On Sat, Nov 19, 2016 at 12:01:34AM +0000, Ben Tasker wrote:
On Fri, Nov 18, 2016 at 11:30 PM, juan <juan.g71@gmail.com> wrote:
'Their' service exists only thanks to the users and the fascist government they work for.
Twitter is entirely dependant on it's userbase, yes. If they feel that allowing that kind of speech is going to lead to users not feeling comfortable using the service (leading to a reduction of the userbase) the only sane commercial decision is to remove the problematic speech, no?
Working for the government or not, they're hardly likely to stand and defend harassment when that'll cost them users. Especially given that it sounds like they do a terrible job of making money out of those users anyway
What kind of sane 'cypherpunk' 'activist' would defend fascist corporations like twitter? Rhetorical question of course....
It's not intended as a defence of Twitter per se.
I'm not a fan of corporations by any stretch of the imagination, and certainly not of the American capitalism rules all mindset.
But you know what, I believe in individual rights, and that includes the right not to be party to something like harassment. If you're being made to carry things you staunchly disagree with, in a world where people will associate them with you, that's - in effect- compelling speech which is just as bad (if not worse) than suppressing speech.
At what userbase level would you consider a communication platform to have crossed the line into "service provider"? 100 million? More? Less? Do you agree that "Twitter" has become a communication platform/ conduit? And do you agree that no one is obliged to "follow" anyone else?
Don't forget these guys weren't banned for being right-wing, or for expressing "alt-right" views. Most (if not all) had a habit of directly harassing people for race, gender, whatever.
So you say. This is Twitter we're talking about - where the only way you can be "attacked" (you should at least be saying 'verbally' attacked) is if you "follow" the person "attacking" you.
The TL:DR is, there isn't a good answer that works in the world we currently live in. Those that were banned (or at least those I've bothered to look up) were assholes. Not because of their speech, but of their actions.
So now "speech == actions". The Ministry of Truth congratulates you; take notice that the Ministry's cheques take up to 48 hours to arrive.