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Permanent suspension of @realDonaldTrump

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Re: Permanent suspension of @realDonaldTrump

#261
post #80

Whatever you think about Trump, he has First Amendment rights under the U.S. constitution. If violating the law, he should be punished, but it is not up to private companies to revoke constitutional rights. Trump still has the right to speak publicly. No one should wish that he be silenced by private companies. Trump should just tell his supporters to go to his own web site and communicate with them that way. There's…

The first amendment prevents the government from making laws which prevent free speech. Private companies aren't obliged to host that speech if they don't want to

Re: Permanent suspension of @realDonaldTrump

#262

Does anybody have a solution to the bigger underlying question of de-platforming and censorship on online platforms? As far as I can tell, there are two general viewpoints: a) Censorship is bad, free speech is good. You should counter bad arguments with better arguments. b) There are types of speech, which are proven to lead to violence in the long-run. Also, some things can be proven as untrue. Lies are bad. I have…

We could start by not ignoring recommendation/amplification algorithms, especially when they clearly amplify bad arguments and obscure better arguments.

Re: Permanent suspension of @realDonaldTrump

#263
post #44

This ban seems to heavily take advantage of the current moment, as it's obvious that he has tweeted worse things in the past. It's strange that they picked such a poor way to justify the ban when they could have made a significantly stronger case, and in doing so could have convinced millions more people that they are trying their best to apply policies evenly. For example, I have a hard time imagining why they chose…

>As such, our determination is that the two Tweets above are likely to inspire others to replicate the violent acts that took place on January 6, 2021, and that there are multiple indicators that they are being received and understood as encouragement to do so.

Re: Permanent suspension of @realDonaldTrump

#264

Yes, I think this is actually it. After he basically commanded them to "Stop the Steal", I said that Facebook and Twitter would ban him. I also said that nuclear war was also on the table. If he is so unAmerican that he would actually tell his mob to attack the Capitol buildings, he really doesn't care about America at all. Being as petulant as he is, nuclear war is very much on the table. That's how crazy this situa…

> I also said that nuclear war was also on the table.

Judging from what Pelosi has been doing, you are not alone with that concern. I hope there are enough people in between him and the actual button that would decide his order was unlawful.

Re: Permanent suspension of @realDonaldTrump

#265
I give a lot of leeway to private companies, but there is something deeply concerning about Facebook and Twitter deciding what politicians are “acceptable”. Whether you like him or hate him, Donald Trump is a mainstream politician as evidenced by the tens of millions of votes he got.

And, there is a non-trvial chance he’d like to run for elected office again. But Twitter and Facebook and several companies seem to explicitly be saying, “no, we will not allow that.”

It’s not a power I want Jack Dorsey or Zuck to have.

Re: Permanent suspension of @realDonaldTrump

#266

Is it just my perception, or is their actual justification using the 2 quoted tweets kinda weak? Interpreting his boycott of an event as a call to violence seems like a huge stretch. It seems like they wanted to shoehorn a justification using his 2 latest tweets when the actual reason goes back further.

Could be a signal he expects violence at the inauguration. They really should just do it indoors in a joint session of Congress.

Re: Permanent suspension of @realDonaldTrump

#268
It's sad: everyone claims to be in favor of "democracy" --- yet when a tiny number of unaccountable, anonymous, biased people inside big tech companies place limits on what the whole world can say, people cheer.

When you support the kind of arbitrary governance, you're cheering for authoritarianism, cheering for oppression, and ultimately cheering for a kind of tech feudalism. Don't give me this "it's a private company" line: unaccountable individuals at corporations can deny you transportation, speech, and financial services --- they can ruin your life merely because they dislike you. Yes, tech companies can't take away your freedom. They can't put you in jail. But they can effectively exile you from civilization. Should private individuals have that power?

I get it. Some people are just fundamentally uncomfortable with democracy: public consensus is a messy way to govern a society. Besides: Twitter and other tech companies are, right now, making the decisions that you think are right. But what you're essentially doing is opting into a VC-funded startup that offers you cool stuff at an unsustainably low price. When the VCs demand a profit, that company will raise its prices, and you, locked in, will be forced to pay, forever.

Power works the same way: give up control to individuals now and you might like the immediate results, but you'll change your mind when those individuals start doing things you dislike, and when they do, you'll have no recourse. Throughout history, we find that people who vote dictators into power regret it later. Let's not repeat that old mistake.

Re: Permanent suspension of @realDonaldTrump

#269

When /r/the_donald got booted off reddit they got together and created https://thedonald.win/ . All this action from twitter will do is create an opportunity for a different or new site to host trump's comments. And for many people, and maybe someday the majority of people, that new site may be more trustworthy than twitter.

Nope. They will never police themselves to the extent that they had too on reddit. Anyone stumbling into them who wasn't already heavily inclined to their cause will bounce off from the sheer nastiness of the place.

Being on reddit forced them to tone down and memeify to the point where they were kinda entertaining in the beginning, that's what drew a lot of people in. thedonald.win will end up like another infowars or 4chan, that weird corner of the internet you visit occasionally to look at the weirdness but mostly avoid.

Re: Permanent suspension of @realDonaldTrump

#270

I am loving people who don't understand that they are literally supporting billionaires while claiming to be anti-corporate resistance. Definition of Liberal used to be: "Willing to respect or accept behavior or opinions different from one's own; open to new ideas. Relating to or denoting a political and social philosophy that promotes individual rights, civil liberties, democracy, and free enterprise." I am still a…

2020 (and probably 2018) is when the Democrat Party became the party of billionaires and digerati, while the Republican party represented the working class, manufacturers, farmers, etc. Most rank-and-file private unions (plus police and fire) polled strongly for Trump and Republicans. It's almost a 180 turnaround from the days when the Democrats represented the "common working man" and the Republicans were the party…

2024 is when you will see the effects of this realignment.
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