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Trump threatens to 'close' down social media platforms

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Re: Trump threatens to 'close' down social media platforms

#31

Post by qubex »

collegecamp293 wrote: post #23

Twitter has opened a whole can of worms. There are several official state agencies with their propaganda PR arms on Twitter. Will they fact check them too and risk being banned in those countries?

That’s probably why they’ve delayed taking this stance for so long. They have, after all, typically refrained from “fact-checking” leaders or politicians in other countries too. I assume it’s just got to a point where they’re no longer to (in their good conscience) offset readership/users with the promulgation of highly questionable statements.

And to be perfectly honest, I’m all for it, especially if they’ve done this (and will do this more broadly, as you suggest) despite expecting to take a substantial ‘hit’ to their bottom line.

Re: Trump threatens to 'close' down social media platforms

#33

Post by krapp »

thebouv wrote: post #25

So he just admitted that fact checking is suppressing conservative voices? That's awesome.

He's also admitted that voter suppression is the main reason Republicans even get elected[0].

God help us if we ever get a competent authoritarian into office who's cunning enough not to say the corrupt part out loud.

[0]https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/30/trump-vot...

Re: Trump threatens to 'close' down social media platforms

#34

Post by orwin »

I'm really not outraged by that fact that twitter burst the Donald Trump info bubble, but the fact that they don't do the same thing when a member of an opposite party is also partial with the truth is a bad sign. Tbh they should have started with a controversial anti-trump statement before enforcing this in trump.

Also they should not have called that "fact checking" or "debunking".

Re: Trump threatens to 'close' down social media platforms

#35

Post by thebouv »

2019-nCoV wrote: post #28
qubex wrote: post #22

I’m an outsider (not American, don’t live in America) so I’m almost not entitled to have an opinion on the matter, but it always strikes me as fairly odd when people of one persuasion or another rail against the ‘bias’ that they perceive against them in one circumstance or another (including media coverage). Of course people see bias against them. It’s classical confirmation bias: every time something goes their way,…

He's the only one being fact checked. And they chose CNN (most antithetical news source) to "debunk" his claims. https://twitter.com/i/events/1265330601034256384

You may want to look up your word choices. They don't mean what you think they mean.

What are they antithetical to? I mean .. what are you even trying to say here?

Re: Trump threatens to 'close' down social media platforms

#36

Post by Traster »

I think this is going to be a discussion thread that is almost inevitably going to be a shitshow, but anyway:

There are people who advocate the idea that private companies should be compelled to distribute hate speech, dangerously factually incorrect information and harassment under the concept that free speech is should be applied universally rather than just to government. I don't agree, I think it's a vast over-reach and almost unachievable to have both perfect free speech on these platforms and actually run them as a viable business.

But let's lay that aside, those people who make the argument claim to be adhering to an even stronger dedication to free speech. Surely, it's clear here that having the actual head of the US government threatening to shut down private companies for how they choose to manage their platforms is a far more disturbing and direct threat against free speech even in the narrowest sense.

Re: Trump threatens to 'close' down social media platforms

#37

Post by jjuel »

2019-nCoV wrote: post #28
qubex wrote: post #22

I’m an outsider (not American, don’t live in America) so I’m almost not entitled to have an opinion on the matter, but it always strikes me as fairly odd when people of one persuasion or another rail against the ‘bias’ that they perceive against them in one circumstance or another (including media coverage). Of course people see bias against them. It’s classical confirmation bias: every time something goes their way,…

He's the only one being fact checked. And they chose CNN (most antithetical news source) to "debunk" his claims. https://twitter.com/i/events/1265330601034256384

Does the source matter when what he says is provably false? BTW I am all for them fact checking ALL of the politicians.

Re: Trump threatens to 'close' down social media platforms

#38

Post by happytoexplain »

jameskilton wrote: post #26

Is no-one going to talk about how this is explicitly what "freedom of speech" means? That Trump is one of the few people that "freedom of speech" doesn't apply, because it's protection FROM HIM doing exactly this kind of thing. Twitter has every protected right to criticize the president (which they should have been doing a whole lot more of but that's a different discussion). That's the whole point of "freedom of sp…

(I've moved my comment to the intended parent comment): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23322672

Re: Trump threatens to 'close' down social media platforms

#39

Post by sp332 »

jjuel wrote: post #27

It is crazy to see how well he knows his base and how to get them to rally close to an election. Making them think everything is a liberal bias against them, and if they don't vote for his big government agenda they will receive a big government agenda. This is just one more way for him to get his base to believe everything he says versus people who actually prove what he says is a lie. He wants state run media and s…

And this is specifically on a tweet calling the validity of the election into question. It's blatantly wrong, but he needs his base to believe him when he says the election is rigged.

Re: Trump threatens to 'close' down social media platforms

#40

Post by sp332 »

orwin wrote: post #34

I'm really not outraged by that fact that twitter burst the Donald Trump info bubble, but the fact that they don't do the same thing when a member of an opposite party is also partial with the truth is a bad sign. Tbh they should have started with a controversial anti-trump statement before enforcing this in trump. Also they should not have called that "fact checking" or "debunking".

What's a better word?
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