A lot of free market advocates sure seem bent out of shape when the free market works against them for once. Amazon shouldn't be required to host violent hate speech and I don't understand how someone can believe in "the free market" and argue otherwise.
Judge refuses to reinstate Parler after Amazon shut it down
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Re: Judge refuses to reinstate Parler after Amazon shut it down
#32Amazon has a right to associate (or not associate) with whomever they want. This is a fundamental principle of freedom - something Parler should know, understand, and espouse. Why are they fighting? They should be applauding.
Free market for thee, but not for me.
Re: Judge refuses to reinstate Parler after Amazon shut it down
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the main issue is that people expect free. And free means ads (unless some billionaire is going to fund it out of pocket). And ads means you can't have child porn and terrorism on your platform.
AWS is neither free nor ad-supported.
I believe they were talking about Parler, not who is hosting them.
An issue they would run into in the future.
Re: Judge refuses to reinstate Parler after Amazon shut it down
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you listen to the Megyn Kelly interview with Parler's CEO, they did expect this and had a second entirely different hosting provider lined up. They would have made the move by the deadline too, except the second hosting provider also dropped them due to extreme pressure.
I do believe that should've also been in their threat model - these guys should've acted like they were hosting The Pirate Bay 2 given the state of American politics. For instance, they could've had a low-traffic backup in read-only mode, or prevent new sign-ups. Or have an application layer switch to reduce outgoing bandwidth (HTML only) to squeeze into a coloc facility on short notice.
Engineering the site well to stay online might be beside the point now. Parler wanted to be taken down so that they could fight this legal battle, likely with an eye on Section 230. As an added bonus, they can frame the removal as persecution.
Re: Judge refuses to reinstate Parler after Amazon shut it down
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
> People have traded freedom for convenience over the past couple of decades and it shows. I'd argue the completely other way: people have traded convenience for freedom. The convenience of using the Internet for has massively eroded freedom of speech. It's been immensely convenient for tens of thousands of people to be able to say any kind of harmful trash on the Internet without suffering any negative consequences…
Another problem is the term 'harm' (just like 'freedom of speech') has also been poisoned by those on the left who would have you believe words are more dangerous than actual violence. When actual discussions and conversations cannot take place under the guise of pretend harm, real violence happens. I do wholeheartedly believe the attack on the capitol is just the result of a disenfranchised part of the population wh…
Well said
Re: Judge refuses to reinstate Parler after Amazon shut it down
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you listen to the Megyn Kelly interview with Parler's CEO, they did expect this and had a second entirely different hosting provider lined up. They would have made the move by the deadline too, except the second hosting provider also dropped them due to extreme pressure.
I do believe that should've also been in their threat model - these guys should've acted like they were hosting The Pirate Bay 2 given the state of American politics. For instance, they could've had a low-traffic backup in read-only mode, or prevent new sign-ups. Or have an application layer switch to reduce outgoing bandwidth (HTML only) to squeeze into a coloc facility on short notice.
I'm not sure if I agree with that. Outside of unabashed copyright infringement and grossly objectionable content (child porn, etc.), there hasn't been a real precedent for a tech player getting booted like this on a moment's notice. If a scenario has never occurred before, I don't see why you'd add it to your threat model.
That being said, they did not have the engineering expertise to even make a resilient stack on top of AWS. If you're running a free trial version of Okta to secure your assets in production [1], all of what you're proposing is a distant dream.
Re: Judge refuses to reinstate Parler after Amazon shut it down
#37There is way, way too much room for political manoeuvring here - we should all be scared.
Facebook is used to coordinate literal genocide. [1]
And so AWS everyone is cool with that?
I get that Parler was being used to do something 'violent and bad in the US' and that there was arguably not enough oversight - so they are a 'problem case'.
But the system is a little bit hypocritical, I don't feel it's backed by science or some kind of reasonable application of policy and frankly, I have little trust in the judicial systems ability to sort this out.
While many people are happy 'That Guy' is gone from politics (for now) - we need to wake up to the crude realization that 'regular politics' was never fair or reasonable to begin with and that this issue is going to weaponized by those who think they can do that, and they will use 'Parler and 'President Voldemort' example as cover for whatever it is they want to do.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/technology/myanmar-facebo...
Re: Judge refuses to reinstate Parler after Amazon shut it down
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
> People have traded freedom for convenience over the past couple of decades and it shows. I'd argue the completely other way: people have traded convenience for freedom. The convenience of using the Internet for has massively eroded freedom of speech. It's been immensely convenient for tens of thousands of people to be able to say any kind of harmful trash on the Internet without suffering any negative consequences…
Another problem is the term 'harm' (just like 'freedom of speech') has also been poisoned by those on the left who would have you believe words are more dangerous than actual violence. When actual discussions and conversations cannot take place under the guise of pretend harm, real violence happens. I do wholeheartedly believe the attack on the capitol is just the result of a disenfranchised part of the population wh…
What I find scary and disheartening is that people have to use throwaway accounts to even point this out.
Re: Judge refuses to reinstate Parler after Amazon shut it down
#39I've been seeing posts from some of my more conservative friends pop up in my FB feed advertising their imminent departure for MeWe. My surface level Google research tells me MeWe bills their service as "lightly moderated". I'm wondering how long before the spotlight gets turned on them and they're forced to either up their standards or face the same fate?
Re: Judge refuses to reinstate Parler after Amazon shut it down
#401. Democratic party threatens tech industry with heavy regulation because they don't censor to the degree that the Democrats want.
2. Democratic party takes over control of the government.
3. Major companies in the tech industry work together to boot a competitor, and political opponent of the Democratic party off the internet.
At what point is this a legit first amendment issue? The government can't just pressure private companies to do things the government can't do and then hide behind the fact that they are private entities, right?