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Patreon Bars Anti-Feminist for Racist Speech, Inciting Revolt

nytimes.com

621–630 of 789 posts

Re: Patreon Bars Anti-Feminist for Racist Speech, Inciting Revolt

#621
post #553

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Have you considered that we see the growing use of Nazi lingo because the amount of violence being committed by neo-nazis is rising? I think the rise in calling other people Nazis is more a symptom of political polarization than of a resurgence of violent national socialist gangs. To that end, I think the media itself is vastly more culpable than r/the_donald or gab. Are they organizing and rallying more? Yeah, it…

There has been a large increase in hate crimes in the United States in the last few years. The issue of censorship is deeply nuanced (i.e. the paradox of tolerance). On one hand, there is the problem of "what if the tables are flipped," and how different marginalized groups are treated. Unfortunately, giving fringe viewpoints platforms and openly debating them actually encourages people to support those viewpoints de…

If the tables were flipped is never a problem in this car because it has an obvious answer: you would be murdered.

Re: Patreon Bars Anti-Feminist for Racist Speech, Inciting Revolt

#622
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if it's centralisation so much as personification. Patreon wants to be a a friendly brand, part of people's self-image. And having chosen this, perhaps they can't afford to live and let live. It's very difficult to imagine Bell Telephone (in their 100% monopoly days I mean) feeling responsible for what people discuss on their wires, or feeling a need to deny (say) pornographers service so that its other…

Visa is extremely censorious, especially of sexual content. It is very odd how they and MasterCard get let off this debate, despite the fact their vague rules are often the reason for such closedowns. It will be really interesting to see if 2019 brings a change in the outrage that is currently directed at public facing platforms over their content policies to the actual architects of many of those decisions, which ar…

To what degree is Visa protected from competition through federal regulation? I don't think you can benefit from government subsidy/protection and also claim to act as a completely private actor.

Re: Patreon Bars Anti-Feminist for Racist Speech, Inciting Revolt

#623
post #589

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need to rephrase this to: "If you are only able to speak freely when no one is forced to listen to you - are you then allowed freedom of speech?" This isn't some guy shouting in the street or some other public place (who, funnily enough, everyone usually agrees with their removal), but someone shouting on what is effectively private property.

Shouting is a horrible analogy since shouting is forcing itself on others wether they want to listen or not. "Being available to be spoken/listened to" is more accurate. You also need to remember that the places we're talking about are de facto public spaces due to their practical monopolies on speech. They are private spaces legally and the companies who own them can be as discriminatory as they want in regards to w…

Such regulation will be swatted down, I'm sure. The private spaces have legal protections guaranteed by the constitution. Just like the christian baker who was protected from being forced to decorate cakes with messages he found offensive, these companies will be protected from being forced to publish speech they find offensive.

The analogy is appropriate in the sense that its not the "shouting" that is offensive, but rather that the message is considered offensive in the private place where it is expressed against the wishes of the owner of that private place.

Re: Patreon Bars Anti-Feminist for Racist Speech, Inciting Revolt

#624

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The societal norms are shifting to a place where there are certain topics that are not allowed to be discussed at all even if looking at them from a critical lens. Patreon want to prevent the expression of certain thoughts. For example, they are against "negative generalizations, of people based on their race". However, negative generalisations are sometimes true. For example the homicide rate in Japan is much lowe…

> I wouldn't mind that Patreon are censorious, if there were lots of alternatives. Good luck with that. The Visa MasterCard cartel will not allow a Patreon competitor with different standards to use their payment infrastructure and will use their connections to get any competitor kicked off of other payment processors. It’s been two weeks and SubscribeStar still don’t have a replacement for the eight payment processo…

> a call between the head of Patreon’s Censorship team and one of their creators.

Not only that, she was formerly a PayPal employee and had been working at Patreon for only a few months. Reading between the lines, it seems likely that Patreon was being told by PayPal that they had to fall in line with PayPal's censorship or lose PayPal (and thus mainstream credit card) processing.

Re: Patreon Bars Anti-Feminist for Racist Speech, Inciting Revolt

#625
post #585

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In the case of Patreon, there is a man who people want to give money to. He wants to accept that money. There is no criminal activity on either side of the transaction. Yet Patreon is preventing these people from doing what they want because Patreon dislikes one paragraph of the man's boorish utterances. Patreon isn't "preventing" the transaction, they are merely choosing not to facilitate it. Respecting individual…

> Patreon isn't "preventing" the transaction, they are merely choosing not to facilitate it. What is the distinction between these two terms? If Wells Fargo refuses to let me deposit checks because of something I said, are they preventing a transaction or merely choosing not to facilitate it? After all, I could open an account at another bank. If FedEx returns packages addressed to me because of something I said, are…

In my mind, banks are infrastructure. There are a limited number of them, and you have to get a pretty specific charter to operate one (that I don't think is even being granted anymore?) Patreon isn't. Anyone can create a website where people donate money to creators.

Re: Patreon Bars Anti-Feminist for Racist Speech, Inciting Revolt

#626
post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So if being black was a choice you would be okay with businesses discriminating against black people unless they chose to be a different race?

In this hypothetical universe, is it as easy to change one's race as it is to change one's clothes? If so, it seems no different than "no shirt, no shoes, no service." But then a world in which race was a choice would be so different from our own that one would wonder whether racial discrimination would even exist, or what "black" would even mean.

If I understand the arguments some folks are putting out these days, race, like gender, is now a social construct and therefore entirely mutable: https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/06/16/how-fluid-i...

I am not saying I agree or disagree with it, but perhaps things are not as hypothetical as you believe.

Re: Patreon Bars Anti-Feminist for Racist Speech, Inciting Revolt

#628
post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Again, what Sargon said wasn't racist. It was stupid, offensive, and probably an impulsive attempt to get more eyeballs, but it wasn't racist. If what Sargon said was racist, then so is Steven Pinker's talk on language[1] (specifically the segment on profanity and racial slurs). > The parent's concept of free speech is fully compatible with this point, specifically because alternatives exist (and will always exist, g…

This is concerning for the same reason that the government seems to be concerned that Facebook seems to have an anti-conservative bias. Patreon, like Facebook, has a de facto monopoly. The outstanding question is what is to be done about it.

If you take a very specific definition of Patreon's business, donate a monthly amount to creators in return for nothing, recognition, or virtual/physical benefits, then perhaps you could say they have a defacto monopoly.

But if you take a slightly wider look at supporting creators whose content you enjoy, then not at all. You have Twitch subscriptions, YouTube supports/members/whatever they are calling it these days, PayPal, multiple variations of crowdfunding platforms, etc...

It also seems way easier to start up something like Patreon than a FB competitor.

Re: Patreon Bars Anti-Feminist for Racist Speech, Inciting Revolt

#629
post #185
post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't be too torn about this case. First of all, unless you're a free speech absolutist (who believes that literally nothing supercedes free speech) then recognize and accept that someone, somewhere has to draw a line across a continuum of grey. So we're already in the morass, whether you like it or not. You're right to worry about this question: > But then, who decides what's bad? But in this case, it's Patreon…

But in this case, it's Patreon, trying to look out for its own best business interests. It's almost ideal. I agree with most of your comment, but is Patreon really free to make the decision? Assume a hypothetical "free speech absolutist" version of Patreon, who decided they wouldn't bow to outside pressure. It seems likely that that as with their short-lived free-speech-embracing competitors, the outside forces are s…

Yes, in fact the ex-Paypal employee at Patreon who is making these censorship decisions explicitly mentioned the credit card processor guidelines as the reason for their recent censorship. It's difficult not to see this censorship as something other than cartel-like behavior on the part of credit card processors.

Re: Patreon Bars Anti-Feminist for Racist Speech, Inciting Revolt

#630

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Freedom Markets™ (laissez faire) means we all define intolerance however we want. Unless you believe corporations have any sort of obligation to the society they function within.

Of course they do; do you have a more specific point or argument?

More specific than pointing out the contradiction of letting corporations do whatever they want while expecting them to behave a certain way?
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