Our Stop Censoring Abortion Campaign Uncovers a Social Media Censorship Crisis
eff.org13 points by cranberryturkey 14 hours ago
13 points by cranberryturkey 14 hours ago
Large social media platforms are public squares and should be regulated as such. They shouldn’t have the freedom to hide behind their own arbitrary policies but should instead be required to stick to the law. In this case it appears they don’t even apply their own polices properly - but this has been a problem for much longer, perhaps going back to 2016 when there was a sudden shift towards censorship.
Maybe if these places weren't basically monopolies, people could switch to platforms that don't censor them, and then they might change their stances. We can call out all this political shit about which party did what, but the real problem is that all the media is too centralized and consolidated and doesn't have enough competition.
> Maybe if these places weren't basically monopolies, people could switch to platforms that don't censor them, and then they might change their stances.
I think one issue is social media is inherently monopolistic. It has network effects from having more users, so a new social media network has trouble being valuable. Sure there have been rare exceptions like TikTok, but if you’re offering a similar social media service as an existing network rather than innovating on the format, your service is worth less because it has fewer users, and the service won’t grow to be competitive. If there isn’t a working competitive environment, I think that is justification for more regulation that makes those companies behave more like government agencies.
I agree...I'm staring to use tor now because its uncensored and reminds me of the old internet
Do you actually support repealing Section 230, or are you just saying that because it's popular?
As far as I'm concerned, this is exactly the sort of censorship that should happen in a free market. The alternative gives the government punitive powers it should never possess.
Who said anything about Section 230? It’s unrelated to the notion of public squares. You’re just saying that because it’s popular to bring it up randomly.
...because you can't regulate businesses as "public squares" without first holding them accountable for their users? You must live in a pretty entertaining bubble if you're imagining the DOJ issuing a United States of America v. @dril of X Inc. subpeona.
"The district court is dismissed today, for the 145th consecutive time our defendant failed to appear for roll call. Upon his 150th infraction a Networked Hunter-Killer squad will search the web for his profiles and terminate any trace of his posting. Upon the 300th infraction, Elon Musk will release a video personally accusing him of being a pedophile. Comply... or face unthinkable punishments."