I find this odd. One person died at Charlottesville, potentially from an accident. Meanwhile there's been at least one intentional shooting with a higher death toll related to BLM, but there was no widespread "we need to shut this down" backlash there. But all of a sudden some random site writing mostly nonsense is some huge threat that we're gonna put aside neutrality and free speech for?
Alt-social network Gab booted from Google Play Store for hate speech
21–30 of 170 posts
Re: Alt-social network Gab booted from Google Play Store for hate speech
#22Little by little, Silicon Valley is supplanting the government. At this point it should be obvious that Silicon Valley companies feel no need to follow regulations imposed on them by the government. Some do, but those that don't aren't punished and generally wind up with faster growing businesses because of it. The government makes a symbolic effort to prevent hate speech, but where their efforts end Silicon Valley's begin. SVs efforts are much farther reaching and much more swiftly applied. And, of course, there is no oversight, no law or set of guidelines that Google must follow to decide what is and isn't "hate speech." Google gets to decide, they have the power.
Do you think you have a right to privacy in this country? You might have that right, as long as the SV companies decide to stick up for it. But it should be obvious at this point that, that right won't eve be enforced by the nominal "government."
Re: Alt-social network Gab booted from Google Play Store for hate speech
#23Meanwhile twitter is being used to threaten assassinations - https://twitter.com/search?q=assassinate%20trump&src=tyah I get there's ugly stuff on the internet, but when did all the platforms decide to start being the moral center of determining what's acceptable speech. Hate speech is still protected speech (in the US anyways)[1] no matter how horrible it is. > A law that can be directed against speech found offensi…
"when did all the platforms decide to start being the moral center of determining what's acceptable speech"
When it became more profitable to do so, or they saw a PR angle. IMO businesses will cater to death cults that murder kittens if it makes money, but only until it becomes a PR problem. Real or imagined.
Re: Alt-social network Gab booted from Google Play Store for hate speech
#24Meanwhile twitter is being used to threaten assassinations - https://twitter.com/search?q=assassinate%20trump&src=tyah I get there's ugly stuff on the internet, but when did all the platforms decide to start being the moral center of determining what's acceptable speech. Hate speech is still protected speech (in the US anyways)[1] no matter how horrible it is. > A law that can be directed against speech found offensi…
The platforms are not deciding to be the arbiter of morality, that's just a straw man. They are, however, deciding what they want to see and not want to see on their own platform, which bandwidth/maintenance/etc costs they are footing the bill for, which is perfectly acceptable.
They are private businesses, they are not discriminating against a protected class (to cut short any "but what about refusing to sell cakes to gay people" argument), so they are free to ban whatever users/apps/etc they want off of their platform.
Hey, maybe if Twitter had banned Trump for some of the crap he said, we wouldn't be in this mess.
This is no different from a book publisher refusing to publish your book. Free speech considerations do not apply.
Re: Alt-social network Gab booted from Google Play Store for hate speech
#25Wonder if the already-installed app is still usable or if it relied on some Google services.
If it was still usable I hope Google did a remote removal of it.
Re: Alt-social network Gab booted from Google Play Store for hate speech
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Much of it depends how public it is. For instance something like whisper needs to remove nudity/hate speech else they'll be kicked off iOS/playstore. But, you can still send it directly without issue.
Let's take Torba out of the equation and just say innocent Dev A wants to create a truly free speech platform, where anything goes and only illegal things get removed. Like voat, per se. We all see how that turned out. I'm kind of curious why we can't have an uncensored platform that represents both sides. Is it because good people prefer censorship?
Good analysis on SSC: http://slatestarcodex.com/2015/07/22/freedom-on-the-centrali...
Re: Alt-social network Gab booted from Google Play Store for hate speech
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Much of it depends how public it is. For instance something like whisper needs to remove nudity/hate speech else they'll be kicked off iOS/playstore. But, you can still send it directly without issue.
Let's take Torba out of the equation and just say innocent Dev A wants to create a truly free speech platform, where anything goes and only illegal things get removed. Like voat, per se. We all see how that turned out. I'm kind of curious why we can't have an uncensored platform that represents both sides. Is it because good people prefer censorship?
It's because when a mob is at your door, regardless of the issue, you have two choices: Stand and fight, or cave in to the mob. Silicon Valley is being bullied and forced into making a choice. They have chosen to preserve their business and promote PR, rather than fight.
Re: Alt-social network Gab booted from Google Play Store for hate speech
#28I find this odd. One person died at Charlottesville, potentially from an accident. Meanwhile there's been at least one intentional shooting with a higher death toll related to BLM, but there was no widespread "we need to shut this down" backlash there. But all of a sudden some random site writing mostly nonsense is some huge threat that we're gonna put aside neutrality and free speech for?
They got their momentum and they're running with it.
Re: Alt-social network Gab booted from Google Play Store for hate speech
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Much of it depends how public it is. For instance something like whisper needs to remove nudity/hate speech else they'll be kicked off iOS/playstore. But, you can still send it directly without issue.
Let's take Torba out of the equation and just say innocent Dev A wants to create a truly free speech platform, where anything goes and only illegal things get removed. Like voat, per se. We all see how that turned out. I'm kind of curious why we can't have an uncensored platform that represents both sides. Is it because good people prefer censorship?
Sorry, but while speech is protected, not all speech is protected.
Hate speech and incitement of violence is a felony in most free democracies that protect speech.
Re: Alt-social network Gab booted from Google Play Store for hate speech
#30Meanwhile twitter is being used to threaten assassinations - https://twitter.com/search?q=assassinate%20trump&src=tyah I get there's ugly stuff on the internet, but when did all the platforms decide to start being the moral center of determining what's acceptable speech. Hate speech is still protected speech (in the US anyways)[1] no matter how horrible it is. > A law that can be directed against speech found offensi…
They aren't the moral center. They're firmly on the left and banning their political opponents. Hate speech exists on all platforms and comes from both sides; it's only an excuse here.