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Free speech is ‘dangerously naive idea’ that leads to ‘amplification of lies,’ columnist claims
The Blaze ^ | August 10, 2018 | Aaron Colen

Posted on 08/11/2018 8:14:57 AM PDT by TBP

In a column criticizing Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s decision not to ban Alex Jones from the social media site, a writer for The Verge attacked the principle of free speech as “dangerously naive.”

Laura Hudson, The Verge’s culture editor, said Twitter is wrong to believe that a free marketplace of ideas is sufficient to push back against harmful conspiracy theories.

“Who doesn’t want to think that the truth will always win in the end, that information not only wants to be free, but that this freedom will lead us toward a more just world — especially when it is your job to share information?” Hudson wrote. “But in our current moment, it is a dangerously naive idea.”

Why would free speech be bad? Hudson cited numerous studies that promote the idea that once people have believed false information, presenting them with the correct information later could just entrench them more deeply in the false belief.

Therefore, Hudson argues, social media sites like Twitter have an obligation to carefully police the speech on their platforms to limit the amplification and exposure of poisonous ideas.

“Instead, far too many of the biggest social platforms continue to tie themselves — and, by extension, their millions of users — to the railroad tracks of unfettered speech, more fearful of exuding a whiff of censorship than the oncoming train of misinformation and hate that is already barreling down upon us,” Hudson wrote.

Hudson says the First Amendment was meant to protect the public from state oppression, meaning it should not necessarily apply to what a company like Twitter allows to be posted.

“Twitter does not have the power to throw people into prison; indeed, the greater potential threat Twitter poses to the public is not its ability to lock someone’s account if they use racial slurs, but the harm it has done, and is doing, by feeding its oxygen to the ugliest and most destructive elements of society — ones that better and more civilized communities and platforms would quickly banish for the good not only of its most vulnerable members, but for discourse at large,” Hudson wrote.

Background The debate over banning users from media platforms reignited when Apple, Spotify, YouTube and Facebook removed content by Alex Jones from their sites due to alleged violations of those sites’ hate speech policies.

Many users called for Twitter to follow suit, but Dorsey has refrained from doing so, saying Jones has not violated its rules.

“If we succumb and simply react to outside pressure, rather than straightforward principles we enforce (and evolve) impartially regardless of political viewpoints, we become a service that’s constructed by our personal views that can swing in any direction,” Dorsey tweeted earlier this week. That’s not us.”


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; Society
KEYWORDS: 1a; 1stamendment; abortion; firstamendment; freespeech; globalwarminghoax; homosexualagenda; laurahudson; libertarians; media; mediawingofthednc; medicalmarijuana; partisanmediashills; presstitutes; progressives; smearmachine
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Thank you, Twitter.

How does a guy who makes his living via the First Amendment think free speech is a bad idea? and who would he have decide what's a lie and what isn't? Ultimately, if this becomes an issue, the government will decide, and then his free speech is threatened.

1 posted on 08/11/2018 8:14:57 AM PDT by TBP
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To: TBP

Said the naive guy who uses free speech to attack free speech.


2 posted on 08/11/2018 8:17:29 AM PDT by SkyDancer ( ~ Just Consider Me A Random Fact Generator ~ Eat Sleep Fly Repeat ~)
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To: TBP

Code Is Free Speech


3 posted on 08/11/2018 8:18:00 AM PDT by 2harddrive (Go to www.CodeIsFreeSpeech.com for 10 FREE 3D-printer gun blueprints!)
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To: TBP

Amazing how those who so proudly tout “freedom, equality, diversity” so rabidly want to control others, consider themselves superior, and hate anything different from their select preferences.


4 posted on 08/11/2018 8:18:31 AM PDT by ctdonath2 (The Red Queen wasn't kidding.)
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To: TBP

“The ugliest and most destructive elements of society”

Hollyweirdos
Pinko professors
Rap “singers”
Wife beating athletes
Anarchist rioters
Anti-Christian bigots


5 posted on 08/11/2018 8:18:46 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: TBP

We are very lucky our constitution is hard to change. We are very lucky we have some good judges going on the SCOTUS.

Yes, free speech is dangerous. Controlled speech is much more dangerous.


6 posted on 08/11/2018 8:20:31 AM PDT by SaxxonWoods (Hmmm)
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To: TBP

It is worth noting that both Disqus and Fakebook CENSOR any mention of a website, www.CodeIsFreeSpeech.com that provides FREE downloads of 3D-printable firearm blueprints. And, since Facebook/Disqus logins are so prevalent for posting commentary across the Internet, they are very effectively suppressing this “Forbidden Knowledge” almost EVERYWHERE. Please go to the website, download some or all 10 of the free blueprints, and then, repost it to your friends and across the Internet, to the extent you can. Strike a BLOW against Fakebook and judicial CENSORSHIP! Support TWO amendments at once, the First and the Second!


7 posted on 08/11/2018 8:21:13 AM PDT by 2harddrive (Go to www.CodeIsFreeSpeech.com for 10 FREE 3D-printer gun blueprints!)
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To: TBP

He doesn’t understand that his fellow journalists are responsible for setting the record straight.


8 posted on 08/11/2018 8:21:18 AM PDT by dhs12345
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To: TBP

the lies they are worried about can be addressed legally under existing libel and slander laws, or outright fraud laws.


9 posted on 08/11/2018 8:21:32 AM PDT by Secret Agent Man ( Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: TBP

Its easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.- Mark Twain?


10 posted on 08/11/2018 8:22:37 AM PDT by READINABLUESTATE (But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.- George Orwell)
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To: TBP

Free speech is hated by Left because it both empowers the individual and makes him responsible.

NOT the speaker, as we reflexively believe - but the listener.

Its up to the listener, among the great cacophony of sounds, to determine - what is true? and above all what they themselves will believe.


11 posted on 08/11/2018 8:22:47 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: SkyDancer

“Said the naive guy who uses free speech to attack free speech”.

I never thought I would hear that sentence.


12 posted on 08/11/2018 8:23:05 AM PDT by FreeperCell
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To: TBP

Who or what is “The Verge.” And frankly who gives a rip the idiocy they spew forth as though it is commentary. Little miss Laura and her shill production should just go away. It is just to bad that these days it can’t be used like the former Sears and Roebuck catalogs; that being standard fare in the old outhouse of a bygone era.


13 posted on 08/11/2018 8:24:40 AM PDT by Kalam (Poor me, I have lost my tagline :())
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To: TBP

Similar idea regarding the Bible - you shouldn’t read it on your own because only “highly educated” people can tell you what it really means, (like the “highly educated” homosexual Episcopal Bishop “Vicky” Gene Robinson).


14 posted on 08/11/2018 8:24:42 AM PDT by Psalm 73 ("I will now proceed to entangle the entire area".)
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To: TBP
Hudson says the First Amendment was meant to protect the public from state oppression, meaning it should not necessarily apply to what a company like Twitter allows to be posted.

If Jack Dorsey got hit by a car, found Jesus in the emergency room, and started blocking users who posted comments disparaging to Christians, you'd be singing a different tune.

15 posted on 08/11/2018 8:27:35 AM PDT by Drew68
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To: TBP

We could start with limiting his first amendment rights.


16 posted on 08/11/2018 8:29:13 AM PDT by FrdmLvr (They never thought she would lose.)
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To: TBP
Many users called for Twitter to follow suit, but Dorsey has refrained from doing so, saying Jones has not violated its rules.

What rules did Gavin McInnes and the various regional Proud Boys groups violate to get them all banned yesterday at exactly the same time?

17 posted on 08/11/2018 8:29:49 AM PDT by Drew68
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To: TBP

And who will stand up for your free speech when the time comes, Laura Hudson?


18 posted on 08/11/2018 8:31:46 AM PDT by joshua c (To disrupt the system, we must disrupt our lives. Do nothing, they win and we lose.)
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To: TBP

“Luke, you’re going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view. Return of the Jedi.


19 posted on 08/11/2018 8:33:01 AM PDT by the_daug
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To: TBP

This idea is based on the fears of those who are afraid of words. They expound on their freedom to say, or write, anything the like, but when the blowback comes, the scurry for the cover of condemning free speech.

It’s a constant in the world of liberalism. They are petty individuals, so wrapped up in their own egos and lust for power.

One of the strongest traits of Trump is, he does not let what people say cripple what he does. He might retaliate on Twitter, but, without a court order, it does little to slow him down.

But, ANY negative about a liberal, and it’s pearl clutching and whiney tears. They can dish it out, but can’t take it.

Most of the “amplification of lies” emanates from the left, and the news media. However, they do not want YOU to have the same right.

Trump has driven the leftists to expose themselves with his words, alone. The left depends lies, and filibuster, to advance their plot.


20 posted on 08/11/2018 8:33:43 AM PDT by FrankR (IF it wasn't for the "F-word", and it's deritiives, the left would have no message at all.)
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