Twitter begins hiring to comply with India’s new rules • Hacker News Board

Re: Twitter begins hiring to comply with India’s new rules

#101

Post by pcmoney » Thu, Jul 08, 2021, 5:48 PM UTC

portpecos wrote: post #85

pcmoney wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am somewhat confused how a middling social network of ~200M (generously) active users with a message limit of 280 chars has a lot of power? Celebrating government strong arming is an interesting take and only nice when its going your way. Always imagine whatever government excess you are ok with in this instance is now going against your position and see if you still like it.

Perhaps you're confused, but the rest of Europe isn't confused at how Twitter has a lot of power: German Chancellor Angela Merkel objected to the decisions [of banning Trump], saying on Monday that lawmakers should set the rules governing free speech and not private technology companies. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-11/merkel-se... Emmanuel Macron blasts social media platforms for banning Trump htt…

I don't think you understand free speech in the US context, Twitter is protected by the first amendment, it itself has freedom of speech and of association. It does not have to allow anything it doesn't want on its platform. It could ban everyone wearing blue in their profile photo, it is THEIR platform. If Twitter COULDN'T ban anyone they wanted under US law THEN it would be a violation of free speech.

Re: Twitter begins hiring to comply with India’s new rules

#102

Post by pcmoney » Thu, Jul 08, 2021, 5:50 PM UTC

dmingod666 wrote: post #72

pcmoney wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reasonable in fascist Germany sure, on a democratic platform? Not so much. US companies need start saying "screw you" to more countries (the US included) when asked to violate their values. We need to be telling China to pound sand every day in every way we can.

World war 2 ended last century around the world, and in some ways a little bit in the US as well, but, interestingly the majority of the population still is quite unaware of this trivia.

Germany currently has many laws restricting free speech, I am not sure what WW2 has to do with this debate today?

Re: Twitter begins hiring to comply with India’s new rules

#103

Post by OzyM » Thu, Jul 08, 2021, 5:52 PM UTC

tw600040 wrote: post #68

OzyM wrote: post #2

"The IT rules, which became effective end-May, are aimed at regulating content on social media and making firms act more swiftly on legal requests to remove posts and sharing details on the originators of messages. They also require the appointment of certain new executives." The article makes this sound like a massive detriment to free speech. Companies removing content on their own platforms makes sense. However, g…

Hypothetically speaking, what if the said company acts with ulterior motives, is blatantly anti national, blatantly trying to interfere in elections, cause riots etc. What should a responsible government do then? Hypothetically.

Ulterior motives, anti national -> (personally) this seems like free speech. I don't have to like it to think it should be legal.

Blatantly trying to interfere with elections -> if you mean by spreading opinions / propaganda, this seems generally under the realm of free speech. The government being able to silence opinions that disagree with it generally seems much more problematic than civilians being able to spread bad opinions

Cause riots -> Again, I think opinions should be legal. However, saying "hey y'all let's get guns and actively participate in violence" is not protected under free speech in any country I'm aware of, but is also not really my major concern with this legislation.

Re: Twitter begins hiring to comply with India’s new rules

#104

Post by penultimatename » Thu, Jul 08, 2021, 5:52 PM UTC

throwawaysea wrote: post #39

mullen wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> FWIW, the American government also requests removals from social media sites. No, they don't. Any American Government official requesting a removal of anything from social media sites would probably lose their job. That's saying a lot because American Government officials rarely ever lose their jobs.

You mean like when AOC asked Google and Apple to ban Parler and they complied?

I'm sure AOC's demand was critical in their decision to ban such a vibrant, positive application.

Re: Twitter begins hiring to comply with India’s new rules

#105

Post by pcmoney » Thu, Jul 08, 2021, 5:54 PM UTC

l0k3ndr wrote: post #49

I don't like the government, but I hate monopoly of the twitter ever more than I hate the existing government or their opposition or any coalition of them. I hate any single entity owning this much power. So government bending them a little is a good thing at least right now.

Monopoly claims need to show customer harm and an absence of alternatives. I don't think Twitter fits either definition as it has many competitors, it is free for users, and the advertisers are the customers and they have even more alternatives. Do you have data to show otherwise?

Re: Twitter begins hiring to comply with India’s new rules

#106

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 08, 2021, 5:55 PM UTC

philliphaydon wrote: post #61

OzyM wrote: post #2

"The IT rules, which became effective end-May, are aimed at regulating content on social media and making firms act more swiftly on legal requests to remove posts and sharing details on the originators of messages. They also require the appointment of certain new executives." The article makes this sound like a massive detriment to free speech. Companies removing content on their own platforms makes sense. However, g…

> Companies removing content on their own platforms makes sense. However, governments being able to force the removal of content (such as a "controversial hash tag related to farmer protests against new agricultural reforms") can't be good. I disagree. Both are bad. When you grow to the size of Facebook, Twitter, etc. Removing content from your own platform allows you to spread propaganda that meets your own agenda.…

[deleted]

Re: Twitter begins hiring to comply with India’s new rules

#107

Post by dmingod666 » Thu, Jul 08, 2021, 6:00 PM UTC

pcmoney wrote: post #102

dmingod666 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

World war 2 ended last century around the world, and in some ways a little bit in the US as well, but, interestingly the majority of the population still is quite unaware of this trivia.

Germany currently has many laws restricting free speech, I am not sure what WW2 has to do with this debate today?

So by fascist Germany you mean the current govt. Wow I'm falling behind on my current affairs. Did they really abandon democracy again?

Re: Twitter begins hiring to comply with India’s new rules

#108

Post by bosswipe » Thu, Jul 08, 2021, 6:02 PM UTC

dmingod666 wrote: post #80

driverdan wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I trust my govt. way more than I will ever trust a Foreign entity. You trust a government that's trying to censor content they don't like over a company that doesn't want to censor it?

If you take Huawei and TikTok, would you make the same argument? Why trust the govt just in select cases?

When Trump was trying to ban Chinese TikTok because he didn't like the young users making fun of him I supported TikTok.

You have to realize that your government uses anti-American feelings to push their propaganda.

A lot of Indians trust Twitter more than Modi, especially non-Hindus.

Re: Twitter begins hiring to comply with India’s new rules

#109

Post by dmingod666 » Thu, Jul 08, 2021, 6:04 PM UTC

kube-system wrote: post #84

dmingod666 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you take Huawei and TikTok, would you make the same argument? Why trust the govt just in select cases?

Those concerns were about government control on speech, in that case, a foreign government.

How did you reach this conclusion? Was it with the help of the same govt that you'd rather not trust?

Re: Twitter begins hiring to comply with India’s new rules

#110

Post by edgyquant » Thu, Jul 08, 2021, 6:04 PM UTC

dmingod666 wrote: post #80

driverdan wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I trust my govt. way more than I will ever trust a Foreign entity. You trust a government that's trying to censor content they don't like over a company that doesn't want to censor it?

If you take Huawei and TikTok, would you make the same argument? Why trust the govt just in select cases?

TikTok didn't end up being banned and Huawei was much more about national security when a foreign adversary controls information infrastructure (5G.) You are making a false equivalence.