Consider myself a progressive, and find it hilarious how both sides are taking a team sports approach.
What was/may still be happening is unacceptable regardless of who did it. Quit cheerleading
The Twitter Files
781–790 of 1001 posts
Re: The Twitter Files
#782Earlier quoted context omitted.
You mean this? https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/2/23490863/elon-musk-twitte...
It posted as I saved. I edited my comment to reflect that, though my point still holds. Calling it "a flop" is consistent with their recent bias (or pandering?) and ignores the substance of the matter almost entirely. Perhaps with some investigatory reporting The Verge could have broken this story themselves a year ago -- "the right way."
You're probably ignoring your own bias in this (and I say this as someone with no stake in US politics and who cares very little about Twitter). I read the thread expecting some huge revelation and there was none. Flop describes it pretty accurately.
1. Governments and public figures ask social media company to review posts that may violate ToS and/or law.
2. Social media company reviews posts with some internal debate and comes to conclusion.
Big deal.
The only thing that's really concerning in this is how much importance Twitter has when it comes to US politics and that it's now owned by one billionaire who's openly political (and spreads conspiracy theories). I can't imagine much debate happening in these content reviews anymore when the boss openly fires people who have the nerve to disagree with him.
Re: The Twitter Files
#783It does not seem like this really exposed any new information - Twitter publicly justified its actions as being about its hacked data policy back when this all happened ( https://www.nationalreview.com/news/twitter-cites-hacked-mat... ). All this shows is some internal disagreement as to whether that was the right call. By the way, Facebook also suppressed the news story citing its misinformation policy ( https://www…
These policies were always a pretext. The two major social networks blocking the same story at the same time citing different policies that are obviously inconsistently applied (did Twitter block the story about Trump's leaked tax returns? Did facebook block Biden when he claimed that covid would be gone once everyone was vaccinated?). These emails show twitter executives puzzled by the application of those policies.…
Since Guccifer 2.0 I've come to be at least a little suspicious of any leaks that seem one-sided. The timing too only heightens my radar (so to speak).
Re: The Twitter Files
#784I'm a moderate, not a Democrat and not a Republican. I think people on the left have a blind spot here, that the more suppression they use, the more division they create, and the more moderates and people on the right grow to resent them. I would have identified as a Democrat on pretty much every issue, but this authoritarian suppression of speech and ideas has just pushed me away from that side completely. At this p…
> but this authoritarian suppression of speech and ideas has just pushed me away from that side completely So as a moderate you prefer DeSantis approach to Disney, his forbidding of speech in schools, etc.? He's not passing literal anti press and anti speech laws to piss off the MAGA base. It's remarkable to me he so badly wanted props for punishing Disney for exercising free speech he forgot he's supposed to be pro…
The point is that the principle of free speech is far more important than any topic of the day. Enemy of my enemy situation.
Everything bad in politics has come from the downward cycle of political parties censoring each other.
It takes a lot of courage because the defenders of free speech, to also defend the right for those to campaign for the destruction of free speech. Things become really bad when exceptions are made to restrict the free speech of those campaigning against it.
You can see how easily people can fall into the trap though, because humans can only take so much abuse while being attacked by people they are inadvertently helping.
Now that Musk is in charge of Twitter, you start to see them take more interest in free speech and the importance of it.
> his forbidding of speech in schools
Garcetti 2006 - legal free speech only applies to private citizens not public employees.
The will of the people of the state should democratically determine what should be taught and what should not.
If creationism was to be taught in schools, I would certainly want the right as a private citizen to campaign against my children having to listen to that crap, without being impeded by "free speech" (a good way to evaluate free speech is to think about things you agree with and disagree with and see if you are happy with the law both cases).
> DeSantis approach to Disney
This is a interesting case indeed. Hacker News at its best when I have an excuse to dive into a case I'm not familiar with.
Personally, I think their speech is not being restricted by the new law. And the law is the will of the people.
As a voting citizen, would I really want to be denied being able to enact a law because a company complains about it's free speech rights? Probably not. I don't relate as much to a corporation than I do to an actual person - regardless of what the law says.
The retaliatory aspect is interesting though - and I would defer to the supreme court for this.
Re: The Twitter Files
#785I'm a moderate, not a Democrat and not a Republican. I think people on the left have a blind spot here, that the more suppression they use, the more division they create, and the more moderates and people on the right grow to resent them. I would have identified as a Democrat on pretty much every issue, but this authoritarian suppression of speech and ideas has just pushed me away from that side completely. At this p…
> the more division they create, and the more moderates and people on the [opposite side] grow to resent them This feels like a universal to me that applies to both parties. And I’m sorry, “authoritarian suppression of speech and ideas” is pure propaganda. No mainstream left leaning politician is actually perusing such an idea, it’s a boogeyman created by the right and by the looks of things it’s working great.
In theory yes. But Twitter isn't a mix of liberal and conservative. Its straight left.
Re: The Twitter Files
#786Isn’t this was freedom looks like? We’ve got a hot mess of officials and other influential people trying to sway public opinion on a private platform that’s management is a hot mess of individual assumptions, bias and buck passing. Comparatively the CCP is a well-oiled machine when it comes to censorship.
If you have low expectations then yeah I guess.
Wait until you hear about lobbying! You’ll stop getting out of bed. Or you could invest in a civics education and ask these questions in a formal setting and have you concerns addressed.
Re: The Twitter Files
#787Earlier quoted context omitted.
the life of a politically inconvenient story: 1. it's conspiracy theory 2. it was obvious to everyone 3. forgotten
I had this happen on Reddit personally. Shared my Covid experience. Got accused of spreading misinformation. Makes me wonder, if conspiracy theorists might have a point.
I've consistently been called a conspiracy theorist since the whole covid story started. I got insider info and knew exactly how the timeline'd play out for years to come.
at this point a "conspiracy" is just a "spoiler alert"
Re: The Twitter Files
#788There is another way to look at this. So Elon posted today he would drop important inside info about the Hunter Biden story the right wing loves so much. And they seemed thrilled and are now debating the “new” info. That’s an interesting turn from yesterday when that same group was pissed at him for going back on his free speech/no censorship claims when he kicked Kanye off. How surprisingly lucky for him he did some…
Totally agree. When you start looking at it, it becomes pretty clear that this is one of the things that makes Elon so successful, he is really good at playing the media game.
Re: The Twitter Files
#789There is another way to look at this. So Elon posted today he would drop important inside info about the Hunter Biden story the right wing loves so much. And they seemed thrilled and are now debating the “new” info. That’s an interesting turn from yesterday when that same group was pissed at him for going back on his free speech/no censorship claims when he kicked Kanye off. How surprisingly lucky for him he did some…
> going back on his free speech/no censorship claims when he kicked Kanye off. What's Elon done here that's inconsistent or hypocritical? He's never claimed to be a free speech absolutist (no-one is a free speech absolutist), nor did he say he was going to turn Twitter into a free-for-all for anyone can post anything with no moderation. Kanye posted literal Nazi content; he clearly violated Twitter's stated policies…
There are tons of tweets in the thread which laugh on people who think free speech is not absolute.
Re: The Twitter Files
#790Earlier quoted context omitted.
> but this authoritarian suppression of speech and ideas has just pushed me away from that side completely So as a moderate you prefer DeSantis approach to Disney, his forbidding of speech in schools, etc.? He's not passing literal anti press and anti speech laws to piss off the MAGA base. It's remarkable to me he so badly wanted props for punishing Disney for exercising free speech he forgot he's supposed to be pro…
Speech by teachers in school isn't free. It is delivered to a captive and inexperienced audience (children). That's why school should focus on teaching skills and not interpersonal issues. Overloading children with 50 genders is just nonsense and confuses them. The same applies to Disney movies for minors.
This is confirmed by Garcetti 2006:
> that because his statements were made pursuant to his position as a public employee, rather than as a private citizen, his speech had no First Amendment protection.