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Neil Young sets sights on ‘corrupt’ Facebook, Google

By: Jim Harrington Posted:

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In the midst of his battle against President Trump, Neil Young has decided to take on a couple of other sizable entities —Facebook and Google.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/08/2020 (2172 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In the midst of his battle against President Trump, Neil Young has decided to take on a couple of other sizable entities —Facebook and Google.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer has announced he’ll be spending thousands of dollars to disconnect his popular Neil Young Archives music site from the two online giants.

Young’s beef with Facebook has been going on for quite some time, with the rocker working on trying to “disengage (the archives) from the corrupt social platform” for several months, according to an email sent out from Young’s Archives. It’s estimated that it will cost $20,000 for the archives to totally leave the world of Facebook behind —but that’s a price that Young is definitely willing to pay.

Amy Harris/ The Associated Press Neil Young
Amy Harris/ The Associated Press Neil Young

“Facebook knowingly allows untruths and lies in its political ads to circulate on the platform, while bots sow discord among users,” according to the statement from Neil Young Archives. “Sowing dissent and chaos in our country via political disinformation is something we cannot condone. Simply put, Facebook is screwing with our election.”

Yet, it’s unclear exactly why Young now also wants to disassociate from the Google platform and thus eliminate both Google (and Facebook) logins from his website. But he has sent out an email to fans to let them know that the change is happening.

Information emailed out to fans says the roughly US$20,000 Young is spending “to get out of this mess is designed to make it as easy as possible for our valued Facebook users to log in simply and securely to (Neil Young Archives) without the social media platform involved in any way. It is in keeping with what we have been maintaining re: the irresponsible social media platform for the past two years.”

It goes on to explain that the Neil Young Archives “strives to be a place where music lovers can get all of my music at its highest quality, while keeping up on news and views from around the world that we wish to share. We are primarily a music platform featuring all the background information, films, videos, and credits associated with each piece of music we present while offering unparalleled listening quality.”

Young has been in the news a lot lately, having filed a lawsuit against Trump to try to stop the president from using his music in rallies and campaign events.

— The Mercury News

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