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ACLU Counsel Warns of 'Unchecked Power' of Twitter, Facebook

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Re: ACLU Counsel Warns of 'Unchecked Power' of Twitter, Facebook

#51
post #34

To the people here who are happy about these companies banning Trump, his supporters, and their respective conspiracy theorists: you are nothing but useful idiots. Beware. When it's your turn to be dissatisfied with their unchecked power, it'll be much too late.

It's not that I'm happy, it's that I just don't give a fuck. Your doom and gloom falls completely flat because being banned from Twitter is the mildest possible consequence these people will ever face.

Re: ACLU Counsel Warns of 'Unchecked Power' of Twitter, Facebook

#52
post #17
post #4

I don’t care what side your politics are. When corporations can so easily control the voice of the elected leader of a country (one who has genuine legitimate support or about half of the country), I become very scared for the future. Corporations should not have more power than the elected officials.

When the elected leader of a country can so easily try to overthrow that very same democracy with a violent insurrection the least of the consequences they should face is not being able to incite more violence on someone else’s private property. No matter how popular a hangout spot that private property.

No one is worried about a mentally deranged guy running around in a costume taking over the legitimately elected government. No one is actually worried about this; The democrats are not actually worried about this; Republicans are not worried about this; perhaps some mentally unstable people are worried about this?

Re: ACLU Counsel Warns of 'Unchecked Power' of Twitter, Facebook

#53
post #23

The man literally has a press office and a press staff. There are any number of outlets who will cling to his every word in order to praise or criticize it. I don't use twitter and seem to learn what is said. It is difficult to see what the problem is.

That was kind of the point of the article — the precedent once set is hard to limit to those with press offices. There was no argument with the particular action in this case.

Re: ACLU Counsel Warns of 'Unchecked Power' of Twitter, Facebook

#54
post #35
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they're OK with bad speech being out there Might be time for a bit more nuanced view: Facebook admits it was used to 'incite offline violence' in Myanmar https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-46105934 Four dead in Bangladesh riot over offensive Facebook post https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/21/asia/riot-deaths-facebook-pos... A Genocide Incited on Facebook, With Posts From Myanmar’s Military https://www.nytimes.com/2018/1…

No. The ACLU was built on rejecting social harm arguments to free speech.

Even they have limits to that, as we saw from the aftermath of Charlottesville.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/charlottesville-violence...

Re: ACLU Counsel Warns of 'Unchecked Power' of Twitter, Facebook

#55

“Start your own Twitter then!” ... they do. “Google bans Parler, conservative Twitter. Apple gives them 24 hour notice to moderate more speech or be banned.”

This isn't wrong, but it is misleading. Google banned Parler's app, from their own app store. At the very least, Android devices allow different app stores.

But the whole thing is irrelevant anyway, because neither Google nor Apple filter web pages you can view in their respective web browsers, and Parlor, or anyone, can just make a normal website.

Apple's (and Google's, as far as I know) complaint is not "right wing politics is immoral" - although if it was, I'd be OK with that. Their complaint is simply "you're not moderating your users as required by our app store rules", and as a user, I'm fully on Apple's side here.

Re: ACLU Counsel Warns of 'Unchecked Power' of Twitter, Facebook

#56
post #4

I don’t care what side your politics are. When corporations can so easily control the voice of the elected leader of a country (one who has genuine legitimate support or about half of the country), I become very scared for the future. Corporations should not have more power than the elected officials.

That is where I am at as well. People are celebrating this because the guy they banned is on the other team, but it is crazy how twitter/fb can cut the legs out from under the "leader of the free world" when needed (it was kinda justified in this case).

I mean the white house is free to issue press releases. It's not like Trump has been silenced.

Re: ACLU Counsel Warns of 'Unchecked Power' of Twitter, Facebook

#57
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At what point do these massive corporations effectively become a government? They govern what you can say, think and buy.

I don't want businesses to be forced to do business with people it doesn't want to there are many avenues to address grievances with that already. For instance in this case, the Trump admin can sue and have the concern addressed in court. No business in the world can currently stand up to a government that wants to curtail it by the way.

This is not just "we don't want to do business with you". This is "we don't you want to have a platform anywhere".

I start caring when several tech monopolies co-ordinate to take down alternative platforms like parler.

Re: ACLU Counsel Warns of 'Unchecked Power' of Twitter, Facebook

#58

“Start your own Twitter then!” ... they do. “Google bans Parler, conservative Twitter. Apple gives them 24 hour notice to moderate more speech or be banned.”

That's the market at work, yes.

Funny how quickly supposed free market advocates turn against it when it doesn't do what they want.

"No, you were supposed to hurt the other side, not us!!"

Re: ACLU Counsel Warns of 'Unchecked Power' of Twitter, Facebook

#59
post #23

The man literally has a press office and a press staff. There are any number of outlets who will cling to his every word in order to praise or criticize it. I don't use twitter and seem to learn what is said. It is difficult to see what the problem is.

Were any laws broken by Twitter? Don’t businesses in the US have nearly every right to arbitrarily deny service to people (with a few exceptions when it’s explicitly denying on the basis of race, etc.)?

Twitter literally didn’t exist 15 years ago. How can a lack of access to Twitter be an an infringement on free speech then?

Re: ACLU Counsel Warns of 'Unchecked Power' of Twitter, Facebook

#60

“Start your own Twitter then!” ... they do. “Google bans Parler, conservative Twitter. Apple gives them 24 hour notice to moderate more speech or be banned.”

Start your own Google then?

Funny. I've seen talk of making Cloudflare ban thedonald.win (the reddit clone of trump supporters).

What's next? Make your own routers? Lay your own cables?

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