That's a lot of words to say that politicians should be able to lie, cheat, and scheme their way to our highest elected office with the help of foreign powers.
The YouTube ban is un-American, wrong, and will backfire
121–130 of 981 posts
Re: The YouTube ban is un-American, wrong, and will backfire
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
YouTube can choose to keep or delete any content on their platform regardless of truth/free speech/or not. It's in the EULA. You want free speech, go outside and yell. No one is stopping anyone from free speech. What Google is doing is cleaning up content on their service according to their EULA. If you disagree with the EULA, you can gladly go use another service. I will add, targeting a specific genre of videos loo…
Alternative view point sites aren’t really possible. Advertisers are attacked relentlessly if they advertise on non-liberal media. Been at ad-tech companies and seen this happen in person. Even 20 years ago this was common pattern for talk radio.
Oh, you're SO right. Fox News has so much trouble getting advertisers. So do Rush Limbaugh and Alex Jones.
Re: The YouTube ban is un-American, wrong, and will backfire
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
YouTube can choose to keep or delete any content on their platform regardless of truth/free speech/or not. It's in the EULA. You want free speech, go outside and yell. No one is stopping anyone from free speech. What Google is doing is cleaning up content on their service according to their EULA. If you disagree with the EULA, you can gladly go use another service. I will add, targeting a specific genre of videos loo…
Ok what if your telephone or internet company decided the same thing? We will listen in to your private conversations and if you say something we don’t like we will terminate your contract. Some services are so large and entrenched that they have become natural monopolies that need to be regulated. We place restrictions on what natural monopolies can do because of the effects on society as a whole. The question that…
I’m not seeing a parallel, here. Your example is mixing in a whole bunch of “invasion of privacy” which doesn’t exist in the real situation being discussed, and is going to vastly impact people’s emotional reaction.
Why not use the more natural example? “What if a television network decided the same thing? We will watch your publicly broadcast television show and if you say something we don’t like we will cancel your show.” It’s a lot closer to what’s actually happening in this case, right? And it doesn’t needlessly mix in the hot-button topic of privacy violations.
Re: The YouTube ban is un-American, wrong, and will backfire
#124These types of articles are always insane to me. YouTube is a private company. They're pretty much allowed to moderate the content on their platform in an arbitrary way. I would argue that this is a good thing. We can't have it both ways, but we want it both ways. We want a non-government controlled way to communicate, but we want to mandate that they're liable to uphold the same First Amendment protections that the…
Do you think payment processors and ISPs should be able to deny service to customers for any arbitrary reason as well?
Well... they are.
Re: The YouTube ban is un-American, wrong, and will backfire
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't that part of what's critical to have a free market? Sure, there are market inefficiencies when you get to the level that trusts and monopolies exist, don't get me wrong. Rather than patch the symptoms of the problem, attack the root cause: If companies are acting anticompetitively, stimulate competition in the marketplace. If companies are allowed to make arbitrary decisions (which they should in a free-enough…
In a theoretical world, sure. In reality it is government actors that are twisting the arms' of tech companies to remove unapproved speech. So I'm not so sure a government controlled ISP/payment processor/video platform (something like China?) would really fix the situation.
> In reality it is government actors that are twisting the arms' of tech companies to remove unapproved speech.
Uhh... what? Trump and the Republicans are twisting the arms of tech companies to remove speech favoring... themselves?
Re: The YouTube ban is un-American, wrong, and will backfire
#126These types of articles are always insane to me. YouTube is a private company. They're pretty much allowed to moderate the content on their platform in an arbitrary way. I would argue that this is a good thing. We can't have it both ways, but we want it both ways. We want a non-government controlled way to communicate, but we want to mandate that they're liable to uphold the same First Amendment protections that the…
That is a fine argument for why the phone company should be free to disconnect anybody who speaks ill of the phone company.
Re: The YouTube ban is un-American, wrong, and will backfire
#127These types of articles are always insane to me. YouTube is a private company. They're pretty much allowed to moderate the content on their platform in an arbitrary way. I would argue that this is a good thing. We can't have it both ways, but we want it both ways. We want a non-government controlled way to communicate, but we want to mandate that they're liable to uphold the same First Amendment protections that the…
Do you think payment processors and ISPs should be able to deny service to customers for any arbitrary reason as well?
As long as it isn't due to a protected class reason, I don't immediately see the problem. If you break your ISPs TOS, or you commit fraud, it makes sense that those private companies would not want you as a customer.
Re: The YouTube ban is un-American, wrong, and will backfire
#128If you reject the idea that people are intelligent enough to think about politics for themselves then you reject the idea that they're intelligent enough to govern themselves. Democracy and free speech are intrinsically linked.
I think this is a push-not-pull situation. Here is a vision of the future articulated by a promising In-Q-Tel funded startup: [1,2]
"[We need] a set of guiding principles to inform the types of speech that should be permitted in digital town squares"
Re: The YouTube ban is un-American, wrong, and will backfire
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
You have a right to say whatever you want to whomever you want without fear of government retaliation, as long as it isn't "hate speech" in a fairly narrow legal sense. This is what "having free speech in society" has always meant. The government will also punish people who commit crimes against you merely because they dislike your words, which frees you to say things you might otherwise keep to yourself. What you do…
It used to be that the tech companies where champions of free speech, the ideal. It changed when generation woke entered their workforce. There has been a generational change brought on by changed values in American universities. That's what really is happening. > We asked whether people believe that citizens should be able to make public statements that are offensive to minority groups, or whether the government sho…
No, it changed when capitalism got involved and realized it was more profitable to centralize, close themselves off, and gain a monopoly.
Re: The YouTube ban is un-American, wrong, and will backfire
#130This is a solved problem : don't BAN, but FLAG conspiracy theories and dangerous memes with a notice citing links to facts. I've enjoyed the somewhat balanced weekly covid discussions of youtuber Dr Chris Martenson / PeakProsperity. He generally backs up his opinions with links to science studies and data, but has been censored by youtube for mentioning controversially that "HCQ has some efficacy as a prophylactic be…
That doesn't solve the problem. The very same people complaining about this also complained when platforms did exactly what you suggested. Even attempting to "fact check" is considered censorship.
Is your goal to ensure people have access to reliable information or to eliminate the opposition?