake Silver badge

    Or, optionally ...

    You can totally ignore so-called "online social networking" entirely. Works for me. My actual, real world social life hasn't suffered at all, near as I can tell.

    As a side note to ElReg's ed(s): "aerie" is more properly "eyrie". Even in British English.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Any chance we can install something similar on the BBC, so I don't have to listen to 20 minutes of in-depth analysis, every time Obamalamadingdong or "the other one" clears their throat, while addressing the good citizens of the Moosejaw Creek Arkansas Marmalade-Making Society?

    It's no wonder the Merkins think they're the centre of the fucking universe, when the rest of the world does so little to disabuse them of the notion!

    1. tkioz
      Unhappy

      Unfortunately when you say things like that you get called "Anti-American"... no I like yanks, plenty of them, but I can not stand their politics, it is the most incomprehensible buggered up system of government I can imagine... and I've studied the Byzantine Empire in depth...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        You say the truth. I'm posting anonymous but Tor & all, I'm being tracked! (so are you)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      madra: +1

      A year or so back, we had an election for the state of Queensland. I heard more about the US Presidential election at the time via our media here, than the very election I was required to vote on.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Love that Murdoch influence?

  8. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Holmes

    Pretty telling

    Leni Riefenstahl already managed to cut-and-splice a picture of moggy sitting on a windowsill in Nürnberg while Hitler was rolling past in his motorcade.

    Has anything changed? Not really.

    Hold on, Obama is institutionalizing killing-by-decr... how boring. How about a nice cat.

  9. anger

    Can I have unSavile.me? for chrome and my tv. Pictures of cats would be fine!

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Only a Muppet uses Chrome - Use Iron!

      1. Thorne

        I though only women use irons?

        1. jake Silver badge

          @Thorne

          Well ... The wife & foreman's wife usually handle the branding irons. Us guys hold the critters down. All of us use stirrup irons daily ... and we all practice with the shootin' irons on a weekly basis. The cast-iron cooking gear is MINE, dammit, and almost all I have passed down from my GreatGrandfather ...

          Oh, wait ... you were being misogynistic. Idiot.

          1. Thorne
            Trollface

            Re: @Cowboy Jake

            Sorry. Women and Brokeback Mountain yanks use irons. I stand corrected

            1. jake Silver badge

              Re: @Cowboy Jake

              I hate to repeat myself, but ...

              Idiot.

  10. Mike Judge
    Thumb Up

    vermin supreme

    I hope it won't block his political genius...

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Knowing Google it will secretly lobby for the candidate that suits their business aims.

    1. JDX Gold badge

      You say that like you think it's some cynical secret rather than simple common sense.

      1. Elmer Phud
        Holmes

        'simple common sense'

        Not sure that exists out of newsmedia/politics fantasy land.

        Sense that is 'common' is highly uncommon as everyone has their own value of 'sense'.

  12. AfternoonTea
    Childcatcher

    Ah, more & more ways to insulate people from the real world.

    As long as you keep buying, watching ads, and are scared of the "terrorist's", governments feel they are doing you a service!

  13. Solly
    Big Brother

    I've got a bad feeling about this

    A chat with the developers

    Q: Okay, so these users of the browser extension don't want to hear political messages, policy, idea's and what not?

    A: Yes

    Q: And are these people still likely to vote?

    A: Some of them yes definitely

    Q: Do you think a democracy works best when the people that vote are informed as to what they are voting for?

    A: No comment

    1. Esskay
      Happy

      Re: I've got a bad feeling about this

      To be fair, most of the political guff that gets shovelled onto the front page of facebook by "ppl who r rly inurestted in politiks coz I watched teh news tday" can hardly be described as policy, or ideas.

      As far as I can tell if the people posting most of the rants were capable of digesting differences in policy or ideas, they wouldn't be projectile vomiting illiterate crap onto the screen in the first place.

      1. Robert E A Harvey
        FAIL

        projectile vomiting illiterate crap

        Yes.

        I've heard nothing substantive about what either candidate will do about climate, depletion of resources, overpopulation, employment, or making friends with other cultures.

        I have heard a lot of manic hooting about who is allowed to do what to texan vaginas, and the more rabid ideas of nutters lower down the political pecking order.

        Unless there is an alternate information stream available to the voters of the giant playground, I would suspect that the correct answer is "none of the above".

  14. Steven Roper
    Facepalm

    LA LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU

    People who deliberately block out political discussion should forfeit the right to vote if they're that disinterested. The last thing I want is uninformed and possibly self-righteous idiots who refuse to acknowledge or discuss important political issues, deciding who gets to make laws governing my life.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: LA LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU

      That comment would be less trite if anyone, including the politicians, *were* actually informed on the issues ...

      ... and it would be less ironic if it wasn't so self-righteous.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Down

      @Steven Roper

      "should forfeit the right to vote"

      and when you've constructed the extensive information gathering capability to enforce your new rules, what then for your police state?

      "uninformed and possibly self-righteous idiots" Quite.

  15. Nameless Faceless Computer User
    Pint

    yea, so as the religious right-wing nuts attempt to take control of the most powerful office on the planet we replace it all with pictures of cats. Sounds reasonable to me.

  16. John Tserkezis

    I'm still mourning the loss of...

    ...the fecking justin beiber Firefox addon that blocked out his name on any website you visit.

    It stopped working after I upgraded several versions ahead.

    Oh well, at least he's almost vanished into obscurity by now...

  17. LightningKid
    FAIL

    Who needs the filter when faceplant is already filtering political crap?

    I do sometimes post stuff politically-oriented, mostly because it's something that pissed me off.

    Lately (last two weeks?), Facebook has been actively blocking those attempts. So who needs the filter when faceplant is doing it for you? I'm waiting for them to eliminate any negative posts about themselves tbh, I'm surprised they haven't been more proactive about it... Unless they're waiting for the elections to get the right bastard in that'll allow them to do heinous things that before they weren't allowed to do. <_< >_>

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