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Twitter restricted in Turkey in aftermath of earthquake

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461–470 of 600 posts

Re: Twitter restricted in Turkey in aftermath of earthquake

#461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly this. Censorship should be a nuanced topic if anyone gives it any serious thought. Not all censorship is at the same level, and there is obviously a difference between shutting down Twitter and not letting folks criticize the government and, say, not telling folks misinformation that can lead to another's harm or death (fake cures, for example).

The problem with allowing the interpretation of whether something should be censored be based on the obvious nuances that it entails is that the exact nuance is not universal among all people. This is why ZERO censorship is the only reasonable form of censorship.

I worry that the nuance here is not actually down to interpretation, but the consequences of extremely rapid dissemination of information. I don't even think those of us in tech have come to grips with how that matters, let alone if/how we should make efforts to get around it.

The latency on information coming from a newspaper or even TV news is limited to how rapidly those sources can vet the information before publishing it, and then the latency of the publication method. If someone wants to use those avenues to spread misinformation, they have to do a lot of legwork to make the lie sound plausible enough that the publisher will put the effort into publishing it.

What's the legwork for someone planning to spread misinformation via twitter? How long does it take "for new facts to emerge" that address the misgivings incredulous consumers hold? The power of social media is that the real truth can emerge very quickly, regardless of what the powers that be want. But the threat of social media is that there's basically no organic way to prevent abuse of that power.

Others are right that the line between misinformation and difference of opinion is often quite narrow. But I don't believe there is no difference, and every society must choose and hold its line, according to its own values.

Re: Twitter restricted in Turkey in aftermath of earthquake

#462

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Turk, I do not trust people who are using Turkiye in English. That is virtue signaling which is saying they are populist, nationalist etc. etc. I also find the change idiotic at the least though I understand why they did it.

When working with people of different nationalities and ethnicities I emphasize trying to pronounce their names correctly. Why is this different?

It might depend on country or person, but my name is already very hard to pronounce, asking me 2 or 3 times just prolongs the embarrassment

Re: Twitter restricted in Turkey in aftermath of earthquake

#463
post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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Radio signals do not penetrate through stone or concrete well which causes increased battery drain. You also have the issue of perhaps diminishing oxygen and cognitive impairment caused by shock and crush trauma. It would be better for battery life for people to just text a friend or family member and say "crushed under tons of stone at home, please send help". Nobody is going to do an AMA on Twitter while buried usi…

[flagged]

Re: Twitter restricted in Turkey in aftermath of earthquake

#464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Turk, I do not trust people who are using Turkiye in English. That is virtue signaling which is saying they are populist, nationalist etc. etc. I also find the change idiotic at the least though I understand why they did it.

US State Dept has started using Türkiye for its communications...

This is AFAIK a result of trying to get Erdogan to accept the NATO application from Sweden and Finland.

NATO head Jens Stoltenberg started saying Turkey but then changed to Türkiye before the big NATO summit in Madrid last summer.

Re: Twitter restricted in Turkey in aftermath of earthquake

#465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it is the other way round. If there are no places where companies and/or governments censor/limit free speech/fight misinformation, every place turns into 4chan and you lose your ability to choose. I'm happy there are places where speech is not restricted. And I'm even more happy that there are places where speech is restricted. Do you think HN should stop moderating discussion?

Do you believe every online forum accessible to Americans should have as strict, or stricter moderation than HN, because it's been demanded by a subset of voters?

> I'm happy there are places where speech is not restricted.

that means no. Do you want to remove _every_ moderation made by companies/governments in all online forums, including HN?

Re: Twitter restricted in Turkey in aftermath of earthquake

#466

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They are in charge of the disinformation/moderation teams An example: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aarondberman/ They are in most social media companies So they can decide what to ban that could hinder their national social order Something Turkey can't do with Twitter, hence a ban, just like the US with TikTok and the pseudo "algorithm" With the amount of misinformation that spreads in Twitter, it is the right thing t…

> it is the right thing to do You had me nodding until this part. Yes, twitter is filled with misinformation. But government censorship is more dangerous than misinformation. Governments have killed more people than anything else short of heart attacks and cancer. Governments murdered hundreds of millions of people in the 20th century; giving governments the power to censor whatever the government deems to be misinfo…

Any government, to emphasize. Who gets to decide what constitutes misinformation?

Re: Twitter restricted in Turkey in aftermath of earthquake

#467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stop buying from China means essentially buying nothing with a semiconductor. Unless you mean something else.

Well, there are many things in your life that you buy from China that don't have a semiconductor in it. For instance, I was shocked to find out that a lot of "Brazilian" honey was actually rebranded corn syrup imported from China and cut with low-grade Chinese honey, this all to get around U.S. import restrictions due to the lack of quality/safety regulation in China. It's expensive, it's tiring, it's hard. But, in t…

Buy locally produced food only. Most importantly never buy Chinese food it's toxic

Re: Twitter restricted in Turkey in aftermath of earthquake

#468
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Off-topic: Do most people there prefer "Türkiye" or "Turkey?"

There was an official name change [1] to Türkiye. 1. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/6/2/un-registers-turkiye...

The problem is, the bird is supposedly named after the country, and that if the country had changed/clarified its name, so should the bird, against Turkish intent.

Re: Twitter restricted in Turkey in aftermath of earthquake

#469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one of many, many reasons why western countries and social media companies should not normalise censorship re-branded like "fighting disinformation".

Nonsense, if you tolerate disinformation you get more disinformation. Countries that fail to address it will fall and the world will be worse off because of it. The right to free speech does not include the right to a free platform or free promotion.

Who decides what's disinformation?

Re: Twitter restricted in Turkey in aftermath of earthquake

#470
post #20

Erdogan's first speech was almost 2 days after the earthquake and he said "We are monitoring who said what on the social media and tried to provoke the people. Today it's not the day to go after those but we take notes and when the day comes, we will go after them". Just look at his face when delivering this speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doy38aKbMw4 It's like from V for Vendetta. The lighting choice is very…

Can anybody elaborate why? I understand if it's financial crisis or some other gov fuckup. But this is a natural disaster on an unprecedented scale, government may not have enough resources to handle it. What's the game here?
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