For All Of Trump's Complaints About Social Media 'Censorship', The White House Itself Moderates Content Similarly To Social Media Sites
from the oh,-look-at-that dept
As you may have heard, a couple weeks ago, President Trump hosted what he called a "social media summit," where he brought in various Trump-supporting social media people, and where they all got to whine about the completely made up concept of anti-conservative censorship on social media sites (and, because I know the same three of you are going to show up in the comments and scream your heads off that I'm being blind to such censorship: you have yet to show any actual evidence to support your claims -- and, no, a few anecdotes of trolls, assholes, revisionists and propagandists being blocked does not actually prove your point). Trump gave a long speech at that event, most of which made literally no sense. However, he seemed pretty damn sure that social media sites are censoring conservatives.
But we run out of here… Shadow-banned, a hundred percent. You look at what’s going on. You know, I could go… The blocking, just the basic blocking of what we want to get out. The fact that they don’t let them join. They don’t. There was…. There’s no doubt in my mind that I should have millions and millions…
I have millions of people, so many people I wouldn’t believe it. But I know that we’ve been blocked. People come up to me, and they say, “Sir, I can’t, I can’t get you. I can’t follow you. They make it impossible.” These are people that are really good at what they do. They say they make it absolutely impossible. And you know we can’t have it. We’re not going to let it happen.
Josh, we’re not going to let it happen. And you know, if they did it on both sides, if it were done to the other side, to the other group… And I’m representing everybody. I do, I represent everybody. I fully understand liberal. I fully understand Democrat. We want to get along. We want to make sure that everybody loves each other, if that’s possible. And maybe, I really believe it is.
Also, during the talk, he briefly admitted that he understands why sites have kicked off some of these people before then going back to saying it's unfair:
TRUMP: "Some of you were [banned from social media platforms] for absolutely no reason. I mean in all fairness some of you I could almost understand it. I mean some of you guys are out there. But even you should have a voice ... I mean it's genius, but it's bad." pic.twitter.com/EmGoLS1M9V
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 11, 2019
Of course, as Charles Duan notes at the Washington Examiner, if the White House is really upset about social media platforms kicking people off, it might want to check its own house first. Because on the "We The People" petition site, the White House itself appears to take a surprisingly similar approach to that of the big social media companies.
Or consider We the People again. Surprisingly, the White House petition site has a stringent content moderation policy, prohibiting petitions for commercial endorsements, obscenity, profanity, and “degrading slurs.”
And, from there, he notes that this policy might actually violate the 1st Amendment, given that it is a government site, and the government cannot engage in viewpoint discrimination. Indeed, after last month's Supreme Court ruling that said that it was viewpoint discrimination for the US Patent and Trademark Office to reject trademarks on "immoral and scandalous" marks, following a similar ruling from two years ago barring the rejection of "disparaging" remarks, it's difficult to see how banning petitions that have "degrading slurs" would actually pass Constitutional muster.
But, really, that's an aside to the larger point, which is that in practice the Trump administration appears to be more willing to kick bigots and racists off its own platform than the Obama administration was.
How that policy has been applied is even more concerning. In 2017, a white nationalist group alleged that the We the People content moderator had removed the group’s petition on college funding. I have no love for white nationalists, but kicking them off a White House petition page is plainly viewpoint-based censorship. Ironically, the group noted that the Obama administration had allowed the same petition, so it was the Trump White House that was censoring far-right views.
That links takes you to a white nationalist page whining about the "We The People Moderator" (seriously) rejecting a petition to "defund anti-white colleges that censor criticism of white genocide."
In other words, Trump's own White House is doing exactly the kind of moderation that Trump's own White House is attacking Silicon Valley companies for.
Duan's article makes a further point: if Trump and the White House (or Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley) are really so concerned about the lack of social media sites "respecting" the First Amendment (which they, as private companies, are not bound by), there is literally nothing stopping the White House or Congress from setting up their own sites that would be bound by the First Amendment, as a government project.
Yet if Trump, Cruz, and others want a politically neutral, unbiased platform, there’s a simple solution: They should make one. Call it “freespeech.gov” and guarantee that all ideologies will be treated equally.
[....]
Perhaps counterintuitively, a public social media service actually fits right in to the government’s traditional role. In the real world, traditional public forums include streets, parks, and town halls — all government-run property. Such venues are perfect for political neutrality because the First Amendment demands it. Officials can restrict the time, place, and manner of speech on public grounds, but they cannot discriminate among viewpoints. The village park of Skokie, Illinois, must be as open to neo-Nazis as anyone else.
A freespeech.gov platform would be a virtual public square, so the First Amendment itself would prohibit anti-conservative or other bias. Contrast this to Republicans’ currently favored approach of legislating political neutrality on platforms. Private platforms are emphatically not public forums, as the Supreme Court has explained, and worse yet, this neutrality legislation might be an unconstitutional compelled-speech mandate.
Little stands in the way of building freespeech.gov. The government has its digital consultancies 18F and the U.S. Digital Service to produce the technology. It has already created the “We the People” White House petitions website, a virtual public square where hundreds of thousands of users call for everything from deporting Justin Bieber to building a Death Star. A freespeech.gov site would likely be popular as well — after all, what teenager could resist sharing dank memes under a .gov URL?
This is a valid point all around. If Trump, Hawley and Cruz insist that there needs to be a social media platform that is "neutral," the only place they actually have the Constitutional authority to make that happen is on a site set up by the government itself.
And then, as it appears the Trump administration (and the President himself) recognize, they might finally "understand" why these sites kick people off.
So, the next time you see any government official whining on about private companies not hosting all speech, there's a simple response: the government has the power (and even the skills) to do it itself. The only reason not to, of course, is if this is all stupid political grandstanding and an attempt to "work the refs" into getting social media sites to leave up harassers, abusers, trolls, and propagandists who just happen to be supporting the President and his allies.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
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–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: 1st amendment, anti-conservative bias, content moderation, donald trump, free speech, trolls
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But what else would you expect from a left-wing rag like *checks notes* the Washington Examiner?
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A Reminder:
“Anti-conservative bias” in social media moderation is a myth. To claim it as a fact, one must prove two notions are true:
Punishment of conservatives happens only because of their political beliefs.
To anyone who wants to try: I wish you the best of luck. You will need it.
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Re: A Reminder:
Wouldn't that take having robust, static, inviolable definitions for conservative, liberal, progressive, right wing, far right wing, left wing, far left wing, and the various flavors of moderate, with hard lines between each nuance?
That is where the luck is needed, especially when people self identify to 'their' version of whichever nuance they claim while others point and laugh and claim that 'they' are in fact some other nuance, if not the complete opposite.
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Exactly my point. 😁
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Re: Re: A Reminder:
If you consider "nazi" to be a synonym for "conservative", then there is clear evidence of a bias against conservatives.
A lot of self-described conservatives do seem to believe those two words are synonymous.
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Re: Re: Re: A Reminder:
There is a problem here..
Conservative with Corp Favoritism...ISNT conservative.(IMO)
Its as if the Repub's are passing the buck to Corps to do THEIR(Gov) JOB..
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Re: Re: Re: A Reminder:
That's weird given that it's also known as "National Socialism".
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Re: Re: Re: Re: A Reminder:
yeah, the Nazi's intentionally used the National Socialism moniker to help foment populist support, but much like Lenin/Stalin's communist party, and the Later Korean and Chinese Communist parties, generally failed implemented the economic systems their names called for. Both, in fact, moved toward government control of the means of production and economy - a form of facisim - which neither socialist or communist economic theory supports.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: A Reminder:
Wow,
Someone understands..
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: A Reminder:
...nor conservative economic theory.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: A Reminder:
And the totalitarian hereditary dictatorship of North Korea calls itself the "Democratic People's Republic of Korea." And a bunch of hateful, selfish, greedy warmongers call themselves Christians, despite Christ's teachings requiring the abandonment of all of those traits. Sometimes people lie about their ideals to make themselves more popular. It's sad, but true.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: A Reminder:
Confirmed correct. It's almost as if wearing sheep's clothing makes you look less wolf-y, or something.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: A Reminder:
Christ wasnt in the bible until the 1500's...
Or didi you know that already??
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: A Reminder:
I have a feeling that I'm missing at least one level of irony here, because I don't understand the point you're trying to make.
At the risk of explaining the joke, do you mind elaborating?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: A Reminder:
Sorry, what? The oldest extant copy of the bible has been dated to the 4th century. The text is in Greek, to be sure, but the individual currently referred as Jesus Christ is certainly within the text. I do not understand the basis of your assertion.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: A Reminder:
As I mention above, I'm pretty sure they're trying to be ironic, but I'm missing the point of the irony.
Maybe the point they're trying to make is that the humanist values Christ preached didn't actually start getting practiced on a societal level until the Reformation, and even then not very well (heck, even now not very well). Or maybe it's a dig specifically directed at the Protestants themselves, for discarding whatever good ideas the Catholics did have in favour of twisting their "sole scriptura" to mean whatever they wanted it to.
Or maybe I'm just reading too much into it, and they really do believe, against all historical evidence, that Christianity didn't exist, in any form, until the Reformation. Who knows. Whatever point they were trying to get across, they clearly failed at doing so.
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Re: A Reminder:
Everything everywhere..
And yes, I would Love both sides to Have a statement of what they are going/willing to Do.. Define themselves.
We vote thinking this side is this/this/this..and end up with the Same crap as before..
Out of the last 10 presidents, Most have been republicans.. strange isnt it.
Consider that years ago, the Fed and state were the highest employers.. But for some reason an idea popped up that the Gov. was/is to big. I would love to know where. For all the services provided, we are now down to a level that Even the 3 agencies responsible for our for, from processing to your table can only inspect about 8%.. and ASK the corps to get a 3rd party to do it, and send in the paper work. how many food poisonings in the last years??
The restrictions for citizen protection laws have Dumped into the landfill..
Banks have more rights then God.. Major corps keep buying up all the little companies..
Pharma...I dont need to say anything.
The Laws governing Capitalism have been Dumped.. NOW we get to see what happens. I dont wanna see it.
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Re: A Reminder:
Antifa is mostly left alone on Social Media (and they engage in actual violence) while the Proud Boys have been kicked off.
Jack Dorsey himself was confronted with the fact that Twitter punishes people for "misgendering" people, which is something that the Right doesn't believe in.
There you go, proved both points for you.
Oh, and Google employees have come out and said that their company is biased against Conservatives, Jack Dorsey (twitter) has stated Conservative Employees hide their opinions...
Even Vice/Vox (forget which one exactly) has stated that there's a bias against Conservatives.
Hmm... It's ALMOST like you and everyone else here are being intentionally ignorant or something.
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What I expect coming from a leftist Tech site. Even your own BIAS is right there in front of everyone.
Youtube is right in your face with banning the right, while the left in which they agree with and all their hate continue to be on the service. Apple is the same. It's once reason why the BitChute app is not allowed in Apple's store. Because they won't just ban whoever Apple wants banned.
This site is just another left-wing, mainstream media site throwing out a lot of fake news. Because this article is complete B.S.
By the way it wasn't just people on Trump's side at that summit meeting. Just more fake news, LIES. It's just getting old.
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Well, someone’s upset that their favorite White nationalist can’t post on YouTube any more.
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Re:
Funny part..
Its not the Conservative bitching..
Its the ignorant.
Those who dont know how to say things without Blaming others, and NOT themselves. Those willing to Be Blatant Abusers of language. Those that Cant Show reasoning of why they Think the way they do..
Any critical thinker can look at it and say, WOW, that a great fantasy novel..and throw it away..
Neither SIDE is listening any more, and we have a bunch of 60-90 year olds up there...30-40 years in Congress?? WOW..GO RETIRE IDIOTS, you are past your prime.. you cant even Add phone numbers to your smart phone..
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Re:
Did you happen to even read the article? Especially the part about how private companies are not bound by the first amendment. Surprised you say it is complete BS though. Trump's speech is part of the article are the article both agrees and disagrees with pieces of his speech. Also, it isn't surprising that most tech companies are left leaning. Most of them are in Cities or states that are left leaning.
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Re: Re:
Yes, the 1st amendment is applicable to the government only and not the people.
Corporations are not left leaning, not sure from where this silly idea originates.
Over the past fifty some years, the Overton Window has been pulled to right so far that many things Reagan did would now be considered lefty libral commie stuff. What used to be right wing is now called neocon and what used to be left no longer exists. But let's make all sorts of assumptions based solely upon some nebulous word for which no one can agree upon a common definition.
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Re: Re: Re:
There are prominent national politicians calling for single payer universal health care and free college education, so I don't think that's true any more.
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Re: Re: Re: Re:
You dont think?
"There are prominent national politicians calling for single payer universal health care and free college education"
How is this representative of what used to be called "the left"?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
OK, what would qualify as "left" for you?
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Re:
What I expect coming from a leftist Tech site. Even your own BIAS is right there in front of everyone.
We get accused of being "right wing" half the time and "leftist" the other half. It almost seems like those labels really just mean "someone I disagree with when I have no facts or arguments on my side.
I'm not left wing. I'm not right wing. I'm a person who thinks for myself.
Youtube is right in your face with banning the right, while the left in which they agree with and all their hate continue to be on the service.
Assertions require evidence. You have anecdotes. And nearly all of the anecdotes are platforms banning people for being assholes. If you claim that's "banning the right" well, then you're self-identifying with being an asshole. Odd choice, but you do you.
It's once reason why the BitChute app is not allowed in Apple's store. Because they won't just ban whoever Apple wants banned.
You have proof that Apple is banning conservatives for being conservative? Or are you just making up shit?
This site is just another left-wing, mainstream media site throwing out a lot of fake news. Because this article is complete B.S.
What is "B.S." in this article? Do you not agree that the Trump White House is also banning white nationalists like the social media sites are?
By the way it wasn't just people on Trump's side at that summit meeting. Just more fake news, LIES. It's just getting old.
LOL.
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Re: Re:
Just a comment: there's no problem in leaning towards left wing/right wing/anarchist/communist/whatever ideals. Even if you were 'leftist' (and Marx is possibly laughing over this idea) it would make no difference. For all the "oh, so much prejudice against us poor far-right folks" the US has a long history of falsehoods and persecution against the left just because the establishment didn't like the left during the cold war.
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Re: Re:
Can I suggest...
Its not What they say..
Its HOW they say it..
Waving flags, blaming others, Finding Fault and not a solution..
The USA gov used to do allot of jobs in this nation...but for some odd reason, they have been sent to Corporations...
The Gov had middle to low paid jobs all over...and now you have the Same,but Pay a CEO and all the Top earners, HUGE salaries.. Which Now costs us Double/triple what the Gov. Taxed us for..
Its the idea of WHO gets our money, and for what purpose. and Why are we still at war?
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Re: Re: MM: you censor conservatives right in plain sight HERE!
Baloney. Oh, you're a neo-liberal, and indistinguishable from Rush Limbaugh in most, that's true...
But show ONCE you've been accused -- by anyone clearly not your own astro-turfing -- of "right wing" bias. You are essentially LEFTIST, period.
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Re: Re: Re: MM: you censor spammers in plain sight HERE!
Why do you keep running away?
Coward
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Re: Re: Re: MM: you censor conservatives right in plain sight HE
Wait... do you think neoliberal and leftist are the same thing?
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Re: Re: MM: you censor conservatives right in plain sight HERE!
This repeats my complaint of your CENSORING "system" as seen above. -- It only works on "conservative" and dissent, NEVER on fanboys.
Masnick actually (for once, partially) answered me here:
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180130/22212639127/we-need-to-shine-light-private-online-c ensorship.shtml#c380
You should of course read that first.
Instead of a Commenting Guidelines page easily found, we're all supposed to read EVERY comment in every prior topic? How are new users to know this?
But what I ask is how does that "system" work! It's no answer to say "system"!
Now that after years of my asking Masnick has stated a few points, in characteristic way his "answer" only raise even more questions!
But first note that the SOLE source for answers is the entity in question, with NO way to check. I know for sure from experience that cannot rely on Techdirt's self-interest to be truthful.
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Re: Re: Re: MM: Nobody is actually censored
The system works as such:
I click the flag, which is a vote to hide your comment. If enough other people click the flag, your comment gets hidden, but anyone can click through the warning to see it. Very simple.
Of course, you've been told this multiple times before. By me, even. So I expect you'll ignore it and then rant and rave about this again later.
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Re: Re: Re: MM: you censor conservatives right in plain sight HE
How are new users to know this?
Oh, I don't know...maybe the "Click here to show it" sentence next to the hidden comment?
Consider, just for a moment, that not everyone is as fuck-all retarded as you.
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While you'll get no argument against Blue being mindnumbingly stupid, please try to refrain from using the word 'retarded' to refer to them. Not only should that sort of insult be avoided in general, but people with mental issues have it bad enough already without being lumped in with that idiot.
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Re: Re: MM: you censor conservatives right in plain sight HERE!
[Back after that browser session was poisoned.]
Masnick states that Techdirt has ceded control to this "community". Goes with prior opinion of the forms contract with HTML input field: it's a PUBLIC site, then.
Is not "hiding", which observably here only disadvantages dissent, on the slippery slope to viewpoint discrimination and censoring?
To have any input means allowing Techdirt / Google to run javascript, so THERE'S A PRICE TO PAY.
To EVEN SEE the hidden comments means allowing Techdirt / Google to run javascript, so THERE'S A PRICE TO PAY.
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Re: Re: Re: MM: you filter spam right in plain sight HERE!
Answer the question, coward.
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How does Techdirt transform from a privately-owned blog to a government-owned blog via the presence of an HTML input field?
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Re:
I personally find it funnier that when it comes to SOPA and Prenda, Techdirt is a "nobody site that nobody reads".
But point out how Trump is an asshole and suddenly it's mainstream media...
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Re: Re: MM: you censor conservatives right in plain sight HERE!
How many clicks are required to "hide" comments out of how many readers?
How is this a "voting" system since there's no evident counter to it? -- Do the "insightful" or "funny" buttons offset "report"? -- Certainly not after the hiding is triggered, so evidently it's one-sided "voting", rather Soviet again.
How do readers who do NOT click have any effect on the system so they don't have to waste time to see the "hidden" comments?
Isn't this disadvanting viewpoints by "hiding" an offense to "free speech", besides the practical effort and time of clicking?
What does "report" on the button imply? Is there any difference in that between offensive and simply don't want to see the viewpoint?
And you let this "system" potentially discriminate against viewpoints with NO administrative control?
Are there any administrative controls in Techdirt's software that allow:
1) hiding comments in same manner as the alleged "community"?
2) blocking IP addresses?
3) blocking specific browser sessions even temporarily?
Have / Are those administrative controls ever used?
How many persons have administrative control, even partial, over Techdirt?
Without numbers stated, this "system" may be only one fanboy, then. -- And surely an administrator, because I'm again getting browser sessions poisoned after making one comment. -- In my theory, the random delays mentioned show that an "administrator" hasn't yet taken action.
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Re: Blues gots his balls in a twist this morning.
Bro if you insist on acting like spam then the system will continue treating you like spam. As for all your other questions the simple answer is none of your business you ignorant motherfucker.
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You spend all day typing up this shit, don’t you?
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Re: Re: Re:
Shiva Ayyadurai didn't invent email.
Boom!
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Re: Re: Re: MM: you censor conservatives right in plain sight HE
If you don't like it here, go back to where you came from.
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Re:
So in summary everybody (with different opinions but who are not complete morons) except idiots that think alike these "conservatives/right wingers" and build their own service don't want the racist, bigoted and overall disgusting speech from said "conservatives". But the problem, somehow is the leftist bias or whatever. Talk about oversized egos.
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Re: Re:
I like this summary from the revolutions podcast 10.8- The Red And The Black.
The thing is both claimed to be anarchists.....
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Re:
I love how any news outlet that the alt right disagree with becomes 'the mainstream media', no matter how small, no matter how niche. 'Reality disagrees with me and anything that reminds me of that is part of some cabal.'
Also love how youtube is censoring the right, while bombarding people with recommendations for garbage like Dave Rubin, Joe Rogan and Prager U whenever they watch anything even slightly related to politics or current affairs. Truly they are the masters of censorship.
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Re: Re:
I love how any news outlet that the alt right disagree with becomes 'the mainstream media', no matter how small, no matter how niche. 'Reality disagrees with me and anything that reminds me of that is part of some cabal.'
I just die laughing everytime someone complains about the "mainstream" media as if being "mainstream" somehow means "fringe."
"CNN, NBC, The Times, The Post, and everyone but InfoWars is conspiring together because they don't want to tell the TRUTH about Pizzagate."
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Re:
Lots of accusations but as usual no evidence.
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Re: your tears are quite sweet though
So what you’re saying is those grapes are extremely sour.
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Re:
What you expect? To be reported for your asinine bullshit.
clicks report
You're welcome.
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Re:
Youtube is right in your face with banning the right, while the left in which they agree with and all their hate continue to be on the service.
One wonders why you don't just boycott them, given your strongly worded moral objection. Or are conservative boycotts limited to burning/destroying things you've already paid for?
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Re:
The only thing that’s old is your crying boy lol
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So?
"Hypocrisy" stopped being a word in Washington D.C. a long time ago.
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Re: So?
I think they changed the definition of the word hypocrite to be more like the word honest or genuine. Sort of like how they changed the word literally to mean figuratively.
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Love the ideas..
Lets see..
Why aint they made their OWN SITE...and asked that the Communications(FCC) not kick them off line..
For abusive language, Inconstant comments, Blaming anyone except themselves, being Corp stooges..
I dont mind a good debate, but BOTH sides must listen, and after awhile (even my mother said) YOU have to fix it, YOU have to learn more, YOU need a better education... DONT blame others for what you DIDNT DO..
Our nation has changed abit, backwards..If you cant find a job, USE THE NET, find another place to live that HAS YOUR JOB.. Head to the Farming areas, TONS of jobs for those wishing to LEARN...Companies arnt looking for HIGHLY skilled, they want low paid workers and train them in 1 day..
But the Corps have taken allot of the jobs over, NOT ALL...
Dairies require you to work for them 6-12 months before you can be a Milker and get $15 per hour, and work for 2-3 dairies..they want to see if you will stay.
Where are the Unions helping people get jobs, and training?? NOT many are left..and we are breaking them up.
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I understand what you're saying, but I think this is the wrong way to frame it. The First Amendment absolutely applies to private companies, just in the other direction than the pro-regulation crowd is wanting. (The difference is between "bound by" and "applies to," but I think it's important to hammer home the fact that support of private moderation is a protection of the 1A rather than a violation.)
The freedom that companies enjoy to speak their own minds have resulted in the Citizens United case that the right has traditionally defended vigorously. It takes some Olympic-level mental gymnastics to try to have it both ways.
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Re:
I think you would benefit from reading the bill of rights. I have provided a link for your convenience. If you choose to not read it, do not expect any civility when you make additional incorrect statements.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights
The operative portion of interest is as follows:
"Congress shall make no law ..."
Perhaps there is/are court proceedings you would like to present in support of your claim? I do not recall any that affect the 1st as you so claim, but yeah - lets hear it.
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Re: Re:
I think you're misunderstanding what I (attempted to) say. Perhaps I wasn't as clear as I should have been (it happens often, unfortunately).
Let me re-phrase: Private companies are not "bound by" the first amendment in the same way government is. This is indisputable.
The downside to phrasing it this way is that people will selectively read this to understand that companies and the first amendment have nothing to do with one another, when in actuality, companies are protected by the first amendment in the same way citizens are. "Congress shall make no law", indeed. The pro-regulation people are calling for exactly such an unconstitutional law. By disconnecting companies and the 1A protections they enjoy, it makes this hypocrisy less clear.
I think it's important to reinforce the message that people who are whining the loudest about "censorship" are the very same people who are proposing the censorship of corporate speech!
Hopefully that was more clear? This is why I don't write professionally. :)
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Re: Re: Re:
Oh I see ... corporations are people my friend.
I agree that government is not allowed to infringe upon what business says, unless said business is being untruthful. It used to be that lying in your advertisements was frowned upon, not so much anymore I guess.
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Re: Re: Re: Re:
Yes, Radix is quite correct. I'm really unsure what the Blue AC's point is. The 1st amendment protects business and people because businesses are made up of people, and businesses are not the government.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
It was this:
"The First Amendment absolutely applies to private companies,"
It was, incorrectly, read as saying that a business has to publish unwanted input from everyone because of their 1st amendment rights. The intent of said misinterpreted quote was that a business also has certain 1st amendment rights. It is still uncertain whether this includes all the same rights as individuals. For example, can businesses demand their employees attend political rallies and chant along?
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Re:
"the First Amendment (which they, as private companies, are not bound by)"
I like this thought..and when they ASKED that a corp be treated as human, I LOVED the idea.. but dont forget what LLC does..
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Key point: "Moderation" is not equal to BIAS.
The complaint of conservatives, as seen above, is that what masnicks call "moderation" is actually it's their one-sided BIAS to suppress all opposition to corporatism.
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Re: Key point: "Moderation" is not equal to BIAS.
BTW, I just want to thank you for always using some new punnish name. It makes it very easy to see that it's you, and act accordingly.
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One quartz in a pile of crap
If they have one single positive feature it's that they are really easy to spot for quick and easy flagging.
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Re: Key point: The truth will set you free
Why are you still here when you promised to leave forever? Just admit you lied bro.
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If social media moderation exists to suppress all opposition to corporatism, how come I can find plenty of “SILENCE BRAND” memes on Twitter?
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Naw, what you idiots get flagged for is posts that say you'd like to shoot AOC.
Nice going, jackass!
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Re: Key point: "Moderation" is not equal to BIAS.
If only conservatives had a majority in both houses of congress and an executive branch that did something rather than just complain like a little bitch. Then maybe, you'd get some change.
But I guess it's easier to just sit and complain rather than actually put in work, amirite?
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Never give your enemies ammo to use against you
The only reason not to, of course, is if this is all stupid political grandstanding and an attempt to "work the refs" into getting social media sites to leave up harassers, abusers, trolls, and propagandists who just happen to be supporting the President and his allies.
Oh not the only reason(though that is definitely one of them), there's also the fact that doing so would require them to engage in some actual work, and more importantly such a site would quickly be absolutely overrun by repulsive, disgusting people and content, such that they would either quickly be funding a cesspit with taxpayer money and showing everyone what they are demanding that private companies be required to host, nicely highlighting the fatal flaw in their argument, or pulling the plug on the site entirely, which would do the same.
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Re: Never give your enemies ammo to use against you
And the best bit is that if they did use tax payer's money to create freespeech.gov and it did turn into a cesspit (very likely) they COULD NOT TAKE IT DOWN. Thus, tax payer's money permanently being used to publish vile speech.
This is why it will never be done. Which is a pity, because much would be clarified by the endeavour.
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Re: Re: Never give your enemies ammo to use against you
Oh I imagine they could shutter the thing entirely('just because the government is currently providing a platform to speak from does not mean they have to continue to do so' would probably be how it would work), what they couldn't do would be to engage in any basically form of moderation against legal content, such that any content, no matter how deplorable, would be allowed so long as it was legal.
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Just in case no one has noticed, "constitutional rights" are part of the same alternate reality that got trump elected, except that the belief that law enforcement and the judial system follow anything in the constitution has been sold to a larger segment of the public for a longer time. Try telling a cop that the constitution is the basis of our legal system and which him or her scoff.
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One Wonders Who This Story Is For?
This is one of those fun stories that starts out demanding you believe a lie. That social networking isn't biased, when we ALL KNOW DAMN WELL IT IS. Come on. Nobody here is stupid enough to believe the lie the story starts with.
So ask yourself: Who is the story for then? This childish affirmation of media reality being dictate for us?
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Re: One Wonders Who This Story Is For?
This childish affirmation of media reality being dictate for us?
As opposed to the childish media reality that you choose to believe because it allows you to play the victim?
Face it - you're victims because you choose to be. It's easier claiming impotentce and complaining rather than doing something, amirite?
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Re: One Wonders Who This Story Is For?
You have proof then?
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Re: One Wonders Who This Story Is For?
Gee, people are biased.
And people post their bias on social media.
This is astounding information!
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Any lawyer will tell you that knowing something and being able to prove it are two different things. Until you can offer proof that Twitter, Facebook, and other large social interaction networks are moderating their platforms in furtherance of a specific sociopolitical agenda, your “knowledge” is worthless.
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Re: One Wonders Who This Story Is For?
Did it not occur to you that not everyone shares your inhalant abuse habits?
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Re: Zof, not even once
Why you still here bro?
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I'm sure Trump will explain every senseless thing he says during his term in his forthcoming memoir, "Call Me Adolf" (although it will be just as devoid of sense as one can imagine).
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Re:
Trump: "The less brown people we let into this country, the better."
Pence: "The fewer."
Trump: "I told you not to call me that yet!"
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Tilting at windmills
[Back after that browser session was poisoned.]
Thanks for this, it's my favorite "crazy person" thing you say on a regular basis.
Remember, when tilting at windmills, tilt to the LEFT ;-P
Mike, can you share the magic code that you must have that lets you can "poison a browser session" remotely and on demand like this? This is a great idea, and I think you could fix any financial concerns Techdirt might have by sharing this feature!
Just a thought.....
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BTW, Mike, you used Fascism wrong
Fascism is the use of businesses to push the "common good" in lieu of government forcing their opinions onto people, though the government supports it.
Hmm, that sounds familiar, why does it sound familiar?
And, BTW, at this point, if you think there's no anti-conservative bias on big tech, you're being both ignorant and a moron.
People from Google, Facebook AND Twitter, INCLUDING CEOs, one of whom is Jack Dorsey himself, have stated that there's a bias against Conservatives. There's DATA from the people who have come out against big tech.
Of course, I don't expect this comment to ever get posted, for some reason you guys keep moderating my comments and don't post them for a long time.
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Re: BTW, Mike, you used Fascism wrong
Okay, let's define Fascism:
"1 often capitalized : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition
2 : a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control"
Well, looks like your definition of businesses pushing something is ... incorrect? Fascism is about centralized state power, nation/race first - or just straight up authoritarianism. A corporation can certainly be fascist, but fascism is not limited to business actions. Please try again.
And, BTW, at this point, if you think there's anti-conservative bias on big tech, you apparently equate Conservative with White Supremacy and general asshole behavior.
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