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X users are unable to post “Signal.me” links

disruptionist.com

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Re: X users are unable to post “Signal.me” links

#41
post #15
post #7

So much for Elons "Free Speech"! This may come as a shock to him: Free Speech means to allow people to say something that he disagree with. Something that may hurt his interests or even his ego. Free speech is not to allow people to say things he agree with or don't care about.

[flagged]

> If I own a platform I’m not under any obligation to allow you to say whatever you like on that platform.

Correct. It still makes him a liar, given what he claimed before the purchase to have meant:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/aug/06/elon-musk...

https://xcancel.com/elonmusk/status/1499976967105433600

https://xcancel.com/elonmusk/status/1519036983137509376

Plus this pair:

https://www.timesofisrael.com/musk-threatens-to-sue-adl-for-...

vs.

https://www.reuters.com/article/technology/tesla-boss-elon-m...

Re: X users are unable to post “Signal.me” links

#42

Remember the Arab Spring and how Twitter was hailed as a tool for the masses to fight against their oppressors? And remember how Elon bought Twitter, loudly proclaiming he was doing so to defend free speech? I'm mildly curious to see how X tries to justify this, but I suspect they've reached the stage where they don't even need to pretend to pay lip service to their notional values.

> I'm mildly curious to see how X tries to justify this, They won't. They will say they're the champion of free speech, and that'll be enough for the fan base.

If they were actual gaslights, self-powered gaslighting would solve the world's energy issues.

Re: X users are unable to post “Signal.me” links

#43
post #24

[flagged]

People have only that much power we give to them. If everyone stops using Twitter/X, it is nothing. Nobody buys Teslas - it is nothing. The list goes on since his # in wealthy ranks defines his position. Just make it drop.

Xitter is the least of the issues considering his tie to China and Russia and the all-you-can-eat buffet happening right now in the US government.

Re: X users are unable to post “Signal.me” links

#44

Remember the Arab Spring and how Twitter was hailed as a tool for the masses to fight against their oppressors? And remember how Elon bought Twitter, loudly proclaiming he was doing so to defend free speech? I'm mildly curious to see how X tries to justify this, but I suspect they've reached the stage where they don't even need to pretend to pay lip service to their notional values.

[flagged]

Re: X users are unable to post “Signal.me” links

#46

Remember the Arab Spring and how Twitter was hailed as a tool for the masses to fight against their oppressors? And remember how Elon bought Twitter, loudly proclaiming he was doing so to defend free speech? I'm mildly curious to see how X tries to justify this, but I suspect they've reached the stage where they don't even need to pretend to pay lip service to their notional values.

If your sycophants eat everything you'll throw at them there won't be any need for justification. Which completely baffles me. The US digital technology sector seems to be full of yes man and groupthink, and it's getting worse.

Re: X users are unable to post “Signal.me” links

#47
post #15
post #7

So much for Elons "Free Speech"! This may come as a shock to him: Free Speech means to allow people to say something that he disagree with. Something that may hurt his interests or even his ego. Free speech is not to allow people to say things he agree with or don't care about.

[flagged]

People know this. This isn't confusing. The hypocracy being pointed out is when Elon Musk says that he is a free speech absolutist[1], yet consistently blocks his critics and competitors.

This is ignoring his very confused notion of what free speech is[2]

> By “free speech”, I simply mean that which matches the law.

> I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law.

> If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect.

Not only is this inconsistent with his 'free speech absolutist' views, and inconsistent with Twitter's actions, but it states that he's actually all for the government censoring people. That's not even non-absolutist free speech.

[1]: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1499976967105433600

[2]: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1519036983137509376

Re: X users are unable to post “Signal.me” links

#48
I'm not defending Twitter or their policy in any way (disclaimer: I left Twitter the moment Elmo took over. I despise his hypocrisy and his fascist ideas)

But this could be a "legitimate f-up". Normally, most of these unsafe-url protection and detection is automated in something with the scale of Twitter.

Just like URL-shorteners often are (were?) "seemingly randomly" banned, because a portion of the shared urls are pointing at malware/phishing/otherwise banned content, all urls from this shortener get banned. It may be that signal.me is simply picking up on amount of illegitimate links. Signal is clearly growing strong. Therefore signal.me links' are increasingly seen by Twitter. Most legitimate links, but the amount of illegitimate links will then also increase.

This would trigger an automated ban¹.

The real problem then is that even if it was deliberate (conspiracy theory: Mark messaged Elon: Pls help me curb the growth of the biggest competitor of Whatsapp?) twitter can easily hide behind "overzealous automation, sorry".

¹ Especially if this automation isn't maintained properly, finetuned and kept being tweaked by teams of experts - many of which left or were layd off after the aquisition of Twitter.

Re: X users are unable to post “Signal.me” links

#49
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> If I own a platform I’m not under any obligation to allow you to say whatever you like on that platform This is complicated massively by Elon's role at DOGE. Twitter has the right to block whomever they want (and always did). But given "multiple federal workers...said they’ve moved sensitive conversations from text messages and Facebook Messenger to the encrypted messaging app Signal" [1], it's unclear whether this…

Mm.

On balance, I think you are correct. But: precisely because DOGE is a QUANGO* that's much harder to demonstrate, whereas the hypocrisy is very on-the-nose.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quango

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