Trump threatens to 'close' down social media platforms • Hacker News Board

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

#291

Post by dvtrn » Wed, May 27, 2020, 2:02 PM UTC

mcculley wrote: post #191

dvtrn wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Media literacy and criticism classes in middle school?

I have been wondering how one would teach enough evolutionary psychology and neuroscience to children to make them less susceptible to memetic engineering. Now that we have gone from human marketers to automated systems working to influence purchases and votes, traditional media criticism seems insufficient.

That’s an interesting question, though I suppose my response would be media literacy and criticism doesn’t have to necessarily imply traditional media in a singular breadth. In suggesting media literacy it was encompassing a spectrum.

Still: good question!

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

#292

Post by myvoiceismypass » Wed, May 27, 2020, 2:03 PM UTC

TechBro8615 wrote: post #216

Forget about the free speech albatross. To me, what Twitter is doing looks like a clear case of election interference. They are basically giving free ads to the opposition of Trump. He tweets something, they annotate it with a link to media sources that are heavily biased toward the democrats. Will they be giving the same treatment to @joebiden? He has been known to lie and plagiarize throughout his political career.…

If Biden lies in a tweet, they should flag it!

I suspect, however, that he does not have the time to sit tweeting trash all day long while “leading” this country.

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

#293

Post by KineticLensman » Wed, May 27, 2020, 2:03 PM UTC

dx87 wrote: post #199

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…

That's such a stupid comic. The 1st Amendment doesn't give you a right to free speech, it says they won't take away your right.

The comic correctly spells out some of the implications and limitations of the first amendment.

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

#294

Post by adjkant » Wed, May 27, 2020, 2:03 PM UTC

cwperkins wrote: post #242

Its evident to me that our strategy to combat misinformation is not going great at the moment. I've been on Reddit for over 13 years and the site has gone through many changes. What if we changed our thinking from removing/flagging bad content to fostering rich discourse? I'll use r/politics for example, I currently do not think there is productive or rich discourse being had there. If you have had a different experi…

> What if we changed our thinking from removing/flagging bad content to fostering rich discourse?

So swapping a hard problem for an even harder one?

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

#295

Post by ceilingcorner » Wed, May 27, 2020, 2:03 PM UTC

1. Is Twitter going to fact-check every political figure? Every public figure with more than a million followers?

2. Who decides what is a viable source? As a part of their "fact check", Twitter linked to CNN, which is almost as bad as Fox News these days. This really isn't helping their case for supposed neutrality.

3. I don't like Trump, didn't vote for him, and find his tweets embarrassing. But I don't need Twitter to tell me what to think.

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

#296

Post by WaxProlix » Wed, May 27, 2020, 2:03 PM UTC

pinopinopino wrote: post #276

Ididntdothis wrote: post #235

I feel like we are slowly reaching the state the movie “Idiocracy” describes. I feel very torn about this. On the one hand I don’t think we should leave it up to companies like Twitter to censor things. On the other hand I find it hard to believe that the president is constantly claiming things without any evidence backing up. It started with the claims of millions of illegal voters in 2016 and the commission they st…

>Idiocracy Or how they call it on the right side: Clown World. Guess nobody is happy with the current affairs.

From what I've seen, "clown world" can refer to perceived injustices like white women choosing black men as partners more than the incompetence or silliness of our president (or other world leadership).

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

#297

Post by pbhjpbhj » Wed, May 27, 2020, 2:04 PM UTC

jcroll wrote: post #232

gjulianm wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is there no way to consider social media as unreliable overall and not bother fact checking anything there? The issue is that this is not just a random social media post, it's coming from the President of the US, and most people expect that someone in that position will not post clearly false messages, specially when those messages affect something as fundamental as the election process.

Democratic elections are supposed to be the failsafe for that no?

Democratic elections rely on the demos being informed of the truth.

Recent election winners have used social media to present, more effectively than using just the press, a preferred narrative that has - IMO - conned the electorate and won narrow wins for parties/people based primarily on falsehoods.

You can't preserve democracy by relying solely on elections.

Those who seriously, and serially, abuse the system also attack the ability of people to post/make their vote. Again happening the ability of the demos to choose their candidates.

In some countries the system stands markedly against a fuller democracy - by use of things such as electoral colleges, or first-past-the-post voting systems.

TL;DR see para.3

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

#298

Post by dathinab » Wed, May 27, 2020, 2:04 PM UTC

Ididntdothis wrote: post #235

I feel like we are slowly reaching the state the movie “Idiocracy” describes. I feel very torn about this. On the one hand I don’t think we should leave it up to companies like Twitter to censor things. On the other hand I find it hard to believe that the president is constantly claiming things without any evidence backing up. It started with the claims of millions of illegal voters in 2016 and the commission they st…

> On the one hand I don’t think we should leave it up to companies like Twitter to censor things.

True, but the think is Twitter did not censor his post. They added a "fact-check" hint that just pointed out that he was speaking made up thinks containing a link to an informative article.

This is very different to censorship. People can still freely decided to believe him, or read the facts and don't or read the facts and still believe him.

It's comparable with threaten to shutdown or control printed press when a specific new letter complained that what he says is complete makeup and wrong.

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

#299

Post by krn » Wed, May 27, 2020, 2:04 PM UTC

I wonder, at point is Twitter supposed to block the user for constant spread of disinformation on its platform? Or would that violate the user's right to "free speech"? Could the user protect himself by claiming, that he is simply expressing "his own opinion"?

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

#300

Post by jtbayly » Wed, May 27, 2020, 2:04 PM UTC

eloc49 wrote: post #218

raziel2p wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Get rid of section 230

Making public comments anywhere online impossible? I don't think that's helpful.