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Conservatives flock to Parler, claiming censorship on Facebook and Twitter

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

#781

Post by epistasis »

kordlessagain wrote: post #580
epistasis wrote: post #500

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, that's rather shocking to me. I find Twitter to be a fantastic news source, with higher concentration of good links than HN, and often see stuff there far before it shows up ok HN. The thing about Twitter is that it is entirely about who you follow, and what those people talk about and retweet. So if somebody is a source of toxicity, unfollow them. I have a very low threshold for both following and unfollowing.…

Leaving curation to the user means certain users will have good feeds and others will have horrible feeds, with the default being horrible feeds. Thus, Twitter is horrible, no matter the fake emotional output of a single user's anecdotal experience.

The default Twitter lets you select from lists of topics, none of which are very toxic unless you ease into confrontational politics.

If this default is "horrible" can you say more about that?

> fake emotional output of a single user's anecdotal experience

What do you mean by this? What is the emotional output and what is fake? Are you talking about my single user's experience, or that of the person I replied to?

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

#782

Post by dvtrn »

holler wrote: post #779
dvtrn wrote: post #755

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like that there are no "engagement" or "proofing" indicators like likes and hearts, or other mechanisms signaling approval and consent-of-the-crowd(like votes/points/karma). Do you intend to keep it this way? (Please say yes)

Yes! I wanted to build a place that's mission focused on conversation, and tries to mimic the real world as much as possible. There are no plans to add likes, voting, or public "karma", and I'm split on whether or not to show follower count. In real life people "vote" by either walking away from a conversation, or chiming in with an alternate viewpoint. The relevance algorithm is based on conversation metrics such as…

Outstanding! I've signed up and am already having a few interesting chats about space launches :) Really interesting experiment you've made here, I hope it succeeds

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

#783

Post by jb775 »

hindsightbias wrote: post #688
jb775 wrote: post #584

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's still a good way to follow current events This is where the major problem lies and you don't even realize you're complicit in it. The "current events" blasted out on Twitter are curated by Twitter admins to only show what they want to show. They place heavy over-weighting on events and discussion that they want everyone to see. They hide hashtags they don't want trending. They don't show a pure list of what's…

“The couple initially gave $250 million to the nonprofit Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), which has set up a grant program that funds local government efforts to expand voter access, including drive-through voting, temporary staffing support, equipment to process ballots and applications and nonpartisan voter educations” God forbid people be able to exercise the right to vote. “A conservative legal group, Thoma…

So let me get this straight, your response to my criticism of left-wing censorship is to quote an article from a major left-wing media outlet who actively participates in censorship & altered-framing of news topics? And on top of that, you provide a smug response that misses the underlying point? This thought-cycle is common, and is deepening the divide in America. I urge you to diversify your news sources, and think critically about issues rather than believing everything you read.

Also, donations towards partisan strategies meant to directly impact election results aren't allowed.

"Mr. Landry said one way the grant money could be used would be to send out prepaid return ballots in heavily Democratic districts around New Orleans, “while some guy in a rural parish [a conservative area] still has to buy his 50-cent stamp.”"

"Though the CTCL maintains it is a non-partisan organization that offers “free and low-cost resources for local election administrators” with no regard to political leaning, the group’s founders each boast records in progressive and pro-Democratic circles. Prior to creating the CTCL, all three founding members – Tiana Epps-Johnson, Donny Bridges and Whitney May – held top positions with the New Organizing Institute, described by the Washington Post in 2014 as “the left's think tank for campaign know-how.” Epps-Johnson also remains a fellow at the Obama Foundation, her LinkedIn page shows."

"In Philadelphia, long a Democratic stronghold, money provided by the center is to be used to establish 800 polling places, an increase of 76% the number of polling places"

Reference: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/oct/29/zuckerberg-...

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

#784

Post by easton »

sonotathrowaway wrote: post #646
philjohn wrote: post #623

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also label most discussions now as "Flaired users only!" and to get flair you have to prove you're a conservative. It's not about free speech and being oppressed, it's a literal safe space - which is fine, but selling themselves as the opposite of that just makes them look foolish.

To be clear, /r/conservative forces potential commenters to hold interviews with current members to vet their ideological purity. If at any point they flip-flop on an issue they will ban you for ideological impurity if you do not flip-flop your position accordingly. It may well be the most heavily censored board on Reddit.

Other subreddits have started to do this too, r/BlackPeopleTwitter has "Country Club Threads" where you can only comment if you've proven to the mod team that you are a person of color, which is.. interesting.

https://www.reddit.com/r/BlackPeopleTwitter/comments/gumxuy/...

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

#785

Post by holler »

dvtrn wrote: post #782
holler wrote: post #779

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes! I wanted to build a place that's mission focused on conversation, and tries to mimic the real world as much as possible. There are no plans to add likes, voting, or public "karma", and I'm split on whether or not to show follower count. In real life people "vote" by either walking away from a conversation, or chiming in with an alternate viewpoint. The relevance algorithm is based on conversation metrics such as…

Outstanding! I've signed up and am already having a few interesting chats about space launches :) Really interesting experiment you've made here, I hope it succeeds

thank you! I really appreciate you taking the time to check it out.

will post the link since I'm going to be hanging out there watching the SpaceX Crew 1 launch :D

https://sqwok.im/p/QGSQH214bPZbBQ

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

#786

Post by 6bb32646d83d »

holler wrote: post #716
jelliclesfarm wrote: post #690

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I long for the old IRC days...when you can open a room on DalNet and talk to a small group of like minded people about what you are interested in and curious about..invite/kick those who get obnoxious. It was cozy and I’d give anything to get an online community where we all get along and where it’s ok to be open to new ideas. Most of the BBS and IRC rooms I frequented had little to no moderation. Flamewars occurred,…

I miss those days too! I used to spend a lot of time in #efnet and #dalnet, speaking to strangers about things like #skateboarding and other random topics. It was kind of cool because back then most people didn't know what irc was, nor did they have the prowess to download, install, and configure a client. Mirc was the jam. I'm working on a new open chat site, https://sqwok.im , and hoping to recapture some of that e…

Great idea! When trying to create an account, it wouldn't let me chose a password over 20 characters. Why the limit?

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

#787

Post by mancerayder »

mancerayder wrote: post #614

This can only lead to a further bifurcating of the electorate, and exacerbates the echo chamber phenomenon. I'm not conservative, not even close, but I do blame Facebook and Twitter for picking winners and losers and alienating conservatives. A free speech obsessed person myself, I've been keeping a close watch. In the old days, hate speech to block meant, imminent harm. Today, someone saying I don't feel Safe has be…

I'm actually curious what's downvotable here. Is it because we are not to criticize Facebook and Twitter, here?

Because there's a (probably incorrect) assumption about my political views?

Because I'm suggesting that maybe the line "censorship will lead to more problems, not less" is to be "voted against" a if it were a design choice in reality itself?

Let's put it this way. Going back to Twitter. How would you feel if your views were suppressed. And if we can suppress views now that you don't like, what happens one day when the views you LIKE are suppressed?

It cuts both ways. Your eagerness to shut something down today can come down to bite you and you'll have no argument to stand on. That's why we defend those we disagree with, on principle.

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

#788

Post by BlueTemplar »

ttt0 wrote: post #742
gameswithgo wrote: post #649

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why is that the problem? r/conservative can start any club they like. reddit can run any business they like.

It's a problem, because it doesn't end here. Even if you make your own service, once your "club" gains too much traction you are still going to be deplatformed by domain registers, DDoS protection services, payment processors etc. It's also a free speech issue. The main purpose of free speech is the ability to criticize your government and social media have obviously a huge influence on elections. As we move towards…

We might need an intermediary status between media and hosting, where they are allowed to censor content, but take some responsibility for that (like if you hit someone stealing something), especially if they are a for profit company.

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

#789

Post by Grustaf »

didibus wrote: post #727
Grustaf wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I'm mostly a classic liberal person, think founding fathers, enlightenment era. And to be honest, I'm curious about what your definition of conservative is? To me, there's only two way to define it. Either the old way, where conservative means you are a feudalist, monarchist, theocrat, oligarch, autocrat, statist, fascist, etc. Basically you want to go back to a pre-liberal establishment style of society, and are opp…

I think your dichotomy of either you’re a liberal conservative or you’re a fascist illustrates my point pretty well. You simply cannot imagine that someone could be a non-liberal without being evil.

By conservative here i meant really anyone who is not 100% onboard with democratic party doctrine, which is enough to be ostracized in SV today.

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

#790

Post by mancerayder »

dimgl wrote: post #230
notahacker wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dont think Big Tech got every call right, but I really don't see how they please both sides here. Especially when one side, from the top down, considers everything other than sycophantic praise for its leader to be 'fake news', and the other side has some people opining that even reporting things the other side says without qualification is irresponsible journalism. If anything, I'd say hindsight makes some of thei…

I have to disagree. It’s not about pleasing both sides; it’s about being a fair and unbiased platform. And on that front I think big tech absolutely blew it this time across the board. Our society is fractured. There is so much hate and whining online. So much righteousness and loathing. And big tech has only amplified the problem. At times they even fan the flames, what with dubious fact checkers and their “hate spe…

I tend to have a similar mindset - I have an allergy to groupthink, and when I see groups of people saying false things, even if I generally normally agree with the spirit of the group, I have to at least 'fact check' with a response. But in this strange new bifurcated reality, you get pinned as 'Other' as in, I must be the 'Other side' and thus subject to to some sort of retaliation.

I don't get 'banned' but I get downvoted - as I did on this thread with no real explanation.

I have absolutely no problem with "Fact checking" because at least it shows the original thing. I have a big problem with shadow banning, deleting and outright banning. The latter is censorship.

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