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Ask HN: Discord banned me with no recourse

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Re: Ask HN: Discord banned me with no recourse

#61

Post by troon-lover »

anoonmoose wrote: post #51
moss2 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another idea would be legislature. Have these online public spaces serve under the same laws as real-life public spaces (museums, parks et cetera). If a town banned you from the train station because you refuse to give them your phone number, that would open them up to being sued. That should absolutely apply to Discord, Google Mail and Amazon AWS.

That should absolutely not apply to Discord, Google Mail, or Amazon AWS, because those are all private companies restricting the use of their private property. You may call them "public spaces" or "public services" but that is an abuse of the word "public".

No post body was provided.

Re: Ask HN: Discord banned me with no recourse

#62

Post by kemiller »

anoonmoose wrote: post #51
moss2 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another idea would be legislature. Have these online public spaces serve under the same laws as real-life public spaces (museums, parks et cetera). If a town banned you from the train station because you refuse to give them your phone number, that would open them up to being sued. That should absolutely apply to Discord, Google Mail and Amazon AWS.

That should absolutely not apply to Discord, Google Mail, or Amazon AWS, because those are all private companies restricting the use of their private property. You may call them "public spaces" or "public services" but that is an abuse of the word "public".

They are but that’s precisely the problem. More and more of our vital communication channels are owned by single private entities. IOW public discourse is being replaced by “public” discourse. The promise of blockchain solutions is that they can return us to the status quo ante of the internet where there were open protocols that operated in a decentralized way. Whether it can fulfill that promise, I don’t know. But there’s also plenty of precedent for regulating how the private owners of public goods (such as rail and telephone networks, or even sidewalks) must behave.

Re: Ask HN: Discord banned me with no recourse

#63

Post by Suzuran »

ctrlmeta wrote: post #14

The popularity of Discord always surprises me! It takes hard work and time to create an active community. Why put all that hard work and time into a corporate-controlled platform that can lock you out of it anytime they want? How do people feel ok taking such a big risk? Why not use an open protocol like Matrix (or IRC if you're savvy) to form your community?

Having experience with both, the big win with Discord vs. self-hosted services is that I don't have to directly fight the losing war/arms race vs. organized spam.

Re: Ask HN: Discord banned me with no recourse

#64

Post by [deleted] »

chinathrow wrote: post #16
huhtenberg wrote: post #13

HN needs a separate section for this sort of "media shaming" posts. I understand why they are being made, but it's getting a bit tiring to see these on the front page so frequently.

> I understand why they are being made, but it's getting a bit tiring to see these on the front page so frequently. It's getting a bit tiring to see that these large corporations still can't figure it out on how to treat your user base regarding de-platforming.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Discord banned me with no recourse

#65

Post by p49k »

huhtenberg wrote: post #13

HN needs a separate section for this sort of "media shaming" posts. I understand why they are being made, but it's getting a bit tiring to see these on the front page so frequently.

When it happens to you and this is the only way you can get access to some urgently-needed account, you'll be thankful HN didn't create a special category to push these down and make them less visible.

Re: Ask HN: Discord banned me with no recourse

#66

Post by cloudwalk9 »

quikoa wrote: post #46
cloudwalk9 wrote: post #28

Discord Trust and Safety in particular is downright useless. I feel I should share my story. It's a personal hell I've been stuck in for a while. I'm disabled from severe depression resistant to first line treatments, bedridden a lot of the time, and I rely on the platform for most of my social interaction and resources for my hobbies, as far as I can pursue them of course. Discord is invaluable and is basically a mo…

Perhaps it's worth to consider taking them to a small claims court. I don't know what the odds of winning are but it's quite the hassle for a company.

I've considered it. But they have a right to refuse service for any reason. Only damages I could claim is 10 dollars from my last month of Nitro. Not sure what they're doing counts as disability discrimination either. Probably don't have a case.

Re: Ask HN: Discord banned me with no recourse

#67

Post by dorkwood »

JonathanBeuys wrote: post #30

I don't get it. We keep seeing these dystopian stories again and again and again. Does anybody really believe it will ever stop? Or will we all live in fear of losing a lot of work and valuable connections by being banned from one of our social accounts? I already lost one Instagram account that I put a lot of work into. One day, Insta suddenly asked for my birthday. After me putting it in, all I saw is "Sorry, this…

I also lost my Instagram to a weird bug/ban thing. If I try to access my account on desktop it says "confirm your information using the Instagram app to try to get back to your account". Opening the app on my phone results in a black screen. This happens on both Android and iOS. Android has some buttons that appear, but they're really buggy (appearing and disappearing) and none of them do anything except give me an error. It kind of seems like there's some sort of verification process I'm supposed to go through, but the app won't let me access it.

I just want to delete my account at this point, but I can't since I can't log in.

Re: Ask HN: Discord banned me with no recourse

#68

Post by notsapiensatall »

JonathanBeuys wrote: post #30

I don't get it. We keep seeing these dystopian stories again and again and again. Does anybody really believe it will ever stop? Or will we all live in fear of losing a lot of work and valuable connections by being banned from one of our social accounts? I already lost one Instagram account that I put a lot of work into. One day, Insta suddenly asked for my birthday. After me putting it in, all I saw is "Sorry, this…

Users keep using. Why would the companies change?

If you object, don't click "I agree" to terms of service that you don't feel comfortable with.

It's like a prisoner's dilemma. You can complain about how people always defect on you, but you're doing the exact same thing.

Re: Ask HN: Discord banned me with no recourse

#69

Post by qzx_pierri »

JonathanBeuys wrote: post #30

I don't get it. We keep seeing these dystopian stories again and again and again. Does anybody really believe it will ever stop? Or will we all live in fear of losing a lot of work and valuable connections by being banned from one of our social accounts? I already lost one Instagram account that I put a lot of work into. One day, Insta suddenly asked for my birthday. After me putting it in, all I saw is "Sorry, this…

You gotta stop putting all of your eggs in one basket. Also, connect with these important people outside of Discord. You have to assume these sites/services will ban you at any moment. Contingency planning isn’t just for projects at work!

Re: Ask HN: Discord banned me with no recourse

#70

Post by qzx_pierri »

kemiller wrote: post #62
anoonmoose wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That should absolutely not apply to Discord, Google Mail, or Amazon AWS, because those are all private companies restricting the use of their private property. You may call them "public spaces" or "public services" but that is an abuse of the word "public".

They are but that’s precisely the problem. More and more of our vital communication channels are owned by single private entities. IOW public discourse is being replaced by “public” discourse. The promise of blockchain solutions is that they can return us to the status quo ante of the internet where there were open protocols that operated in a decentralized way. Whether it can fulfill that promise, I don’t know. But…

The internet is not real life. It seems a lot of people who hold your opinion are in the 18-24 age range. Those people who grew up thinking the internet is the only way to communicate or “make things happen”. But I assure you these private companies do NOT have to let you use their services, and common excuses such as “Online communication is like a public square!” is not rooted in the desire for free speech, but is rooted in the desire for instant gratification.

Yes it’s easier to gain a following online, but throughout MOST of history, people started these movements/conversation offline. Don’t let these companies trick you into thinking you don’t have a voice, or power, without voicing your thoughts on their “platforms”. You have a voice, and you can use it. You’ll just have to get out the house and start talking to people face to face.

Edit: I didn't mean to establish a condescending tone with the second sentence - I was simply making an observation.

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