I think it's a blatant free speech violation. As long as Big Tech have monopolistic power they would serve as tools of political censorship.
Ask HN: What are your thoughts on Parler ban by Big techs?
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Re: Ask HN: What are your thoughts on Parler ban by Big techs?
#12I disapprove. AWS is an internet utility. The media knows nothing by themselves, they only report what sources say. After proper discovery, arbitrators can decide if a law was broken. Here's the deal. The people see through the pretext. That guilt is what is driving these type of decisions.
Re: Ask HN: What are your thoughts on Parler ban by Big techs?
#13Yeah, I'm ok with it. Parler went too far, aiding and abetting a riot/trespassing/insurrection.
If anything, Amazon, Facebook and Google were too laissez faire for too long.
As any kind of business, beyond protected class discrimination, am I required to host any organization on my infrastructure, publish any blog post or book, create any to-spec work of art or craft, sell any work of art or craft, allow anyone to remain who is offending, frightening or putting people in danger, or planning or coordinating any of that?
Is HN required to host my comments, or not flag my posts, or not shadow ban me? There are an exceedingly small number of "other similar forums" that I could "just move to."
Re: Ask HN: What are your thoughts on Parler ban by Big techs?
#14I disapprove. AWS is an internet utility. The media knows nothing by themselves, they only report what sources say. After proper discovery, arbitrators can decide if a law was broken. Here's the deal. The people see through the pretext. That guilt is what is driving these type of decisions.
An electrical utility is a utility. Should I be able to draw more current than they allow, even if I pay my bill?
There are rules. Some made by the government, some by businesses.
Re: Ask HN: What are your thoughts on Parler ban by Big techs?
#15I approve. I've commented so much about this in the past I'll just say this: I think the conception of social media as lofty forums for society to wrestle with serious issues is horse crap. Either I'm some genius (I'm not), or what you see online is what you get: 99% garbage. The way people discuss online censorship is like that scene from Star Wars 'I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices c…
Facebook, Twitter and Google are monopolies. They carry different weight than simply private corporations, and with great power comes great responsibility.
Re: Ask HN: What are your thoughts on Parler ban by Big techs?
#16I think it's a reasonable for private companies (such as Twitter) to eject their customers or users as they see fit. But this should be subject to limitations under overarching laws that regulate these companies: something that even democratic candidates campaigned on (Elizabeth Warren et. al.) and Republican candidates are warming to (Lyndsey Graham et. al.).
By tolerating Donald Trump's insane tweeting for so long, only to ban him when he's definitely a lame duck, Twitter and other such companies have lost the moral high ground: they have shown that they have cynically accepted his campaign money, enabled subversive and misleading political ads, but have decided that a tenuous link to 'inciting violence' is reason enough to ban him. I'm sure the public has noticed. Public opinion will turn against these companies, and when the Republicans come back in the next midterms, they will, justifiably, have an axe to grind. We shouldn't be surprised when they pass draconian legislation that will affect not just the giants but also the minnows.
Re: Ask HN: What are your thoughts on Parler ban by Big techs?
#17At what point does a platform stop being a platform? Should we expect that lower level internet non profit organisations to also support the bans on abhorrent content?
It feels to me as if that clear line is getting fuzzier recently.
Re: Ask HN: What are your thoughts on Parler ban by Big techs?
#18I disapprove. AWS is an internet utility. The media knows nothing by themselves, they only report what sources say. After proper discovery, arbitrators can decide if a law was broken. Here's the deal. The people see through the pretext. That guilt is what is driving these type of decisions.
An electrical utility is a utility. Should I be able to draw more current than they allow, even if I pay my bill? There are rules. Some made by the government, some by businesses.
The analogy of drawing more current doesn't really work in this case.
Re: Ask HN: What are your thoughts on Parler ban by Big techs?
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
An electrical utility is a utility. Should I be able to draw more current than they allow, even if I pay my bill? There are rules. Some made by the government, some by businesses.
The analogy of drawing more current doesn't really work in this case.
I'm breaking their rules, while paying them for the load.
Re: Ask HN: What are your thoughts on Parler ban by Big techs?
#20I approve. I've commented so much about this in the past I'll just say this: I think the conception of social media as lofty forums for society to wrestle with serious issues is horse crap. Either I'm some genius (I'm not), or what you see online is what you get: 99% garbage. The way people discuss online censorship is like that scene from Star Wars 'I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices c…
Facebook, Twitter and Google are monopolies. They carry different weight than simply private corporations, and with great power comes great responsibility.
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