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Additional steps we're taking ahead of the 2020 US Election

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11–20 of 371 posts

Re: Additional steps we're taking ahead of the 2020 US Election

#11
post #2

I'm not sure why Twitter thinks that quote tweets are better than retweets. Propaganda exists to be spread, and it's long been obvious that "This is wrong/bad [quote]" just serves to further spread the propaganda and raise the propaganda artist's profile. Also, you can disable retweets on accounts you follow but not quote tweets.

It's true, but unless your strategy to is to deplatform a viewpoint, adding context is very powerful. Just read the NYT or the Washington Post when they talk about foreign countries and how bad they are. Sometimes they present innocuous facts and you think they're the devil.

Re: Additional steps we're taking ahead of the 2020 US Election

#13

Free speech has taken quite a beating in recent days. It's weird watching many of my friends and people I respect cheering while it happens. I honestly don't know what we do to fix our current situation where lies so easily go viral, but making Twitter arbiters of truth doesn't seem like the best solution.

Twitter is a community and all communities require some level of moderation.

There's never a situation where you let people say whatever they want, whenever they want without any moderation at all and everything goes well. You have to set some of sort of standard. We already do this as a society, so why shouldn't that extend to Twitter?

Re: Additional steps we're taking ahead of the 2020 US Election

#14
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one is making Twitter an arbiter of truth. If you don't like the way Twitter does business, there are other platforms that will cater to your alternative truth needs.

I'm not seeking alternative truth. Everyone cheers for Twitter because they think they are going to censor people in a way they agree with. But what about the day that changes? What about the day they decide to censor you instead? On one hand, I agree that businesses should be free to operate as they like & you can vote with your feet if you don't like the rules. However, we also have to be realistic about the fact t…

> the largest tech corporations are now more powerful than most countries

I think this is fundamentally the problem, and not free speech. Sites like Twitter and Facebook are of unprecedented historical size. Nobody really worried about whether some little discussion forum allows free speech or censors itself. But Twitter and Facebook want to become "the world's discussion forum", and I'm not sure that's even a thing that should exist. You can't really have free speech if there's only a small number of platforms for speech.

Re: Additional steps we're taking ahead of the 2020 US Election

#15
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one is making Twitter an arbiter of truth. If you don't like the way Twitter does business, there are other platforms that will cater to your alternative truth needs.

I'm not seeking alternative truth. Everyone cheers for Twitter because they think they are going to censor people in a way they agree with. But what about the day that changes? What about the day they decide to censor you instead? On one hand, I agree that businesses should be free to operate as they like & you can vote with your feet if you don't like the rules. However, we also have to be realistic about the fact t…

Then maybe vote in better people who actually give a shit and break up tech monopolies, otherwise we're just gonna live in hell world. The Clinton's should've broken it up in the 90's and Bush's in the 2000's; but they never went all the way and we've seen this behavior continue too the current admin.

Re: Additional steps we're taking ahead of the 2020 US Election

#17

Free speech has taken quite a beating in recent days. It's weird watching many of my friends and people I respect cheering while it happens. I honestly don't know what we do to fix our current situation where lies so easily go viral, but making Twitter arbiters of truth doesn't seem like the best solution.

Any platform ought to have the right to prevent falsehoods from being spread on the platform. A platform also should have to right to choose what topic, otherwise a car forum could be overrun by motorcycle enthusiasts. As long as a platform applies its rules in a just and fair way, i see no issue with preventing lies or keeping the topic on track.

Re: Additional steps we're taking ahead of the 2020 US Election

#18

Free speech has taken quite a beating in recent days. It's weird watching many of my friends and people I respect cheering while it happens. I honestly don't know what we do to fix our current situation where lies so easily go viral, but making Twitter arbiters of truth doesn't seem like the best solution.

You've never had free speech on somebody else's property.

Re: Additional steps we're taking ahead of the 2020 US Election

#20

Free speech has taken quite a beating in recent days. It's weird watching many of my friends and people I respect cheering while it happens. I honestly don't know what we do to fix our current situation where lies so easily go viral, but making Twitter arbiters of truth doesn't seem like the best solution.

10 years ago, it was most China we spoke about regarding censorship and "social credits". The CCP has made deep inroads into US society during this time. They're succeeding in changing peoples' thoughts and feelings regarding free speech.
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