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Nepal Bans 26 Social Media Platforms, Including Facebook and YouTube

nytimes.com

121–130 of 151 posts

Re: Nepal Bans 26 Social Media Platforms, Including Facebook and YouTube

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Democracy cannot survive unless we find a way to ensure we know when are listening to the people that are part of our demos and NOT people that are outside of it, actively trying to destroy it. We had freedom of speech in the west before the Internet. That speech was not anonymous.

Hahaha. Fuck off with the "it's the enemy bullshit". You'll call people "russians" if they don't agree with your jingoism. You'll try and get people against wars fired. Post your name right now. Real name and address. If that's what you want, right?

You didn't address my point.

Which is unsurprising.

Re: Nepal Bans 26 Social Media Platforms, Including Facebook and YouTube

#122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And equally, we in the west are so used to genuine free expression of ideas we assume everyone who speaks is real and genuine. Meanwhile, outside actors are weaponising social media to divide us, errode trust and spread conspiracies. There are worse things that banning American media platforms - look at what they are doing to America.

> outside actors are weaponising social media Inside actors are also spreading misinfo, rage bait, propaganda and general degeneracy of culture. They're blaming outsiders while doing the same or even worse.

Sure, but a lot of them have essentially been programmed.

Antivax is a strategy, not a serious point of view.

Re: Nepal Bans 26 Social Media Platforms, Including Facebook and YouTube

#123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Democracy for quite some time thrived in US (and for some shorter time in other western countries) even though there was no anonymity while free speech was guaranteed by the state. In other words: anonymity is not a solution for lack of free speech. I should be free to say whatever I want without being forced to hide behind a nickname. Secondly: I think you are happy to not being the target of online violence. I have…

I have experience of people disappeared because of totalitarianism. Your teens on the brink of self harm are peanuts compared to state murder. Try some other shitty propaganda.

Let me guess, it was Alex Jones.

Did he fall out of a window?

Re: Nepal Bans 26 Social Media Platforms, Including Facebook and YouTube

#124
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anonymity is not a prerequisite to freedom of speech. Broken lives of people harassed by anonymous trolls on social media are the dark side of anonymity. Freedom must be accompanied by responsibility and accountability.

> Anonymity is not a prerequisite to freedom of speech. I couldn't disagree more. The vast majority of papers the founders of the US published to argue against tyrannical government were written anonymously. > Broken lives of people harassed by anonymous trolls on social media are the dark side of anonymity. This is a cliche "think of the children" argument. Stripping away anonymity is a gargantuan problem, and enabl…

This is coming from someone that voted in an authoritarian regime isn't it. Irony is very ironic.

Re: Nepal Bans 26 Social Media Platforms, Including Facebook and YouTube

#125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have experience of people disappeared because of totalitarianism. Your teens on the brink of self harm are peanuts compared to state murder. Try some other shitty propaganda.

Let me guess, it was Alex Jones. Did he fall out of a window?

[dead]

Re: Nepal Bans 26 Social Media Platforms, Including Facebook and YouTube

#126
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why shouldn't they?

"Hunger in Abysland" // "Ah, right, I just started a diet" // "Immediately I thought it funny to remember that once we also had little to eat" Appropriateness.

Since you added context to my comment that I didn't ask for, I'm going to add some to yours that you didn't ask for.

Because of an unknown metabolic disorder, I watched my wife starve to death. She literally died from malnutrition. It was the most awful ugly thing I've ever seen.

You have no idea what you're talking about or who you're talking to.

Re: Nepal Bans 26 Social Media Platforms, Including Facebook and YouTube

#127
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Hunger in Abysland" // "Ah, right, I just started a diet" // "Immediately I thought it funny to remember that once we also had little to eat" Appropriateness.

Since you added context to my comment that I didn't ask for, I'm going to add some to yours that you didn't ask for. Because of an unknown metabolic disorder, I watched my wife starve to death. She literally died from malnutrition. It was the most awful ugly thing I've ever seen. You have no idea what you're talking about or who you're talking to.

I am terribly sorry to hear that, geocrasher.

Of course the simile I found to try and show that "look, this branch does not seem appropriate for the context" was random. I thought of a few, in time constraints, and the one that looked the best of the bunch happened to be the one of "starvation". It could have anything - surely you understand.

> You have no idea what you're talking about or who you're talking to

But I was talking of the matter in context, and the simile, as said, was logic, not comparative.

Re: Nepal Bans 26 Social Media Platforms, Including Facebook and YouTube

#128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> starvation is about as indisputably bad as one can think of, whereas missing out on social media really isn't "Hunger" (etc.) was used to try and frame the lack of appropriateness - in the logic, not comparing earthquakes and floods; not perfect, not meant to be perfect. "Missing out on social media" is not representative of the facts: a coercion over a population, not excluding the possibility of attempted populat…

> not perfect, not meant to be perfect Nor was what we were going for, yet your scrutiny didn't escape us. > "Missing out on social media" is not representative of the facts It is quite literally the bare fact itself as per the title and the article's contents. > a coercion over a population This is a characterization. I could remark that it was in defense of a population, and it would hold the same weight: it's wort…

> Nor was what we were going for

And where did you intend to go? In front of "State cuts the services" you went "Oh I get advantages staying without them". Yes but see, there are 30 million people there that may have had different choice, and some of them with rational choice (and fully evidently so: the World Video Archive is in the ban), and those 30Mln are within other billions that may be in a similar situation. (Many of them are here, your peers in these pages.) In front of them, going "I found out there are bright sides" would make them go "Duude...".

> [Missing out on social media] is quite literally the bare fact itself

Very certainly not: Nepal has blocked YouTube... Being forbidden access the worldwide video library cannot be reduced to "cannot be able to post comments" (that many serious YT users will not do, not even having an account, by the way).

> a characterization

Gross logical fault: there is a coercion in there, and reframing it as protection does not remove the presence of the coercion, which remains a debatable problem. And by going towards "protection" you are confirming my point («not excluding the possibility of an inability to manage the wave of informational war»), which is again an extremely serious problem.

> I can choose to look through an uncountable number of philosophical lenses

And a number will reveal that the situation can be construed as serious. Were you to defend the idea that it were not serious, relativism will not help the substantial solidity of the argument.

> Did I ever question its seriousness?

Well, look, if the article is "they blocked the services", and you go you "feel better after doing without them", that heavily suggests you downplaying the seriousness!

Of course we could also have discussions about "could we revaluate the optimal level of those services in life balance", but maybe really not in front of "the State has decided for you"!

> there's lots of downsides to these platforms

Yes. That is also extensively discussed. But it is not in context: here, the matter is something decided for somebody else, and that there are a number of bigger problems (e.g. organized misinformation) that overseeing entities (States) will mismanage in their inability to counter them.

> Wake-up calls

You will probably be reassured that many of us are very much aware that having released transnational masses of substantial infants into echo chambers - to mention one of the foremost consequences - is a hell of a problem.

Re: Nepal Bans 26 Social Media Platforms, Including Facebook and YouTube

#129

I'm doing basically the same, but voluntarily. It's a calmer life. YouTube is still going strong for me though, I have to admit.

Social media is 2025's opium and we're all on it.

You are posting on a platform that allows exchange and if properly used is there to raise awareness.

Re: Nepal Bans 26 Social Media Platforms, Including Facebook and YouTube

#130

I'm doing basically the same, but voluntarily. It's a calmer life. YouTube is still going strong for me though, I have to admit.

Yeah. YouTube being both effectively the modern public airwaves and dictated by an engagement algorithm is a big problem.

-- Select your best channels and RSS (or similar) on them.

-- Promote politically that the informational wealth the YT platform contains¹ should be treated like the rest of public knowledge and archived by the State for preservation.

¹(Picking a few example channels: "Manufacturing Intellect", "British Pathé", "Intelligence Squared"...)

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