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Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech (2019)

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Re: Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech (2019)

#111
Speaking from experience, I’ve been on internet since 1990. Even back then there were censorship. Moderators that took away your post if it was irrelevant or wasn’t on topic. You couldn’t store specific types of images (porn) etc.

I’ve never believed that internet was about “free speech” but more “grouping of specific type of speech”. If you were interested in something you either created that or hang out with others that thought the same. For me it has never been about free speech, just a way to reach stuff. Free speech in IRL is another thing.

Re: Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech (2019)

#113
This is a related article: https://graymirror.substack.com/p/tech-solutions-to-the-tech...

The first part is about politics, if you only care about the tech part, you can jump to the following headlines:

- Encrypted clients

- Protocol extraction and unauthorized clients

- The secure personal server

- Technology is hard, actually

Re: Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech (2019)

#114
"In a protocols-based system, those who have always believed that Jones was not an honest actor would likely have blocked him much earlier, while other interface providers, filter providers, and individuals could make a decision to intervene based on any particularly egregious act. While his strongest supporters would probably never cut him off, his overall reach would be limited. Thus, those who don’t wish to be bothered with his nonsense need not deal with it; those who do wish to see it still have access to it."

Somebody has very different memories of USENET than I do.

It does not seem possible for a technological solution to work as long as it is trivial and without consequence to set up new online identities.

Re: Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech (2019)

#115

"After a decade or so of the general sentiment being in favor of the internet and social media as a way to enable more speech and improve the marketplace of ideas, in the last few years the view has shifted dramatically—now it seems that almost no one is happy." 10 or 15 years ago people looked at web 1.0, saw many good communities and valuable conversations and said "we need to protect free speech". Today people loo…

I remember watching a very strange segment on American news about a man who owns a mattress and pillow company who was banned from Twitter because he continuously expressed his disbelief in the legitimacy of the election result of 2020, and was organizing various events along this theme. From what I recall the 2016 election was frequently attributed to some vague accusation of hacking from Russia but the same standar…

Well there was the attempt at violent overthrow of a government... That's one difference.

Re: Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech (2019)

#116

"After a decade or so of the general sentiment being in favor of the internet and social media as a way to enable more speech and improve the marketplace of ideas, in the last few years the view has shifted dramatically—now it seems that almost no one is happy." 10 or 15 years ago people looked at web 1.0, saw many good communities and valuable conversations and said "we need to protect free speech". Today people loo…

I remember watching a very strange segment on American news about a man who owns a mattress and pillow company who was banned from Twitter because he continuously expressed his disbelief in the legitimacy of the election result of 2020, and was organizing various events along this theme. From what I recall the 2016 election was frequently attributed to some vague accusation of hacking from Russia but the same standar…

The dominant strains of consternation about 2016 were that social media had been abused to propagandize voters into voting for Trump, that the electoral college was a problem, that democratic politicians needed to listen to rural white voters and target them more, and that Clinton was a we-should've-seen-this-sooner hugely flawed candidate.

The vote count being fraudulent, the idea that fellow citizens had stolen the election, wasn't an ongoing discussion in December 2015, January 2016, etc...

It's curious you think that people claiming Russia hacked the vote totals in 2016 were "far more influential" than the people who've been shouting "stop the steal" when only one of those groups of people convinced folks to march and riot to try to "take back" the election. The message against Trump after his election was "resistance," a message which accepts that Trump won the election, but sought to keep people engaged to try to minimize what he could do.

I challenge you to find those people you think were continually organizing events to get Trump's election overturned.

Re: Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech (2019)

#117

"After a decade or so of the general sentiment being in favor of the internet and social media as a way to enable more speech and improve the marketplace of ideas, in the last few years the view has shifted dramatically—now it seems that almost no one is happy." 10 or 15 years ago people looked at web 1.0, saw many good communities and valuable conversations and said "we need to protect free speech". Today people loo…

> 10 or 15 years ago people looked at web 1.0, saw many good communities and valuable conversations and said "we need to protect free speech".

> Today people looks at Twitter/Facebook/YouTube/Reddit, see mismanaged cesspools and declare that we need centralized speech control.

...In other words people are completely taking all the amazing things we have today for granted.

Re: Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech (2019)

#119

"After a decade or so of the general sentiment being in favor of the internet and social media as a way to enable more speech and improve the marketplace of ideas, in the last few years the view has shifted dramatically—now it seems that almost no one is happy." 10 or 15 years ago people looked at web 1.0, saw many good communities and valuable conversations and said "we need to protect free speech". Today people loo…

I remember watching a very strange segment on American news about a man who owns a mattress and pillow company who was banned from Twitter because he continuously expressed his disbelief in the legitimacy of the election result of 2020, and was organizing various events along this theme. From what I recall the 2016 election was frequently attributed to some vague accusation of hacking from Russia but the same standar…

At what point did those who made the "vague accusation of hacking" storm the United States Capitol in a coup attempt?

Re: Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech (2019)

#120

"After a decade or so of the general sentiment being in favor of the internet and social media as a way to enable more speech and improve the marketplace of ideas, in the last few years the view has shifted dramatically—now it seems that almost no one is happy." 10 or 15 years ago people looked at web 1.0, saw many good communities and valuable conversations and said "we need to protect free speech". Today people loo…

> 10 or 15 years ago people looked at web 1.0, saw many good communities and valuable conversations and said "we need to protect free speech". > Today people looks at Twitter/Facebook/YouTube/Reddit, see mismanaged cesspools and declare that we need centralized speech control. ...In other words people are completely taking all the amazing things we have today for granted.

Or perhaps realizing that those amazing things really aren't all that wonderful.

Very few things are an unalloyed good.

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