State-sponsored misinformation should be protected by freedom of speech.
Twitter is a private entity which has no obligation to host said speech.
Twitter discloses 10k accounts suspended for fomenting political discord
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Re: Twitter discloses 10k accounts suspended for fomenting political discord
#12I’ve been wondering for a while whether I should delete my Twitter account and this piece of news suggests to me that perhaps I should. The sentence “Fomenting political discord” sounds a lot like 1984.
In the article, the accounts were "actively spreading misinformation and encouraging unrest in politically sensitive climates." Sounds fine to me. Overreaction much?
"misinformation" - as defined by whom?
"encouraging unrest in politically sensitive climates" - La Résistance in Vichy France would fall under this. In some countries asking for fair and democratic elections would fall under this.
Re: Twitter discloses 10k accounts suspended for fomenting political discord
#13Re: Twitter discloses 10k accounts suspended for fomenting political discord
#14If they are bots which get paid or are under control of a government, sure, suspend. If these are individuals voicing opinions and not inciting violence, I think they are wrong. People should be able to have disagreeable opinions, even illegal opinions (“pot should be legal”), “the minister in an asshole”. People should not be guilty of wrongthink.
> People should be able to have disagreeable opinions, even illegal opinions
I think I missed the part where twitter has control over what opinions people are able to have. How ever did we every have any opinions before 2006?
Re: Twitter discloses 10k accounts suspended for fomenting political discord
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
Twitter is a private entity which has no obligation to host said speech.
The first amendment doesn't apply to twitter, but we can still hold them accountable for their content policies.
Insofar as "hold them accountable" means organizing a boycott or something, sure (although I don't know why you'd be against them not allowing state-sponsored misinformation).
Parent said "protected by freedom of speech", though, which in this context sounds like they're suggesting that Twitter should be compelled by law to host it.
Re: Twitter discloses 10k accounts suspended for fomenting political discord
#16If they are bots which get paid or are under control of a government, sure, suspend. If these are individuals voicing opinions and not inciting violence, I think they are wrong. People should be able to have disagreeable opinions, even illegal opinions (“pot should be legal”), “the minister in an asshole”. People should not be guilty of wrongthink.
> People should be able to have disagreeable opinions, even illegal opinions I think I missed the part where twitter has control over what opinions people are able to have. How ever did we every have any opinions before 2006?
In order to combat vile trolling and direct incitement to violence, Twitter has taken it upon themselves to moderate other behaviors as well.
There are historic tweets from senior people at Twitter which today would get banned.
As an example, if I were to the r-word, I could get the hammer, depending if it’s noticed or not. I do not use the r-word. I think it’s in poor taste and reflects badly on one’s upbringing to use it, but yet I think in addition to being vernacular, we should not ban people for using “bad” words, of for this word to consider it hateful (at least in most contexts).
Re: Twitter discloses 10k accounts suspended for fomenting political discord
#17about damn time! this "internet" thing--letting ordinary dummies all over the world (even the ones in shithole countries) talk to each other--is, was, and always will be bad news.
only way to protect these fools from "fake news" is to filter everything through the pure and blameless mouths of demographically-targeted, perfect-haired multimillionaires reading teleprompters. it is the only way!
in light of this glorious victory--thank you Lord Jesus!--we are only a few years away from setting things right.
Re: Twitter discloses 10k accounts suspended for fomenting political discord
#18I’ve been wondering for a while whether I should delete my Twitter account and this piece of news suggests to me that perhaps I should. The sentence “Fomenting political discord” sounds a lot like 1984.
In the article, the accounts were "actively spreading misinformation and encouraging unrest in politically sensitive climates." Sounds fine to me. Overreaction much?
Without any context, if you said "a spokesman justified the censorship by claiming those involved were 'actively spreading misinformation and encouraging unrest in politically sensitive climates'" and asked me to guess who the spokesman was representing, I would say the Chinese government not Twitter. You might object that that statement is true when made by Twitter but would be a lie coming from China, but I don't think that's right. The protestors in Hong Kong are certainly "encouraging unrest" and probably some of them have made untrue claims at some point.
This kind of surface-level similarity doesn't necessarily mean much, but I still think it's a bit disturbing. Twitter have a lot of power to censor, and I'm not sure why anyone would trust them to reliably use it wisely.
Re: Twitter discloses 10k accounts suspended for fomenting political discord
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
> People should be able to have disagreeable opinions, even illegal opinions I think I missed the part where twitter has control over what opinions people are able to have. How ever did we every have any opinions before 2006?
In order to combat vile trolling and direct incitement to violence, Twitter has taken it upon themselves to moderate other behaviors as well. There are historic tweets from senior people at Twitter which today would get banned. As an example, if I were to the r-word, I could get the hammer, depending if it’s noticed or not. I do not use the r-word. I think it’s in poor taste and reflects badly on one’s upbringing to…
Twitter does not constrain your ability to hold/believe your opinion, merely to express it on their platform (which they own and grant you access under the condition you conform to the rules they apply to everybody).
Re: Twitter discloses 10k accounts suspended for fomenting political discord
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
> People should be able to have disagreeable opinions, even illegal opinions I think I missed the part where twitter has control over what opinions people are able to have. How ever did we every have any opinions before 2006?
In order to combat vile trolling and direct incitement to violence, Twitter has taken it upon themselves to moderate other behaviors as well. There are historic tweets from senior people at Twitter which today would get banned. As an example, if I were to the r-word, I could get the hammer, depending if it’s noticed or not. I do not use the r-word. I think it’s in poor taste and reflects badly on one’s upbringing to…
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