Well, here in Guatemala journalists are being silenced, and it doesn't mean they're being kicked off Twitter. I really hate big tech censorship, but you're naivete about the impact of "being silenced" reminds me of this part from Days and Nights of Love and of War
>Perdí varias cosas en Buenos Aires... No me quejo. Con tantas personas perdidas, llorar por las cosas sería como faltarle el respeto al dolor.
Translates roughly as:
>I lost various things in Buenos Aires... I don't complain. With so many people lost, to cry over things seemed to lack respect for suffering.
In a kind of similar vein, you're complaint about Twitter users being silenced lacks some respect for people who are actually being silenced. Although I agree with your underlying sentiment.
Obviously, "silenced" has different meanings and weight depending on the context in which it's being used, but ... I never actually used the term, so it's an odd point of contention to raise.
The original statement I replied to — which was also the first time "silenced" was used in this thread — was:
> Being kicked off Twitter isn't the same as being silenced.
> do we really want the government to start dictating to private sector publishing companies what content they must publish?
Yes, I think we do, if it’s in exchange for their currently privileged position.
Currently, they operate with the privileges of a common carrier, and none of the responsibilities.
They shouldn’t have the privilege of being shielded from responsibility for what they publish on behalf of others, while also claiming that doing so represents their own protected speech.
If they want to editorialize, they can be treated like any other publisher, and be held responsible for what they publish — including disinformation, libel, harassment, et al.
> A common carrier in common law countries (corresponding to a public carrier in some civil law systems,[1] usually called simply a carrier)[2] is a person or company that transports goods or people for any person or company and is responsible for any possible loss of the goods during transport.[3] A common carrier offers its services to the general public under license or authority provided by a regulatory body, which has usually been granted "ministerial authority" by the legislation that created it.
Of course they’re not common carriers; that’s the whole problem.
They were granted the traditional privileges of common carrier status under section 230 of the CDA, but none of the responsibilities.
Refer to the “telecommunications” section of the Wikipedia page you’ve cited, where this specific topic is covered, along with additional references for further details.
Section 230 of the CDA never uses the term "common carrier". In fact, "Interactive computer service" was the exact phrase of language that ISPs successfully lobbied themselves to be classified as to avoid common carrier regulations.
Being a "Interactive computer service" != being a "common carrier". Pointing to Section 230 as an example of "common carrier" statues is massively misunderstanding the "ISPs as common carriers" debate.
As someone that doesn’t use Twitter, I can confirm that I am not silent and that any model where one is silenced by being removed from Twitter is similar to geocentricity.
I agree with the sentiment but a LOT of journalists seem to not only take Twitter seriously enough to report about the nonsense that its users are rambling about, but even use it themselves !
What about the “Net Centers” in Guatemala? Don’t they use platforms like Twitter to actually harass/silence dissidents? Obviously social media isnt everything, but Morales and his backers sure showed how important it is. Or do you disagree?
Oh completely agree. But to put this in the context of the current argument, the solution (from Twitter's perspective) would be to ban the net center accounts. And I don't think Twitter banning Net Centers would have "silenced" Jimmy Morales, for example.
Social media can definitely be used to silence people, but I don't think that's mostly what's happening (for the most part) wrt big tech banning certain controversial content on their platforms.
Sorry, I confused truth social with another website called gab.
In any case they are simply mastodon forks, are they not? I can't see why it would require massive funding. I don't think the failure of truth social speaks to the failure of "splinter" forums at large.
A private company gets to decide its own policy? If the government wants a platform where everyone can say whatever it wants it’s free to create a government funded platform.
Alternatively, conservatives are all about the free market. Let them create a platform where their views can be heard.
Why should we grant private companies the novel privilege of being shielded from liability for what they publish, if they're not willing to guarantee public access to their platform in return?
A private company has never been required to guarantee access to anyone as long as they don’t discriminate because of a “protected status”. Political speech is not a protected status. Does Christian mingle have to allow Muslims? Is RedState - that has banned me twice for not towing the line - forced to allow me to voice my viewpoint? Is the NRA forced to publish discussion about gun control?
Common carriers are private companies required to guarantee non-discriminatory access to the public.
They do this in exchange for a shield from liability for what the public says/does/transfers via their service.
The legal framework for this dates back to English common law, and applies to telephone companies, airlines, freight carriers, taxi companies, and just about any other company that provides public services under the privilege of a government-granted shield from liability.
The only companies of this type that this doesn’t apply to are ”interactive computer service” providers, because they were granted a special privilege cut out in the Communication Decency Act of 1996, while we asked for nothing in return [1].
That’s the issue, here.
If the NRA wants to launch an “interactive computer service” that publishes user content, then yes, I think they should be forced to either accept liability for what they publish, or accept they they must serve the public without viewpoint discrimination.
If RedState wants to host a comment section, then I think the same rule should apply to them, too.
ISPs, too. This is the fundamental concept on which all arguments for net neutrality rest.
[1] Not entirely true; the liability shield of the Communications Decency Act was intended to counterbalance the criminalization of user transmission of “obscene or indecent” material on the internet.
The indecency clauses were struck down by the courts, leaving the privileges and none of the responsibilities.
The whole law was a broken, idiotic idea and should have been scrapped entirely.
Yes, I know. I literally just articulated, in the comment you're replying to:
(1) That the invented classification was a mistake, and should be rectified, and
(2) How that invented classification — and the privileges it granted — was made in trade for something we never received (and never should have asked for): criminalization of “obscene or indecent” material on the internet.
I'm not sure whose arguments you believe you're rebutting, but they're not mine.
So now you want a law that if you host any type of comment section on the internet that the government can force you to allow any type of comments? You really don’t have a problem with the government taking your rights away?
No, it's users trying to censor what they don't want other people to be permitted to say or see.
Twitter users have a "block" button; they're free to use it, and thus limit what they themselves will see.
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