Conservatives flock to Parler, claiming censorship on Facebook and Twitter • Hacker News Board

Re: Conservatives flock to Parler, claiming censorship on Facebook and Twitter

#391

Post by kall » Sun, Nov 15, 2020, 1:49 PM UTC

cm2187 wrote: post #145

least wrote: post #33

When "free speech" is the primary selling point of a social media website, it tends to only attract people who feel slighted by the platform they're migrating from. Unfortunately this has the opposite effect of Parler's stated goal of being "the world's town square" since it simply isn't attractive to people with opposing views of those who did move. I think free speech is important and I think that social media plat…

Agree, we will likely end up with right leaning town square and left leaning town square. And because every company seems to think they need to pick a side on political topics, it may extend beyond speech platforms. For instance I wouldn't be surprised if at one point conservative leaning viewers would migrate away from the likes of netflix for been fed up of being preached woke catechism in every TV show. And perhap…

Netflix consumption is 90% from recommendations page right?

So they could segregate every side into their own little recommendation bubble, if they have the content range for it. Seems to work for youtube.

Re: Conservatives flock to Parler, claiming censorship on Facebook and Twitter

#392

Post by daniellarusso » Sun, Nov 15, 2020, 1:49 PM UTC

in3d wrote: post #211

alkonaut wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parler isn’t a tech startup like any other. It’s unlikely to ever be profitable. Why Mercer and others think it’s a good idea to plow money into it is the question.

Twitter is ridiculously overstaffed for what they are and it resulted in very few improvements over the years. I really wonder what most people there do. And yes, I’ve run popular apps so I’m not underestimating anything. If Parler can grab a percentage of this market and not unnecessarily overextend themselves, they’ll be just fine.

Parler also never had expensive real estate holdings in SF.

Re: Conservatives flock to Parler, claiming censorship on Facebook and Twitter

#393

Post by Veen » Sun, Nov 15, 2020, 1:49 PM UTC

pjc50 wrote: post #225

Veen wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I imagine this view will not be looked on with approval, but the ethos espoused by the BLM cadre is explicitly anti-capitalist and anti-police. To many who are right of center, that looks like an extreme left-wing view that is not only tolerated by tech and social media companies, but actively promoted. It’s not all crystals and homeopathy.

Well, it is those things, but it's not explicitly pro violence, it's anti racist, and it's not based on lies or misrepresentation. In each case the inciting incidents actually happened and in many we have footage. I think many on the right under estimate how much slack the right really do get from Twitter and YouTube. Refusing to ban bannon after he called for the execution of the FBI director (does that count as ant…

> it's not based on lies or misrepresentation. In each case the inciting incidents actually happened and in many we have footage.

To play devil's advocate a little: BLM's ideology (the core activists, not the average supporter) is based on a specific view of anti-racism — critical race theory. CRT is not the only way to think about race, and many would argue it's a bad way to think about it: it's illiberal, divisive, wedded to ideologically left-wing ideas about power and social relations, and not particularly amenable to evidence-based thinking. In fact, it could be argued that the CRT is a huge misrepresentation.

Furthermore, while each of the "inciting incidents" did happen, so did hundreds more involving every racial combination of police and victim you can think of. It is a misrepresentation to focus on a subset of incidents because it moves focus from the actual cause of the problem. It is not racist police. It is poorly trained, unaccountable, and psychologically unsuited police officers. You could drum every racist police officer out, make every one of them take the knee and attend endless mandatory bias classes until only dyed-in-the-wool CRT advocates are left, and these incidents would keep happening until training and recruitment undergo a radical change.

Moderate right-wing people don't oppose or fear "anti-racism" or the support it receives in the corporate world because they are racist, but because they think i) It doesn't work and can't work, ii) it's a bad diagnosis, iii) it leads to socially damaging second order effects.

Re: Conservatives flock to Parler, claiming censorship on Facebook and Twitter

#394

Post by XorNot » Sun, Nov 15, 2020, 1:50 PM UTC

andybak wrote: post #282

sparkie wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Recall that for at least 3 years, Reddit, here, and many other places were pushing the Russia collusion conspiracy theory. Nobody can fact check for you. You need to make your own opinions based on the knowledge you have, and suppressing information does not make you more informed.

> many other places were pushing the Russia collusion conspiracy theory. I might be out of touch but isn't it fairly established at this point that - for certain definitions of "collusion" - it was factually true? i.e. not "Trump got together with Putin and hatched a plan" true but "both sides obliquely acknowledged the interests of the other with a nod and a wink" true?

It has also been proven more and more true as time goes on - i.e. the FBI's recent report that Rudy Guiliani was targeted by Russian intelligence to feed disinformation to Trump: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/giuliani-bi...

Not to mention this essentially public attempt at it from 2016 which for some reason everyone laughed off as "a joke": https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/13/us/politics/trump-russia-... (footage of the moment included in the article).

Literally the only reason "oh it was just not true" is a prevailing bit of logic is because no one in power has cared to do a single thing about it, or even so much as announce that it's in no way acceptable.

Re: Conservatives flock to Parler, claiming censorship on Facebook and Twitter

#395

Post by vp8989 » Sun, Nov 15, 2020, 1:50 PM UTC

crispyambulance wrote: post #313

raffraffraff wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't that just reinforce the echo chamber? I don't actually use Twitter or Facebook, and I deleted my Reddit, so I'm not the one to talk. But my wife uses Twitter a lot and has managed to get into conversations that are very hard to keep civil. She has found several approaches that work without blocking. 1. Only enable notifications and DMs from mutual follows. People who get into pile ons don't tend to follow the…

>> [block early, block often] > Doesn't that just reinforce the echo chamber? No, I think there's a big difference between an echo chamber constructed by algorithms that push content upon you without your consent or knowledge, and an "echo chamber" constructed by yourself when you actively curate and trim the media you consume. You and your wife's suggestions are really good ideas, but for them to be effective, it's…

"No, I think there's a big difference between an echo chamber constructed by algorithms that push content upon you without your consent or knowledge, and an "echo chamber" constructed by yourself when you actively curate and trim the media you consume."

What is the difference?

Re: Conservatives flock to Parler, claiming censorship on Facebook and Twitter

#396

Post by leephillips » Sun, Nov 15, 2020, 1:50 PM UTC

alkonaut wrote: post #128

dustinmoris wrote: post #118

In mid October I deleted almost all my tweets and likes (but Twitter being so shit they are still showing my likes except it’s not liked anymore lol) and have not been tweeting anything anymore. I found Twitter too toxic, it made me angry with people for no reason, so I deleted all my tweets and the app. No more notifications, no more “just checking Twitter quickly”. I now go to Twitter like once a day just to have a…

I think it’s down to who you follow. First, never ever read “trends” or random tweets. Never trust Twitters official app to show you anything useful. Using third party apps also saves you from ads. Second and most importantly, follow a set of users that are interesting, friendly, and who don’t engage publicly with trolls. It’s a magnificent tool for staying up to date with a narrow topic like a niche technology. Just…

The trick is not to read the tweets of the people you follow, and not to follow the people you read, necessarily:

https://lee-phillips.org/howtotwitter/

Re: Conservatives flock to Parler, claiming censorship on Facebook and Twitter

#397

Post by sigmaprimus » Sun, Nov 15, 2020, 1:54 PM UTC

pjc50 wrote: post #95

sigmaprimus wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about doing a thought experiment for a minute? Trump told what are generally considered incorrect opinions on corona virus prevention. Eg: Hydroxy Chloroquine works, masks don't and so on... His followers then parroted and posted these comments on social media and were promptly defunded, suspended and even banned for breaking Eula terms. Because Covid is serious and far too important to risk endangering others li…

Twitter spent a long time trying not to take action against posters, for all kinds of abuse and libel. What happened is that finally the endless lying hit a subject which personally mattered to those running the companies. I'm sure they do want a forum to express their views and claim they're silenced. But they need to stop and think about why everyone else has deemed them so toxic.

Oh but wait!! I was wrong it wasn't the HCL and masks after all.

You're right about hitting a subject they cared about..that's right now I remember it was HB's laptop story that brought about the bannings.

Check and Mate I guess. Good luck sorting that mess out, hopefully You get a few weeks rest after the Georgia runnoffs before the campaigns start up again but I fear the media has found a cash cow in political outrage and will be milking it for every drop from now until the endof time(or twitter).

Re: Conservatives flock to Parler, claiming censorship on Facebook and Twitter

#398

Post by derwiki » Sun, Nov 15, 2020, 1:54 PM UTC

in3d wrote: post #211

alkonaut wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parler isn’t a tech startup like any other. It’s unlikely to ever be profitable. Why Mercer and others think it’s a good idea to plow money into it is the question.

Twitter is ridiculously overstaffed for what they are and it resulted in very few improvements over the years. I really wonder what most people there do. And yes, I’ve run popular apps so I’m not underestimating anything. If Parler can grab a percentage of this market and not unnecessarily overextend themselves, they’ll be just fine.

You’ve run popular apps on the scale of Twitter? It’s left ambiguous, but personally or with a team that’s much smaller than Twitter? That sounds very impressive. Can you share more details?

Re: Conservatives flock to Parler, claiming censorship on Facebook and Twitter

#399

Post by acdha » Sun, Nov 15, 2020, 1:54 PM UTC

Grustaf wrote: post #146

sverhagen wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's plenty of opinion out there that the leadership of these companies themselves are right leaning, even if the average silicon valley employee isn't. I don't know. But maybe they are also just hoping to be neutral. Maybe it's good business to not alienate half of your marketplace. Maybe there's some aspect of genuine principle there. If you believe that can't exist, how is it possible that right leaning state g…

Except for Peter Thiel and possibly Musk, what silicon valley big-shot is not (very) explicitly left-wing?

That very much depends on the issue in question. Most of them are pro-gay rights, for example, because that is either a win or neutral for people they care about but if you’re talking about issues which have a direct financial impact (tax rates, corporate liability, privacy or workers rights, etc.) you’ll unsurprisingly find big differences. When you look at the money that the big tech company PACs spend it tends to skew towards whoever is in power or promises the least regulation, like most other industries.

Re: Conservatives flock to Parler, claiming censorship on Facebook and Twitter

#400

Post by SpicyLemonZest » Sun, Nov 15, 2020, 1:55 PM UTC

alkonaut wrote: post #302

simion314 wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think it’s down to who you follow. Isn't there the problem where your favorite "celebrity" you follow posts nice stuff but when election or some other event is happening they start posting a ton of "off-topic" stuff ?

Absolutely. You follow humans. Whole humans. They have every right to attract followers with technical tweets and then suddenly anger half their followers by being political come election year. I don’t think it’s possible to create a safe space from opinions you disagree with. What happens on twitter could happen with your friend or uncle. On Twitter it’s at least easy to unfollow someone and it’s not a personal trag…

It could happen, but it doesn’t happen nearly so often. I’ve had to mute one of my best friends on Twitter, because his posts are just filled with toxic bile that I’ve never seen reflected when I talk to him in person.