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Trump threatens to 'close' down social media platforms

techcrunch.com

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

#151

Post by itchyjunk »

Hm, is fact checking solved problem? I remember someone here had their game flagged just because it referenced SARS-CoV-2. I hear almost daily horror stories of youtube algo's screwing up content creator. As a human, I still struggle a lot to read a paper and figure out what I just read. On top of that, things like the GPT2 from OpenAI might generate very human like comment.

Is there no way to consider social media as unreliable overall and not bother fact checking anything there? All this tech is relatively new but maybe we should think in longer time scale. Wikipedia is still not used as a source in school work because that's the direction educational institution moved. If we could give a status that nothing on social media is too be taken seriously, maybe it's a better approach.

Let me end this on a muddier concept. I thought masks was a good idea from the get go but there was an opposing view that existed at some point about this even from "authoritative" sources. In that case, do we just appeal to authority? Ask some oracle what "fact" is and shun every other point of view?

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

#152

Post by gtCameron »

mabbo wrote: post #140

> Public Service Announcement: The Right to Free Speech means the government can't arrest you for what you say. It doesn't mean that anyone else has to listen to your bullshit or host you while you share it. > The 1st Amendment doesn't shield you from criticism or consequences. > If you're yelled at, boycotted, have your show cancelled, or get banned from an internet community, your free speech rights aren't being vi…

https://stratechery.com/2019/tech-and-liberty/

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

#153

Post by shadowgovt »

RandomTisk wrote: post #78
sp332 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What was blatantly wrong about it?

Mail-in ballots don't generally increase the instances of election fraud. All of the "what ifs" have been investigated in the states that have had general-populace mail-in for years and been found not to occur in either (a) numbers that sway the election or (b) numbers distinguishable from in-person fraud (which is usually of the form "person not eligible to vote, but voting office screwed up and granted them a card" or "person moved and failed to notify election boards of the relocation; voted in the wrong district").

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

#154

Post by palsir »

josefresco wrote: post #142
djohnston wrote: post #79

The head of integrity has unabashedly showcased his strong political bias on Twitter, and I suspect things will begin going poorly for either him or Twitter shortly.

Turns out, people with important jobs that require impartiality (like judges) have real, personal, opinions and feelings.

but judges are publicly accountable, while corporations (and their agents) can do what they want. Comes back down to the publisher/curator debate.

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

#155

Post by gonzo41 »

adwww wrote: post #117
djohnston wrote: post #79

The head of integrity has unabashedly showcased his strong political bias on Twitter, and I suspect things will begin going poorly for either him or Twitter shortly.

lol what, he is biased for pointing out misinformation from a prominent public figure, after years of Twitter being criticised for allowing false information to proliferate?

Everyone hates change. Twitter wants to live in the future so it has to change and show behaviors more like the news and information service it currently is, And trump and others don't want twitter to change because currently they can communicate with bubbles isolated from reality.

I really don't like twitter for all the crap and bots that's on there. I think it's a terrible format. But I think we are in a middle time, were new publishers and formats are rising at the same time as traditional media is falling. Hopefully larger publisher's and media organizations such as Facebook, Google and Twitter take the power and responsibility they have seriously.

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

#156

Post by Cthulhu_ »

I hope he goes through with it, then gets dragged for abuse of power. But that's not likely to happen; the president has too much power, and there are no checks and balances in place. He is only still in power because his party voted to keep him in a sham 'trial', and they only voted in favor because else their party would look divided.

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

#157

Post by alharith »

nojito wrote: post #118
djohnston wrote: post #79

The head of integrity has unabashedly showcased his strong political bias on Twitter, and I suspect things will begin going poorly for either him or Twitter shortly.

twitter is a private organization. Regulating the speech of private organizations is a dangerous slope to be on.

Private organization that enjoys the legal protections of a platform. Reclassify them as a publisher. Can't have it both ways.

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

#158

Post by sabertoothed »

boomboomsubban wrote: post #126

From a free speech/free press standpoint, private company Twitter absolutely has the right to editorialize Trump's tweets, while Trump trying to silence Twitter would be the government infringing on the right to free speech/press.

Exactly. It is just another lie that Twitter would be "stifling free speech". Free speech was not stifled: Trump could even say what he wanted even though it is a private platform.

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

#159

Post by gonzo41 »

palsir wrote: post #154
josefresco wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Turns out, people with important jobs that require impartiality (like judges) have real, personal, opinions and feelings.

but judges are publicly accountable, while corporations (and their agents) can do what they want. Comes back down to the publisher/curator debate.

You can hold private companies accountable via secondary boycott. It's more complicated but it can be done.

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

#160

Post by jdhn »

raziel2p wrote: post #147
jdhn wrote: post #124

Putting aside concerns about overreach government powers, would ending social media as we know it really be a bad thing?

How? Forbid all of it? Forbid what, exactly - any app that allows communication between more than 1 person? Even if Twitter were to go bankrupt tomorrow, something else would come to replace it.

If Trump actually closed it (not going to happen), then something may come along to replace Twitter, but it certainly wouldn't act like Twitter.
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