I hear what you're saying, but I also believe that there is a certain amount of social responsibility here. 2 different scenarios: Twitter, and the Parler app. Trump and Co have blatantly broken Twitter's terms of service, so if anything they are just late to enforcement. I say "better late than never", and don't give a shit, especially when the fucker has his own Press channel at the White House. Fuck him and his Twitter account. As to Parler... I think if you look at the rationale behind the censorship, it's reasonable. Because it's not really censorship. And it's not like they can't spin up their own platforms and do their own shit on it... or go to Fox... or spin up Trump Multimedia ahead of schedule... And they haven't killed the service, only said "we're not going to carry your custom app in our store". They can still use the web interfaces, etc. It's like that guy wearing the Camp Auschwitz t-shirt... they didn't stop the production of the t-shirt and said "you can't make that shirt any more", they just said, "nah, we're not going to sell that shirt in our store." I see zero problem with that. It's not censorship, it's managing their store inventory.
Find me another person who is directing people to engage in an insurrection against the American government who hasn't been banned by Twitter/Facebook/Google/Apple? I'll wait while you look for how these rules are being applied unevenly.
Sigh. Couple of points here: 1. All Trump had to do was step out of the spotlight, and say "I hired this nerd, listen to him and do what he suggests about this virus." That's it. That's all any other president has done when there's been a pandemic threat. He consistently and maliciously derailed the coms and the effort to get this under control. 2. Trump installed a WH task force that muzzled the CDC, HHS, and ASPR from the get-go, thwarting communications to not only the public, but their Chinese counterparts, and the scientific community. This made things move slower, costing lives. 3. The WH Task Force was there to get people rich off of the CARES Act. The lack of oversight, the billions of dollars flowing to contractors that were three-week old businesses, the seizure of state supplies of PPE by the federal government to be re-sold to the highest bidder, the proliferation of snake-oil solutions, all of it was a cash scheme. Why else would you put Jared FUCKING Kushner in charge? This was a scam. 4. They threw out the pandemic playbook, and the basic concept of "test, trace, isolate". Part of the reason this is so out of control here is the strategy wasn't to combat the virus with a unified front. They funded retroactive measures like mask-sanitizing machines to the tune of $400m, and contact tracing peanuts. 5. The messaging and the perception of risk. Trump could have simply said, "this is what we gotta do". He never did, he challenged the scientific community to the extent that much of our country believe the virus is a hoax, that mask wearing is a Constitutional issue, and that people insist the virus isn't dangerous, all of which are dangerously untrue. He enabled his supporters to feel entitled to flout new restrictions and countermeasures, setting up meaningless conflict after conflict. How many of you have seen someone in a "Murica"-esque t-shirt without a mask on a plane, daring the flight attendant to say something, or in the supermarket loudly bitching about a medical condition and she doesn't have to wear one, or in a gas station talking about their rights. He made it acceptable to put self above others for no real reason other than to be a troll, and in doing so, killed thousands. 6. We are the wealthiest, most powerful society on Earth, ever. You really think that this is the best we could have done? That with more motivated and competent leadership, we couldn't have done better? If you think this is the best we can do, then go fucking fuck yourself. We deserve better.
1. Twitter, Google, Facebook and Apple all got far too big, and yes....that's called a monopoly. It's someone's job to break up monopolies and ensure fair competition, and that job didn't get done so here we are. Funny how the government not doing it's job fucks over folks, isn't it? It's almost like...well, a competent government, run properly without sucking the financial cock of these monopolies, might have been able to avoid these problems. Weird how the world's first trillion dollar companies aren't the universal boon they were reported to be, and that the fair market enterprise isn't some heavenly gift. 2. These private entities can do whatever the fuck they like with their platform and property, and that's been the conservative talking point for decades. Now that it's not exactly going swimmingly, they still can't revert back to "but muh free speech." Free country, ain't a free shop. 3. If you think the President of the United States shouldn't be held to a higher standard than Joe T. Fuck-bucket when it comes to...well, EVERYTHING, but especially inciting violence, then refer to the previous post of "go fucking fuck yourself. We deserve better."
It’s also not surprising that these companies that are essentially a monopoly, that have been getting a lot of shit about it and have been testifying before Congress multiple times, would do something like this two weeks before new administration is in power. I’m not saying they shouldn’t have done it, I’m just saying Robot Zuck and Weird Wizard Dude don’t want to be sitting there while every Democrat reads out Trump tweets/posts and accuses them of condoning the violence.
People on Facebook screaming about "censorship" and "their house, their rules" and I'm over here just waiting for social media to collapse and forums to become cool again. As the owner of a website like this one, my stance is the latter. You're in my and many others' living room. Act accordingly or GTFO.
Zip tie guy in the senate has been identified by Twitter, confirmed by fbi and now Ronan Farrow is on it. Fucking idiots were live-streaming them committing federal crimes
Every time this “free speech” issue comes up with regards to Facebook Twitter etc. I think people don’t read between the lines to understand what these people really are saying. They don’t care about freedom of speech, they’re upset that they’ve been cut off from a particular audience. You have the right to say almost anything. You can start you own website or yell at people in the town square. You don’t have a right to your own television show. It’s not apples to apples, but the tech platforms are essentially saying that they don’t want your show on their tv channel anymore.
A bit problem with message forums was that they had a no religion and no politics rule as their first rule. It taught people to hide in plain sight. It taught people that if you call an issue political you can get it dismissed. It taught people that instead of coming to a consensus with your friends you could chill with a Neo-Nazi/White Supremacist/tRUmp Supporter/Alt-Right and as long as they didn't say anything terrible right in that moment it was all good. Now we need to unlearn all of that shit. And we really need to fix this notion that "an uninformed opinion is just as valuable as an informed opinion" it is a side stepping of accountability at its most basic level. Just look at the current state of the Republican Party the closest thing you have to accountability in that party is Mitt Romney and he might be caucusing with the Democrats soon.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/127?s=1&r=17 Unsurprising to all those who don't like Trump but vote for him anyway.
I remember a time when every online community had their own messageboard/listserver just like the one we're on right now. Anyone who feels their speech has been suppressed is welcome to start up a vBulletin of their own, invite all their friends.
The hilarious thing is that the Democrats are actually trying to do something about this. The House antitrust subcommittee held hearings on the monopoly power of FAAGT (that's an unfortunate acronym), and the Republicans devolved the hearings into a whinefest about "bias" against their twitter accounts.
Lots of arrests going on: https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/...-carrying-spear-arrested-us-attorney/2535850/ Mr. Bison Head, it turns out, had 11 mason jars filled with home made napalm in his pickup truck just down the road.