351–360 of 394 posts
Facebook and Twitter might do well to just ban politics entirely at this point. It costs them a lot to touch it.
Good luck defining what counts as “political” speech.
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> Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith. No one is flooding HN. A lot of us are non-American and programmers who understand what the recent events will mean in geopolitics. Everyone can see that GP was talking about what this move will mean in general terms. Don't assume we are trolls just because you don't like ou…
The article is about government censorship. However, if you read the comments people are interpreting the title as if Google and Apple did something wrong. They make up random theories about the economic benefits of internet firewalls, the "evil" desire of western corporations to influence Ugandan politics and just the general idea of sharing culture among Uganda and the rest of the world being a net negative for Uga…
Recently Twitter and Facebook (two of the biggest Western corporations in the world) abruptly cut off the biggest politician in the world. It was the first page headline for several days all over the world. Do you think govts are going to just ignore that?
And to be clear, I am not talking about any crimes. I am talking about censorship and power. It is now clear that Twitter and Facebook will censor anyone they want and that is a clear threat to the power of govts all over the world. (For example SWIFT network alternatives developed by Russia and China for similar reasons.)
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There’s a real flood of people on HN right now who really want to fight this battle. It’s unpleasant because it’s the kind of thing I use Hacker News to avoid Even though I know it’ll just cement their viewpoints even further, I’m hoping the mods do something about it
> Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith. No one is flooding HN. A lot of us are non-American and programmers who understand what the recent events will mean in geopolitics. Everyone can see that GP was talking about what this move will mean in general terms. Don't assume we are trolls just because you don't like ou…
> Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith.
then assumed my comment was calling you a troll. That looks to me like a particularly potent mix of hypocrisy and self-victimisation
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> Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith. No one is flooding HN. A lot of us are non-American and programmers who understand what the recent events will mean in geopolitics. Everyone can see that GP was talking about what this move will mean in general terms. Don't assume we are trolls just because you don't like ou…
You quoted > Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith. then assumed my comment was calling you a troll. That looks to me like a particularly potent mix of hypocrisy and self-victimisation
Maybe troll was a strong word. But calling for censorship by HN mods to suppress a perfectly reasonable comment is a very strong position to take as well.
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> All of the major social media companies blocked a significant portion of the population because of the attempted subversion of democracy in the country. Where did this happen? Because I saw some specific tags blocked calling for a VP to be killed blocked (vs some generic "kill all humans" hyperbole)... and specific account blocked after its owner triggered an attack on the Capitol that resulted in 5 casualties (and…
What I'm talking about isn't so narrow as liberals or conservatives; it's about social cohesion and the censorship that's necessary in order to preserve it. We've been living charmed lives up until now because the ability to broadcast to large audiences has only been within the capabilities of a select few media outlets that were vetted and controlled to varying degrees by the government to make sure they didn't sow…
You said this:
> All of the major social media companies blocked a significant portion of the population because of the attempted subversion of democracy in the country.
Where is this large population? Who is this large population?
Thus entire comment you typed is an distressingly large stretch if you can't identify the population you're using as a diving board to truly go into the deep end here.
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The article is about government censorship. However, if you read the comments people are interpreting the title as if Google and Apple did something wrong. They make up random theories about the economic benefits of internet firewalls, the "evil" desire of western corporations to influence Ugandan politics and just the general idea of sharing culture among Uganda and the rest of the world being a net negative for Uga…
True, the article is about govt censorship. But my (and others) point is that this type of censorship is going to increase. And its partly because of western corporations' willingness to censor anyone they want. Recently Twitter and Facebook (two of the biggest Western corporations in the world) abruptly cut off the biggest politician in the world. It was the first page headline for several days all over the world. D…
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It's American Privilege, pure and simple. Anything tech is pretty much American and so the rest of the world gets dragged into their bullshit.
I find that there is quite a bit of technology that isn't, but that also seems to be less interested in moral police. GNOME is of the U.S.A. and well known for its livid codes of conduct; KDE is of German origins, and seems to be more lax in this. Even with Linux , Linus, a Finn living in the U.S.A., has long resisted it and even referenced this difference between Finnish and U.S.A. culture, but eventually relented.
Is there an open-source project, US or not, that the Code of Conduct saga hasn't touched?
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It's American Privilege, pure and simple. Anything tech is pretty much American and so the rest of the world gets dragged into their bullshit.
And here we have arrived at the crux of the problem. Should we just throw up our hands and say "Then just don't use American tech"? I think this move by Uganda (and your comment) illustrate the same frustration that we in America feel at the power these monopolies are exerting over public discourse (for some various definitions of "public discourse").
The entire world cannot now use Parler (disclosure: I've never downloaded or used it) because a hundred or so people broke into a US government building for 2 hours.
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True, the article is about govt censorship. But my (and others) point is that this type of censorship is going to increase. And its partly because of western corporations' willingness to censor anyone they want. Recently Twitter and Facebook (two of the biggest Western corporations in the world) abruptly cut off the biggest politician in the world. It was the first page headline for several days all over the world. D…
Do you think that inciting a government insurrection, then expressing your love for the perpetrators, shouldn't be a bannable offense?
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Politics is not the problem. People discussing it are literally participating in democracy. The problem is that these discussions go nowhere. Everyone may come to an agreement, and yet no one will do anything about it. Politicians themselves don't participate, which is sort of ironic. Plus, these discussions often devolve into shit slinging over some general issues like racism, minority rights, wealth, power. It only…
It's always two things. 1. You need to make officials accountable. 2. You have to make everyone in the country understand what's good for them and give them the ability to make informed votes. Uganda is suffering from 1. The US and Europe is suffering more from 2. (extremism in any direction). They are completely different problems. Censorship goes against 1. Fake news goes against 2.
And when was the last time anyone explained in detail why they think a certain law would benefit people? Wouldn't be that hard to do. But I'm guessing it could reveal the real reasons behind many laws.