Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Conservatives flock to Parler, claiming censorship on Facebook and Twitter

text.npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

631–640 of 889 posts

Re: Conservatives flock to Parler, claiming censorship on Facebook and Twitter

#631

Post by pessimizer »

indymike wrote: post #442
Schiendelman wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Increasingly, the medium is the tribe. It’s not clear there are solutions to this because aligning on tribal beliefs is how we evolved to survive!

I think this is a misunderstanding. Social platform users have little reason to leave one platform for another. Censorship is one of those few reasons. Censorship 8s at a very simple level telling those with different thoughts to go start a tribe somewhere else. Twitter isn't making good decisions. The killed Vine and gave Musicaly and then TikTok oxygen. Their censorship is giving rise to competitors.

Parler censors energetically also, it's just that it's owned by Breitbart rather than amoral profit-seeking VCs. The VCs censor whatever gets anyone upset, especially powerful people who can cause them legislative, legal, or tax trouble. Parler's owners censor sex and other things that don't agree with their ideological line, probably anti-racism, anti-military/police and positive depictions of the socialized functions of government (which can probably all be neatly grouped under "terrorism.")

Re: Conservatives flock to Parler, claiming censorship on Facebook and Twitter

#632

Post by DFHippie »

motohagiography wrote: post #532
calinet6 wrote: post #431

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see it as the opposite: this may be how a technical network is supposed to work, but it's not how a society is supposed to work. The internet has created the ability for any given subculture to discover instant validation and reinforce their beliefs into a tribe, which further solidifies and extremifies those beliefs. It's a psychological power almost equivalent to a nuclear reaction: beliefs and ideas that might h…

The argument that we need to stop tribalism to preserve society is both an un-self-conscious conservativism and a more pernicious appeal to cultural homogenization, which is what the dominance of the platforms caused, and which these innovations are a reaction to. There is no diversity in 140 characters of closely monitored claptrap, and there is no risk and opportunity in trust and safety. There is no culture in a h…

> The very idea that we need to suppress ideas for fear that the ignorant masses may be exposed to them is a fatuous, aspirational elitism that is the very reason the platforms have become stagnant.

There are ideas and then there are lies. I think the problem is the lies, not the ideas. If an idea, like that the Earth is flat, can only find support in lies, the idea will go away if people aren't free to lie.

To be clear, a lie is a proposition insincerely asserted with the intention of causing others to sincerely believe it.

Re: Conservatives flock to Parler, claiming censorship on Facebook and Twitter

#633

Post by iooi »

sundarurfriend wrote: post #617
LatteLazy wrote: post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Source: https://www.cato.org/blog/twitter-alternative-they-can-keep-...

Relevant parts (reply to add if I left anything out): > Trolls hoping to test the boundaries of Parler’s commitment to free speech and get a rise out of its users began, often vulgarly, impersonating prominent Trump supporters and conservative publications. > Parler responded by banning the impersonating accounts, including some inoffensive parodies. (The linked article seems to have some bias towards supporting Parl…

Obviously the cato institute would be biased in favor of Parler.

Re: Conservatives flock to Parler, claiming censorship on Facebook and Twitter

#634

Post by Freak_NL »

yashap wrote: post #577
gogopuppygogo wrote: post #569

I tried to create a throwaway account and comment on a Reddit thread yesterday. It was denied due to lack of karma. A few weeks ago I tried to create a throwaway on Reddit to create a new post but the post was immediately removed due to lack of karma. Twitter now requires I provide a cell phone number to create an account. It throws up on me by suspending my account if a new account is unused for a few days. Requires…

The Reddit and Twitter controls, at least, are attempts to stem the tide of bots and spam. They’re trying to keep the quality of discussion higher on their platform, and I appreciate that as a user. I think the controls are reasonable. Facebook is creepy as fuck though. Recently I was logging on from a new location, and haven’t given them my phone number for 2FA. The only option they provided was for me to send in ph…

I think you can trigger that on any account that hasn't bit the bullet and send in copies of their identification papers by telling Facebook the user is using a fake name. I am surprised no national government has stepped to tell Facebook to desist.

Re: Conservatives flock to Parler, claiming censorship on Facebook and Twitter

#635

Post by calinet6 »

mjfl wrote: post #475
calinet6 wrote: post #465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. I'm saying that censorship isn't the long-term solution here, because it's untenable from a human rights perspective as well as simply a functional perspective (people don't like it). We'll need to find something better, but it's difficult to imagine what shape that'll take at this point.

then I would say your vision is incoherent since you obviously aren't for small pockets "absolute free speech" but aren't willing to commit yourself to controlling speech ubiquitously which would be necessary to prevent the former.

I would say you're not looking wide enough here. Absolute free speech isn't a problem in isolation by any means; but there are impacts to the ability of that to grow into self-reinforcing belief that doesn't match reality. One appears harmless, like a single alpha particle; but the other is an impact akin to an alpha particle chain reaction, or nuclear explosion. Similar impact on society, I would argue.

Could we conceive of a way not to control speech, but to inform or educate or provide information in context--or do something, anything so that it doesn't have the power to self-reinforce and create psychological weapons of mass destruction? What if it's the design of our current social networks around instant engagement and addictive content that's the root of the problem? Could we change the nature and design of that platform without restricting the speech on it whatsoever?

I have to believe it's possible. I'm under no illusion that I know the answer, or that the answer is even something that we have a name for yet. This is not contradictory or incoherent, it's just yet unknown.

Re: Conservatives flock to Parler, claiming censorship on Facebook and Twitter

#636

Post by pessimizer »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #630
LatteLazy wrote: post #223

It’s worth noting that the first thing Parler did was start censoring anyone unsupportive of their form of conservatism. They’re not offering freer speech, they’re offering a safe space. Maybe that’s a seller, maybe it’s not, but it’s an important distinction. This is really just /r/conservative taken to its logical conclusion.

This sounds like fake news. I doubt the first thing that Parler did was censor anyone, they probably first sent out advertisements to tell people of their existence.

No, they probably came up with the name before that, and had discussions about starting a twitter competitor even earlier. I can pretend to miss the point by an even wider mark without even trying.

Re: Conservatives flock to Parler, claiming censorship on Facebook and Twitter

#637

Post by karaterobot »

dustinmoris wrote: post #118

In mid October I deleted almost all my tweets and likes (but Twitter being so shit they are still showing my likes except it’s not liked anymore lol) and have not been tweeting anything anymore. I found Twitter too toxic, it made me angry with people for no reason, so I deleted all my tweets and the app. No more notifications, no more “just checking Twitter quickly”. I now go to Twitter like once a day just to have a…

I haven't used Twitter or Facebook since about 2007. People say they need to use these platforms to stay on top of what's happening in the world, but I have not found that to be true at all. If something is important, I hear about it about an hour after everyone else, and then read up on it if I want to.

What gets thrown out by that filter is all the inconsequential news, and gossip, and speculation, and learning people's knee-jerk reactions before you've had a chance to make up your own mind. You can still seek out all that stuff if you have the impulse, but you aren't being fed it intravenously all the time.

This is all by way of saying that the cost of just cutting these platforms out of your life altogether is pretty low, and there are some benefits.

Re: Conservatives flock to Parler, claiming censorship on Facebook and Twitter

#638

Post by julienreszka »

dang wrote: post #609
julienreszka wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

America was created by people who fled persecution, and turned out pretty well. It is the most attractive country on earth. What are you talking about?

Taking HN threads into nationalistic flamewar and adding personal swipes will get you banned here. If you keep posting like this we are going to have to ban you again, so please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and follow the rules going forward.

What is nationalistic about this? I'm just stating a fact. I'm not even american. What is a personal swipe? https://www.google.com/search?q=personal+swipes

Re: Conservatives flock to Parler, claiming censorship on Facebook and Twitter

#639

Post by mensetmanusman »

simmons wrote: post #593
Gene_Parmesan wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a shame, but it really does feel like "free speech" has become a near dog-whistle. Almost any time I hear of a service billing itself with free speech as a primary selling point, a quick visit is more than enough to turn me off of ever returning. Besides this, there's a clear feedback loop that happens regardless of the intent of the service's creators. The people most likely to get kicked off of social media pl…

I'm about as close to a free-speech absolutist as there is, and it's very frustrating that the market for these platforms seems to be settling into ruts where we have to choose between the hyper-conformity of highly managed platforms and the dumpster fires of the unmanaged platforms. I think the feedback loop you describe is a big part of it. I also wonder if we're experiencing a decline in education and critical thi…

There can, I’m surprised no one has implemented this:

Start everyone off with a maximum influence credit of say 10 people, like in your local neighborhood.

As you contribute to thoughtful discussion, as determined by the diversity and ratio of up/down arrows, your maximum influence credit grows as a function of your geography.

Re: Conservatives flock to Parler, claiming censorship on Facebook and Twitter

#640

Post by FroshKiller »

chrisseaton wrote: post #200
garmaine wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Block early, block often. Think twice before following someone.

People seem to get furious about being blocked. I’ve seen people post publicly the name of the person who blocked them demanding an explanation. It seems to escalate things rather than calm them down.

I published all my blocks with rationales to whyiblockedyou.com for a while. Then I decided to get serious about just banning networks of white nationalists en masse instead of blocking one user at a time.
Post reply on HN