Posted on 01/11/2024 7:39:06 AM PST by davikkm
But what if private entities which convey comment deemed by the Government to be "disinformation" are put out of business by lawfare and Alphabet Soup Agency harassment ?
This is what our fascist Federal Government is doing now.
“ once you censor some content you are implicitly endorsing allowed content. That means that you are on the road to destruction.”
Not really. Free Republic, appropriately and with good reason, censors blatantly racist/nazi posts. Has that been the road to destruction, or has it helped maintain civil discourse?
What you say might be true at the governmental level, but completely unmoderated online forums always devolve into trash.
“It is their right. WE are guests here.”
I think the model for privately owned platforms is X (Twitter). This will hurt substack, because it shows that lobbying from one group can suppress another.
FR could have (and still could) implemented the same “Free Speech” resolve as Elon Musk did and would be a more significant platform for free-speech expression if it did.
I am not knocking any private entity that decides to run it’s operations on whatever basis they choose. I just think taking a stand on free-speech is good business. FR could and (in my opinion should) do this - but will do as it wishes as it should be allowed to do. But FR suffers censorship and has suffered censorship in the past and present.
So Substack made a big mistake. It is an existential one.
It’s up to them to navigate it, and its up to writers and subscribers to decide if they wish to continue on a platform that may censor you if enough (of the right) people complain.
Given recent history if you believe government wasn’t involved in this you are too naive to live in this world.
I follow many forums of different kinds.
One off the charts controversial forum has successfully solved the “moderation” problem with a simple rule:
—Only three posts per hour.
That knocks out almost all spam and the obviously kooky posters find it boring after a while...
It works—no “censorship” required.
I have learned a lot from that forum—since it covers a wide range of heavily censored topics in almost every field of human knowledge.
Btw—many folks think that there is just political speech that is being heavily censored these days. That is not correct. Unconventional views in almost any field are under constant assault by a wide range of censorship.
History has shown that a small percentage of “nuts” in any age turn out to be brilliant folks who saw things other more conventional folks did not see. Yes—most of them turn out to be real nuts—but if you ban all of them you lose the richness of real debate where all oxes can be gored.
It was less than a hundred readers out of millions of readers!
I think it is different. Free Republic is not created to be an open posting platform. It is intended from its beginnings to provide a forum to promote a certain overall viewpoint, with discussion only around the edges.
BS. Of course there are limits. But, it’s kinda like porn. In some areas porn is: “I’ll know it when I’ll see it.”
Yes, you have a human right to say anything you want. But, there are at least two classes that will legitimately get a gov’mt office down on you: direct, personal threats of violence, and the old “fire” yell.
You can still say these things. But, you will be prosecuted and no one will come to your defense. Any site hosting stuff like this will be implicated and also prosecuted. So, they should take it down.
Everything else is fair game if any site is going to claim to be in favor of free speech. If someone objects start a civil suit in court.
Don’t have to tell me; I’m firmly in the “internet should be usenet” camp. Everyone should have an opportunity to show how stupid they are, free from interference.
“It was less than a hundred readers out of millions of readers!”
Free Speech - if properly advocated and followed - would protect those hundred readers as long as their views were not causing or advocating direct harm to others.
That is important, and private platforms often forget the point. Substack, if it intends to be a platform that advocates free speech and expression is just another one.
If substack does not intend to be a free-speech platform, it doesn’t have to bother attempting to stuff the censorship genie back in the bottle - but I submit that is bad for their business in the long-term.
Agreed on FR—there is a point of view here. It is publicly stated and is not a secret.
The standards are not constantly changing depending on what is “politically correct” at that moment.
The changes in (tightening of) standards are a clue of foul play in other forums.
A good example of “foul play” is an international cigar forum I visit often. Leftist political speech is fine—while even the most minor objection to it is banned. However, leftist political bias is nowhere noted in the terms and conditions of the site.
I help moderate comments on a few large right-leaning websites. I hide comments, and ban / shadowban some users from time to time. If they are outright promoting violence, or are consistently writing vulgarities ... those comments are not a good fit for the sites I work on.
I’m a fan of free speech. And believe that the answer to hate speech is *more* speech. But sometimes people lose the right to say whatever they want on the sites I work on.
Okay, but what if the government pushes private entities to censor a la the Twitter Files?
You and I are in agreement. My comment was specifically to someone that was fine with Substack doing this because to that person it would eventually lead to tons of “trash content” if they allowed it.
So I was saying it was such an insignificant number of readers that it had nothing to do with it becoming “trash”.
It was done because Substack caved to the forces of global control.
The story said they got rid of 5. No paid members.
That applies to the pro-child-porn argument as well.
Try saying anything conservative at Reddit.com and you will be banned.
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