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YouTube bans Steve Bannon's podcast channel

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Re: YouTube bans Steve Bannon's podcast channel

#171
post #158

As a liberal and a person who believes in the milk of human kindness against all contrary evidence, I do have a problem with this overenthusiasm. When the trifecta becomes republican, will liberal podcasts be banned? There must be some arbitration. I believe flagging and moderation and proscribing individual videos is better than banning channels outright and deplatforming.

Liberals own the media companies that are doing the banning. The government has no role in this. My claim is that if you don't like what the companies are doing, you don't like free markets. If you don't like that the government can change every 2 years, you don't like how American government works.

Both of these are the smart opinions to hold.

Re: YouTube bans Steve Bannon's podcast channel

#172
post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, no business wants to carry unnecessary liability. Funny, Didn't see all this crying about censorship when MC & Visa cut off pornhub... edit: just to be clear, I mean when MC & Visa decided pornhub was a potential liability, they cut them off. When companies decide Trump or Parler are a liability - they do the same - they cut them off. Thats just capitalism.

In my circles, there was huge backlash against the Pornhub decision by Visa and MC. It was a terrible action.

I don't recall seeing much about it? Though, I have to admit I don't do social media much.

Re: YouTube bans Steve Bannon's podcast channel

#173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Are we quite sure we're happy with people losing their income and livelihood and brand and platform, just because the tech companies don't agree with their claims? Freedom of speech does not equate with freedom of consequences. And yes, inciting over the course of many weeks [1] an actual coup attempt that only does not end into a bloodbath because a Black cop acted as bait and led the mob away from the Senate cham…

I keep seeing news pundits and social media posts calling this a "coup". If you listen to the experts, this is not a coup - not even close ( https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/01/06/why-this-wasnt-a-coup-c... ).

I don't think anyone would say it was a "coup" per se, but they might say that it was an "attempted coup". To determine whether that expression is correct, we have to consider what the intended outcome was, and how things would have likely played out if the mob had encountered even less resistance.

Obviously it seems that one of their targets was the VP, and I can't imagine they would have let Nancy Pelosi continue as second in line to the presidency. There was also the strong possibility of enough fatalities occurring that the Democrats would lose their majorities in both chambers. Perhaps most importantly, the boxes containing the electoral votes could have been captured and the votes destroyed, putting the constitutional process in uncharted waters.

So imagine the situation, where the joint session cannot continue, and Trump sends in his hand-picked troops to "secure" the Capitol. Congress has to amend the Electoral Count Act to clarify how the votes should be counted if the certificates have been physically destroyed. In conditions similar to those at the passing of the Enabling Act of 1933[0], we could imagine Congress deciding to fall back on the procedure outlined in the 12th Amendment for "if no person have such majority". Arguably that would be the correct procedure even without a change to the ECA.

The outcome would thus be for Trump to win the vote by 26 states to 24, maintaining his presidency through means outside the legal and constitutional order. That would naturally and correctly be called a self-coup or autogolpe, in my view.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enabling_Act_of_1933#Preparati...

Re: YouTube bans Steve Bannon's podcast channel

#174
post #158

As a liberal and a person who believes in the milk of human kindness against all contrary evidence, I do have a problem with this overenthusiasm. When the trifecta becomes republican, will liberal podcasts be banned? There must be some arbitration. I believe flagging and moderation and proscribing individual videos is better than banning channels outright and deplatforming.

>When the trifecta becomes republican, will liberal podcasts be banned? If they incite violence perhaps they will >I believe flagging and moderation and proscribing individual videos is better than banning channels outright and deplatforming. That may indeed be a better course of action, though when you have habitual offenders, in this case bannons channel got 4 warnings, its a huge burden on you to keep checking eac…

Fair enough. I did not know that there were earlier warnings. A three-strike rule sounds fine.

Re: YouTube bans Steve Bannon's podcast channel

#175
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[Note: Trying to present this as factually as possible.] According to what the companies say: - The President incited some people last week to engage in violent behavior at and towards Congress. - There is evidence that further violence is being planned via a variety of platforms. - The platforms are attempting to limit their exposure to facilitating such actions. Some people think that the companies have ulterior mo…

"The platforms are attempting to limit their exposure to facilitating such actions" By "exposure", perhaps the commenter means possible sedition charges. To me, this is further evidence that these websites are neither common carrier nor public forum. The telephone company is not going to cut off anyone's service because of seditious communications. Nor is any public place going to ban people from committing seditious…

If Times Square sold advertising that incited violence against the government, I think they would be involved in any charges.

Re: YouTube bans Steve Bannon's podcast channel

#176
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The AWS banning is what really concerns me. It's a clear escalation. First it's the app level (breached by Apple and Google), then the infrastructure level (breached by AWS - although there are alternatives here. Next up is DNS, I guess? And after that, routing. The ultimate Internet Death Penalty.

Easier to just seize the servers at that point, no?

Isn't this essentially what happened with AWS?

Re: YouTube bans Steve Bannon's podcast channel

#177
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you believe Fox News should be banned/censored? What about CNN? They are as biased as Fox News.

Preposterous. CNN is not as biased as Fox News. Where does this narrative come from? After 9/11, I don't remember CNN becoming the propaganda machine for a political party courting religious zealots and xenophobic "patriots" while sliding into its own editorial extremism. Even if CNN were as biased as Fox News, the problems would not end there. Fox News peddles misinformation, disinformation, white nationalism, resen…

[deleted]

Re: YouTube bans Steve Bannon's podcast channel

#178
post #21

The lies are 100% of the reason the capital riot happened, so yes, they do need to stop. Fox News lies every single day. What do we expect from a population of people that only hear these lies, day in and day out? They're going to react just like they did on 1/6.

The underlying problem with this whole idea of banning "seditious lies/libel" is that it's not strategically consistent. If you ban people (especially political leaders!) from complaining that the election was stolen, what happens is that the next election will definitely be stolen, and no one will be able to do anything about it. Then that whole political side throws their support behind some military figure instead…

> what happens is that the next election will definitely be stolen, and no one will be able to do anything about it

People were open to evidence for some time, but none emerged. I expect people would react differently to claims backed with evidence.

Re: YouTube bans Steve Bannon's podcast channel

#179
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The AWS banning is what really concerns me. It's a clear escalation. First it's the app level (breached by Apple and Google), then the infrastructure level (breached by AWS - although there are alternatives here. Next up is DNS, I guess? And after that, routing. The ultimate Internet Death Penalty.

It’s the ultimate power play for wealthy Silicon Valley elites to permanently deplatform the most powerful man in the world. I’m sure they all get off to it. It seems only right that they get massively regulated after an action like this. I’m sure all Trumps supporters would support this now which is half the voting population. They should worry about there platforms rather than trying to save the country - that is n…

Your sick man, IMO. This isn't about any power play. This about the escalating calls for violence in our country.

Re: YouTube bans Steve Bannon's podcast channel

#180
post #67

What interesting is how all these company act in the same way, why don't some company/platform took the opportunity to act the opposite to differentiate themselves ? I believe there is still large enough market for people who oppose this silencing.

Because all of their workers are coordinating these actions with one another. That also explains why most of the comments around these political issues have tons of absurd pro-censorship stances on places like HN. They're the same people.

Or... competition responds to other competition. If your competition fires 50 employees, you no longer have the pressure to keep an extra 50 employees just to compete with them. Same principle here, that's why all these bans are happening together.
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