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Poland plans to make censoring of social media accounts illegal

theguardian.com

1–10 of 125 posts

Re: Poland plans to make censoring of social media accounts illegal

#4

It's hard to know what's right. It feels like letting the lies continue to spread is tearing out democracy apart.

I think the confusion stems from the fact that it should be illegal for a private business to censor someone. But that does not preclude the democratically created law from censoring someone, as interpreted by the judiciary.

The issue in the US has been that the executive and judiciary part of the state did nothing for four years.

As per the first sentence of the article: "Polish government wants to protect posts that do not break nation’s laws"

Re: Poland plans to make censoring of social media accounts illegal

#5
The funny thing is, who would Twitter care more about? Polish government anti-censorship, or wider corporate governance issues vis-a-vis its shareholders and US regulators? I know where I'd put my money.

Plus, who is to decide what content is violating the country's laws? Surely not courts - they would be inundated with every little petty hate comment or reference to Nazis. So it will have to be the platform anyway. And incitement to violence, hate, racial discrimination etc. are already illegal in Poland, so Twitter could go on banning whatever they like.

The government would like the enforcement of these laws to be very selective, but as said, in practice, it won't be the up to the government to say what is and what isn't legal content.

Re: Poland plans to make censoring of social media accounts illegal

#6

It's hard to know what's right. It feels like letting the lies continue to spread is tearing out democracy apart.

Why do you think lies continue to spread?

Because companies like Twitter and Facebook have monetized the spreading of lies and disinformation.

Re: Poland plans to make censoring of social media accounts illegal

#7

It's hard to know what's right. It feels like letting the lies continue to spread is tearing out democracy apart.

>It feels like letting the lies continue to spread is tearing out democracy apart.

and the solution of course is "censorship will be increased until free speech and democracy improves".

Re: Poland plans to make censoring of social media accounts illegal

#9
"Following Trump’s Twitter ban, Polish government wants to protect posts that do not break nation’s laws"

This wouldn't have affected Twitter at all, who banned Trump for posting illegal incitements to violence.

Ironically, this would have hit Parler, the site that moderated lefties and people who posted pictures of poop, the hardest.

Re: Poland plans to make censoring of social media accounts illegal

#10
post #8

I'm not sure this is a right move considering Poland's gov is among the most authoritarian in the West. On the other hand Merkel have said that Trumps Twitter ban is problematic. There is no silver bullet here.

Yes, people need to know the motivations - the current polish government basically won the election on spreading hoaxes on social media (Facebook) and heavily polarizing the population on LGBTI, migrant wave, abortion laws and other topics.
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