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Conservatives flock to Parler, claiming censorship on Facebook and Twitter

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

#712
post #484
post #435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which historians? I read quite a loud of American history lately and this is first time I see this claim.

It's not a controversial opinion as far as I can tell - https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2015/11/23/1-trust-in-g... https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2018/... https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/10/how-ame... https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/07/opinion/sunday/vietnam-th...

It is not really historians and it does not really push the narrative of government "given up on citizens as reaction to them not trusting government".

Government and citizens are not even two super distinct entities, government are citizens and is put in place by citizens.

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

#713
post #668

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right. The way we design our social platforms has a gigantic impact on how people see each other, and talk to each other, and the impact that has on us. Perhaps the problem isn't the self-reinforcement, but rather the platforms being designed more on instantaneous engagement and addiction rather than talking and human-level discussion. We've devolved internet discourse into very simplistic, unintelligent, inst…

We have, and the users, for the most part, chose the screamy, thirsty, censored, algorithmic ones.

I think this is both true and untrue.

Screamy and thirsty seem to be innate to most (important) human discussions. So we can throw those out. They're irrelevant to the platform problem if the platform didn't create them (amplification is not relevant either in my mind).

So then, did users "choose" censored, algorithmic ones. Technically... but I think the nature of the censoring and the algorithms changed. It went from pulling spam and porn to pulling "harmful" content. The algorithm went from "WHERE user_id IN ..." to "curation".

I don't think those things are necessarily bad or evil. But these things started as open platforms to connect everyone. Now they're reverting to "communities" and people are adapting. People are forming "communities" on different "platforms".

The whole social media marketplace is so muddled and ripe for disruption. Network effects are bogus. Its just an excuse incumbents and academics use to rationalize their dominance post hoc. Twitter, Facebook, Parler, the rest will fail and fail fast with the right alternative.

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

#714

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a shame, but it really does feel like "free speech" has become a near dog-whistle. Almost any time I hear of a service billing itself with free speech as a primary selling point, a quick visit is more than enough to turn me off of ever returning. Besides this, there's a clear feedback loop that happens regardless of the intent of the service's creators. The people most likely to get kicked off of social media pl…

I'm about as close to a free-speech absolutist as there is, and it's very frustrating that the market for these platforms seems to be settling into ruts where we have to choose between the hyper-conformity of highly managed platforms and the dumpster fires of the unmanaged platforms. I think the feedback loop you describe is a big part of it. I also wonder if we're experiencing a decline in education and critical thi…

Yes, I believe HN does a pretty good job with this. The only way to provide what you are asking is active moderation, or the opposite of absolute free speech. There will always be people for whom the only solution is to ban them off your platform to create a good environment.

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

#715

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've aggressively sanitized my Twitter and Instagram to make sure it's little more than an easy way to see posts about computing, video games, vinyl records, or whatever nerdity I'm into at the moment. The moment one of those accounts posts something related to the outrage du jour, it's an almost immediate unfollow. It doesn't matter whether I agree with the content of the post or not.

I'm sure I miss a few from time to time, but you get the point.

I've unfollowed lots of tech luminaries I admire, lots of musicians whose music I love, lots of brands that make good products. And I still buy some of the books and albums and products they produce. I might even miss the occasional awesome announcement from one of those outlets. But the resulting sanity and focus of my social media feeds is worth it.

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

#716

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 long for the old IRC days...when you can open a room on DalNet and talk to a small group of like minded people about what you are interested in and curious about..invite/kick those who get obnoxious. It was cozy and I’d give anything to get an online community where we all get along and where it’s ok to be open to new ideas. Most of the BBS and IRC rooms I frequented had little to no moderation. Flamewars occurred,…

I miss those days too! I used to spend a lot of time in #efnet and #dalnet, speaking to strangers about things like #skateboarding and other random topics. It was kind of cool because back then most people didn't know what irc was, nor did they have the prowess to download, install, and configure a client. Mirc was the jam.

I'm working on a new open chat site, https://sqwok.im, and hoping to recapture some of that essence. Particularly the simplicity, and lack of overly strict moderation like you describe. Irc never hit mainstream because the majority of users would never download and install a client, but it's neat that with modern web technology we can finally build these experiences in a way that general users can enjoy.

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

#719

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've aggressively sanitized my Twitter and Instagram to make sure it's little more than an easy way to see posts about computing, video games, vinyl records, or whatever nerdity I'm into at the moment. The moment one of those accounts posts something related to the outrage du jour, it's an almost immediate unfollow. It doesn't matter whether I agree with the content of the post or not . I'm sure I miss a few from tim…

That's the frustrating thing. I was convinced to try using a twitter account by a friend who talked about how great it is to follow interesting tech people. For some cases, I guess it could be. But the problem is, everyone seems to also tweet about current political stuff, and I have no interest in seeing that at every turn. I know "stop talking about politics everywhere" is trite, but stop talking about politics everywhere.

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

#720

It’s worth noting that the first thing Parler did was start censoring anyone unsupportive of their form of conservatism. They’re not offering freer speech, they’re offering a safe space. Maybe that’s a seller, maybe it’s not, but it’s an important distinction. This is really just /r/conservative taken to its logical conclusion.

Can you elaborate? How did they do this?
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