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Trump threatens to 'close' down social media platforms

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Re: Trump threatens to 'close' down social media platforms

#341

Post by pinopinopino »

bilbo0s wrote: post #279
Ididntdothis wrote: post #235

I feel like we are slowly reaching the state the movie “Idiocracy” describes. I feel very torn about this. On the one hand I don’t think we should leave it up to companies like Twitter to censor things. On the other hand I find it hard to believe that the president is constantly claiming things without any evidence backing up. It started with the claims of millions of illegal voters in 2016 and the commission they st…

What's sad is that the movie was meant as a joke. (I think?) And here we are? How did this happen?

The rabbit hole goes deeper.

If the movie describes reality then it does it pretty well and then apparently reality can be described as a joke.

If the movie satires reality and we cannot discern the satire from reality then reality was already a joke to begin with, we just didn't know.

The question is not how did we get here or how did this happen? But how do we get out of here? :)

Re: Trump threatens to 'close' down social media platforms

#342

Post by driverdan »

spinach wrote: post #277
nojito wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

twitter is a private organization. Regulating the speech of private organizations is a dangerous slope to be on.

Twitter already regulates speech though, to their own agenda. I got into the gender debate recently (a big mistake), and so many gender critical people get suspended or banned just for believing in reality (that males can't be women) and standing up for women's rights. A man (Zuby) got suspended for simply saying 'dude' to someone. People get their accounts deleted for 'misgendering' people. Twitter is already, hardl…

> and so many gender critical people get suspended or banned just for believing in reality (that males can't be women) and standing up for women's rights

Good. They should be banning bigots. Don't like it? Start your own service where bigots can roam free.

Re: Trump threatens to 'close' down social media platforms

#343

Post by asabjorn »

Ididntdothis wrote: post #235

I feel like we are slowly reaching the state the movie “Idiocracy” describes. I feel very torn about this. On the one hand I don’t think we should leave it up to companies like Twitter to censor things. On the other hand I find it hard to believe that the president is constantly claiming things without any evidence backing up. It started with the claims of millions of illegal voters in 2016 and the commission they st…

> the president is constantly claiming things without any evidence backing up

[to those voting down: these are convicted cases of voter fraud. If you are in favor of fact-checking these cases demonstrate the core question: who deserve this power?]

Let's fact check these fact checkers.

Here are some cases convicted in court of election fraud, a lot of them involve fraudulent use of absentee ballots https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/docs/p...

And there is also a problem with the chain of trust, since 28 million mail-in ballots went missing in the last four elections: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/04/24/28_mil...

Or what about the mail carrier recently charged with meddling with the ballot requests in his chain of trust? https://www.whsv.com/content/news/Pendleton-County-mail-carr...

And if you think politicians would never cheat, a Pennsylvania election official just plead guilty to stuffing the ballot box. He was paid by candidates that I believe won: https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/05/21/doj-democrats-...

Re: Trump threatens to 'close' down social media platforms

#344

Post by Arubis »

whatshisface wrote: post #314
Arubis wrote: post #211

For those missing the context, Twitter didn’t actually remove or censor anything; they added a small call-out next to a politically motivated tweet. Trump responded in an aggressive manner that can be perceived as threatening. That’s one discussion, and one I’m not currently capable of engaging in rationally. The other discussion is whether Twitter did right in this case. Rather than tell Twitter they’re out of place…

I feel like if Twitter fact-checked one tweet from a high-profile Democrat for every one they did of a high-profile Republican, there would be a lot less outcry over the situation. I know the president happens to be a high-profile Republican, and as a result he's a more salient target for fact-checking, but lying and being wrong are both bipartisan strategies. The accusation is that Twitter is almost completely staff…

My emotion-driven reaction here (“ha! They’d run out of lies from side A before scratching the surface with side B!”) is _exactly_ why trying something like this would be a good move.

Re: Trump threatens to 'close' down social media platforms

#345

Post by WhyNotHugo »

krn wrote: post #299

I wonder, at point is Twitter supposed to block the user for constant spread of disinformation on its platform? Or would that violate the user's right to "free speech"? Could the user protect himself by claiming, that he is simply expressing "his own opinion"?

Public figures have it harder when it comes to using the "it's just my opinion" argument.

YOU can claim vaccines are a fake, and that's bad, but won't have harder consequences on you.

A medical doctor can't claim the same thing without losing their position as a medical doctor; they kinda lose a bit of that "it's just my opinion" card as part of the responsibilities they have with society.

Re: Trump threatens to 'close' down social media platforms

#346

Post by JMTQp8lwXL »

Ididntdothis wrote: post #235

I feel like we are slowly reaching the state the movie “Idiocracy” describes. I feel very torn about this. On the one hand I don’t think we should leave it up to companies like Twitter to censor things. On the other hand I find it hard to believe that the president is constantly claiming things without any evidence backing up. It started with the claims of millions of illegal voters in 2016 and the commission they st…

The most actionable decision one can make is to vote for candidates who don't make us test these questions. Academically, it's somewhat intriguing, but in terms of actual leadership, there are more pressing issues. (Unless your wedge issue is testing political free speech by government officials on private platforms. Then, by all means, have at it).

Re: Trump threatens to 'close' down social media platforms

#347

Post by Ididntdothis »

chartpath wrote: post #320
NicoJuicy wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reaching Idiocracy is a pretty big understatement. To be honest, it feels that the president should have a babysitter, if you look at his constant tweet tirades.

What kind of oversight could even work though? We have the Queen in my neck of the woods but that is not exactly accountable and never does anything to check poor governance and only rips off taxpayers. We also have non-confidence votes which can bring down a Prime Minister, and it seems to work (in minority governments at least). How can a separation of powers approach still check itself? Like different term limits,…

You can’t have hard rules to achieve this. In the end it’s a matter of integrity and ethics to guide actions. You can’t write that down as an algorithm. Unfortunately it seems the system is set up for psychopaths who don’t know no limits as long as they can profit.

Re: Trump threatens to 'close' down social media platforms

#348

Post by jobigoud »

cwhiz wrote: post #208
tuna-piano wrote: post #133

There's an unsolved conundrum I haven't heard mentioned yet. After the 2016 election, there was a thought that too much false information is spreading on social media. This happens in every country and across every form of communication - but social media platforms seem particularly worrysome (and is particularly bad with Whatsapp forwards in some Asian countries). So what should the social media companies do? Censor…

>So the question remains - do you, or how do you lessen the spread of misinformation? The easiest is to get rid of bots and control who can tweet. Anyone can create an account but to tweet you need to prove your identity. Bots are the real issue. Trump lying on social media is a problem but it's not fundamentally dissimilar to him lying on TV or at a campaign rally. He is a liar and whatever platform he is on he will…

Misinformation spreads a lot human-to-human too. Like on Whatsapp or Facebook for example.

Re: Trump threatens to 'close' down social media platforms

#349

Post by shadowgovt »

djohnston wrote: post #79

The head of integrity has unabashedly showcased his strong political bias on Twitter, and I suspect things will begin going poorly for either him or Twitter shortly.

If fact-checking the President when he says untrue things is "strong political bias," there are larger problems than the fate of one employee at Twitter.

Re: Trump threatens to 'close' down social media platforms

#350

Post by dvtrn »

nerdkid93 wrote: post #246
dvtrn wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Media literacy and criticism classes in middle school?

1,000 times yes! In elementary and middle school, I had weekly learning from our school librarian on seeking the truth through a consensus of multiple sources. She taught us how to properly use Wikipedia as a source for finding other sources. Crash Course (the YouTube channel) published a short series last year on Navigating Digital Information ( https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtN07XYqqWSK... ). I re…

Ah thank you for the recommendation! Big fan of Crash Course and really big fan of PBS Digital Studios in general.
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