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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

#181
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Media literacy and criticism classes in middle school?

This worked in the scandi countries but i feel like in the places where Fox news exists it'll be hard to get on the curriculum.

That strikes me as all the more reason to shoot for it.

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

#182
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.

Social media can only survive because of safe harbor provisions. If sites become responsible for the content they host, social media as we know would instantly die out.

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

#184

There's an unsolved conundrum I haven't heard mentioned yet. After the 2016 election, there was a thought that too much false information is spreading on social media. This happens in every country and across every form of communication - but social media platforms seem particularly worrysome (and is particularly bad with Whatsapp forwards in some Asian countries). So what should the social media companies do? Censor…

There's nothing we can do. We should stop pretending otherwise.

This it it. We did it. There is nothing for us to do, but celebrate.

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

#185

Not every day a sitting President threatens a media outlet for exercising their freedom of the press, but it's not the first time it's happened. Of course, most Presidents have been constrained by some modicum of understanding that their oath to uphold the Constitution applies to the whole thing.

Is Twitter a media outlet? If they want to be classified as such it might make them susceptible to slander lawsuits

If the Trump election campaign wants to sue Twitter for libel, they're welcome to try. The President has already tried suing the New York Times for libel for publishing an op-ed he didn't like.

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

#186
post #124

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

I think it would be great and I pretty much long for it. It's so obvious that even if it may be an overreach, there is such malpractice going on from all major social media players.

Youtube: Censors youtubers, documented in so many cases. It also gives "authoritarian news" a heavier weight in the algorithm. Removes comments with "communist bandits" in Chinese.

Twitter: Seriously bans people if they say the wrong pronoun

Reddit: A few people controls the majority of big subreddits, bans people with conservative views outright. Bans people that upvote stuff that they don't like. The have removed, banned hundreds of subreddits and users in the last few months. While they have chinese owners.

Facebook: Surprisingly the best of the bunch when it comes to serving every viewpoint imo. But they have had huge privacy implications just so many times.

But even so, I am very torn on the subject. The best thing would probably to force these companies not to censor/ban/remove people based on opinions. But the best thing for the world would most likely for these social media sites to not exist in the first place.

Personally I think social media sucks but I think most people are not ready to live without it either.

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

#187

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 a…

> If we could give a status that nothing on social media is too be taken seriously

The subject at hand are public statements from the president of the United States. How exactly does one not "take that seriously"? Given the gravity of the situation: if it's wrong, and you know it's wrong, surely you have a responsibility to tell people it's wrong. Right?

> Ask some oracle what "fact" is and shun every other point of view?

How is Trump being "shunned" here? Twitter put a correction link at the bottom of his tweet.

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

#188
post #100
post #72

Honestly just more proof that we need decentralization of the Internet. Handing over control of our digital platforms and identities to 3rd party for-profit companies is not the way the internet should work.

Aye but with no one in charge, how can the masses protect themselves against ever-increasing disinformation campaigns?

This is only a problem if you believe the public education system isn't doing its job to create thoughtful, educated people with an understanding of the world around them.

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

#189
post #94
post #36

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-re…

I have struggled with both points of the argument for a while now. In general, I'm inclined to agree with your assessment that this would be a glaring overreach on the side of the feds. It's also apparent that social networks have a tendency to cater massively to one side of the increasingly divided political spectrum, as proven with experiments like Gab. I've always liked the idea of having a Twitter clone that base…

> essentially create a public(1) forum where I am not able to exercise my first amendment rights(2) (and, legally speaking, rightfully so(3)). I cannot help but to find this very concerning.

(1) Private forum, displayed in the public. (2) Those rights protect your speech from being suppressed BY THE GOVERNMENT. (3) Correct if you meant legally as a private company running a private forum, they can manage the content as they see fit, including fact checking the POTUS. Or incorrect if you meant you have a legal right to exercise your speech on their platform free of their rules.

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

#190

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.

our two party system is a national disgrace.
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