Midjourney CEO Silencing Satire About Xi Jinping

Post by xboxnolifes » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 8:48 AM UTC

cryptoz wrote: post #92

mindcandy wrote: post #74

Everyone is crying Corporate Greed in here. And, I can understand why. But, here’s another perspective based on listening to David Holz answer all kinds of questions from random users for four hours a week for over a year during Midjourney’s “Office Hours”. AFAICT, Midjourney has no shareholders and David Holz is the farthest thing from a slick CEO. He’s a big dreamer hippie dork. He made all the money he cares to ha…

Not so simple. No ridiculing Xi makes the platform less comfortable for people in other countries like the US. We expect freedom to ridicule and if that’s not available on a platform because the owner prefers to cater to a specific dictator, then we may be less likely to use it. I might still use it , I might not. But bowing to a dictator who says you can’t say Winnie the Pooh anymore seems like a one-sided, pro-dict…

Post by zirgs » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 8:54 AM UTC

Barrin92 wrote: post #122

>Local laws are suddenly not so local anymore, and people like Holz have no qualms about aiding their illiberal international spread. Okay, after decades on an American internet where a nipple is often enough to provoke censorship I do have to laugh a little bit about the sudden insight that large nations, shockingly enough, have influence beyond their own borders.

Post by manuelmoreale » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 9:03 AM UTC

qikInNdOutReply wrote: post #125

snehk wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As long as western companies can’t do unrestricted business in China, neither should Chinese companies be able here. Well, they can't and they don't. They have to follow the local laws. Facebook, for example, doesn't operate in China because Facebook made the deliberate decision that they don't want to follow the same laws Chinese companies have to follow. Their comment was this: “We need to figure out a solution t…

There. Is. No. such. Thing. As. Local. Law. There is a fine mist of ilusion of rule of law. But the party is outside of it. And the truth is, the laws is more similar to the law of network connections within the family graph of a mafia clan. Its basically just used as a body wrapping foil, once the graph has decided to finnish of some node. Stop projecting western values upon a completely different scenario, just bec…

Post by Teever » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 9:09 AM UTC

WiSaGaN wrote: post #91

andrewstuart wrote: post #47

>> “the ability for people in China to use this tech is more important than your ability to generate satire.” How about "the ability for people to be free and have free systems and society is more important than the money we hope to get from doing business in China". But here we are in Silicon Valley where business and money rise above all else including national sovereignty.

I mean, doesn't the concept of a free society apply to private corporations as well? The government is not restricting you; the private company is exercising its right to run its business according to its own free will. The principle of a free society suggests that "if you don't like the company's policy, find another one or create your own." Is that wrong?

Post by manuelmoreale » Mon, Apr 03, 2023, 9:11 AM UTC

doodlebugging wrote: post #87

It seems we have reached the point in our existence as a society where it is time to take a stand. Who are we? What values do we share? What behavior are we willing to tolerate? How much will it cost us to allow a company or an individual to compromise our principles? A lot of people, far too many in fact, allow greed to define themselves. Profit above all else. Those people should be universally vilified and removed…