Our digital pasts weren’t supposed to be weaponized like this

Post by commandlinefan » Sun, May 30, 2021, 11:44 PM UTC

rolandog wrote: post #96

monkeydreams wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In the future I suspect cancelling will be illegal: the same way vigilante justice is illegal now. Will it be illegal at the point of expressing an opinion online? Will it be illegal at the point of agreeing or liking an opinion expressed online? Will it be illegal at the point where one is purchasing a product or service and determines where their money will go based on an opinion they hold? People are allowed to…

Well, I recently was permanently suspended on Reddit, but I've been unable to determine why (also, no previous announcement). I haven't been permanently banned from any subreddit (no message in my 14 year old history indicated this)... but I've been unable to get any human to tell me what exactly I did was against the Reddit Content Policy. The curious thing for me was that my alt account (the one I use to try to hav…

Post by monkeydreams » Mon, May 31, 2021, 1:53 AM UTC

commandlinefan wrote: post #151

rolandog wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I recently was permanently suspended on Reddit, but I've been unable to determine why (also, no previous announcement). I haven't been permanently banned from any subreddit (no message in my 14 year old history indicated this)... but I've been unable to get any human to tell me what exactly I did was against the Reddit Content Policy. The curious thing for me was that my alt account (the one I use to try to hav…

It’s a shame that every Reddit alternative (like voat and now ruqqus) turns into such a cesspool. I wish there was something like the Reddit of 10 years ago.

Post by [deleted] » Mon, May 31, 2021, 2:23 AM UTC

goatinaboat wrote: post #146

Udik wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Which actions exactly should be illegal? Firing an employee or terminating a contract in response to a twitter mob. You are of course free to boycott whoever you want- but my impression is that those threatened boycotts won't really cause much damage to companies. People keep saying that firings are meant to "limit damage" but I have yet to see proof of this. To me it is mostly virtue signalling on the part of the…

my impression is that those threatened boycotts won't really cause much damage to companies It still boggles my mind to see multi-billion dollar multinational companies cowering in terror from what is probably no more than a few dozen Twitter users in each case, none of whom were customers anyway, they just have too much time on their hands

Post by [deleted] » Mon, May 31, 2021, 2:36 AM UTC

II2II wrote: post #143

ashtonkem wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe your proposal weaponizes speech even more; giving the ability of someone to accuse someone else of cancellation, which brings with it the threat of criminal action. It seems pretty obvious to me that this would make “cancel culture” markedly worse.

Just to be clear: I am making observations, not proposals. I see the current situation as a problem, but do not see a clear way to resolve it. It is difficult to understand why such an outcome is obvious. At one end of the spectrum, people are making claims that should be actionable through legal measures yet they choose to do make it actionable through speech. There are many reasons why this could be the case: lack…

Post by [deleted] » Mon, May 31, 2021, 3:09 AM UTC

makomk wrote: post #40

kragen wrote: post #9

Ironic that this is being posted by the NYT (though not as an editorial, I guess), who fired Quinn Norton within 24 hours because she'd embedded herself in Anonymous and consequently used the word "fag", years earlier. The mob framed her as anti-gay despite her having had an outspokenly bisexual life partner around that time.

It's pretty obvious that the reason the NYT is doing this is that someone was fired who they saw as being on the same side as them, for online speech they were extremely sympathetic towards, due to stuff dug up by Republican supporters. This particular issue is heavily tied to the US political divide: supporting Palestine is seen as a left-wing thing, and labelling those people as anti-Semites a right-wing tactic. Wh…