Elon vs Twitter update: Elon helped America win , Tesla stock through the roof

Gab promotes it, verifies it, and it's one of many on that no moderation website. If it is offensive or unsightly or makes you feel a certain way imagine what happens when twitter takes a no censorship approach and the edgelords come rushing through?

 

He is not even that much of a champion of free speech. Posted about that earlier in this thread.

But I'm curious about something - how do you define a "free speech absolutist"?

 

it will truly be the mother of all slippery slopes

 

Yes, if the “free speech environment” actually promotes people engaging with differing ideas in a thoughtful and constructive manner. I have major doubts that Twitter is well designed for this purpose. It is, on the other hand, highly efficient at creating bubbles in which like-minded people can spread bullshit within their circle that drowns out the actual truth.

If Musk is proposing a ground up redesign of how Twitter works, more power to him. If he thinks the current design, minus moderation, creates a market place of ideas in which truth will somehow win out over bullshit, I think he’s totally mistaken.

 

You laugh but for eternally online people it just might be the equivalent of WW3 and the end of the planet.

But seriously, if Musk is approaching this in good faith he could make twitter a better place. Personally, I do my best to not put much faith in multi-billionaires to do a good thing out of the kindness of their heart though, no matter what their beliefs.

 

I think I’d define it as someone who believes that speech should never be restricted as a means to reduce harm from spread of dangerous or hurtful ideas. Something like that.

 

I have seen you post similar stuff before. I don't think you - or the current Twitter CEO - really understand free speech. The whole point of it is that there is no "ministry of truth" that puts a self-determined definition of what is "thoughtful and constructive" out that speech needs to pass to be allowed.

Covid is a good example where there has been a cartel of big tech companies "preventing misinformation", censoring, banning, etc. - and it turns out that some of the things considered a bannable conspiracy theory actually turned out to be true, or at least might be true (e.g., lab leak theory). Yet, big tech wouldn't even allow you to discuss them without putting a big notice below your post that you are lying. Etc.

Exactly. The reason they are so panicky and hyperbolic is precisely because they know that Twitter's (and other big tech's) "content moderation" has been incredibly biased in favour of their own political leanings.

Look, I don't know if it were to get a ton better if Musk were to make the rules - I like him, but he can be a wacko (like when he accused this British diver in Thailand of being a pedophile). But one thing it would do is shake up the cartel of big tech censoring certain viewpoints on behalf of the government.

The big tech cartel has gone too far.

https://www.thewrap.com/nearly-75-percent-twitter-facebook-censor/

People only think it is not a problem as long as it is only "the other side" that is affected.

 

So much hypocrisy:

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1514741320895582216.html

 

Wait, are you sure you understand free speech? Free speech under US law protects your speech from the government. You can make the 'town square' argument if you like but the basis of it is that free speech doesn't mean you are entitled to speak on any platform you wish. It just means that the government won't punish you for saying things...so like the gab profile I linked earlier can post extremely racist stuff, Twitter, Insta, etc etc don't want that stuff on their platform and so can ban it but that person can still post that elsewhere on the internet without the US government arresting them for it.

Later in the post you imply that twitter does this on behalf of the government which is a pretty audacious claim...I mean, which government? It's an international company after all. Was it really censoring speech on behalf of the government when the GOP held all three branches of power in 2016?

There are tons of right wingers complaining ON TWITTER about how they are being censored...on twitter. The irony is thick. Could it be that the ones that are banned are banned because of legit reasons? Libs of tik tok, the very post you quoted here had a teacher getting doxxed right in the replies. Babylon bee targeted another user, this is an INSTANT ban on like 95% of social media platforms, same as Milo being banned years ago.

You can name the person and it'll be easy for anyone to read the TOS, point to the rule they broke and why they are suspended or banned. In the end, Twitter bans things they feel might lead to people getting harmed or harm.

Most of the people that are arguing for 'free speech' aren't really for it because they are 100% okay with twitter and other mainstream platforms banning Muslim extremists from their platforms. Not a single one of them defends them.

Also, same free speech people are openly for banning books about LGBTQ+ issues, and using the government to do it...the hypocrisy knows no bounds.

 

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