Discussion:
[IP] re 8-8-18 will go down in history as the day the first amendment died sent with approval of Guy
Dave Farber
2018-08-14 13:46:38 UTC
Permalink
Date: August 14, 2018 at 10:29:22 PM GMT+9
Subject: Re: [IP] 8-8-18 will go down in history as the day the first amendment died sent with approval of Guy
Oh come on.
Problematic as I find the idea of "hate speech" laws, I have a hard time getting riled up about some private publishers making decisions based on what pleases or riles up their customers, or their managers. Somehow the same editorial process being performed for centuries by the likes of NYT or Fox News hasn't been the harbinger of the death of are speech.
Nobody is preventing Alex Jones from putting up his own web site. There is no monopoly.
Now if they bit transporters decided that the particular arrangement of bits were somehow their business that would be a different matter. And that used to be addressed by net neutrality -- which Alex Jones opposed! Lucky for him it's gone.
8-8-18 will go down in history as the day the first amendment died, at
least so far as uncloaking the reality of how private for profit
monopolies dominate public discourse by acting as
politically-unaccountable speech police.
Mindful of the words of Martin Niemoller
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_...#The_text ),
regardless of what anyone feels about the words of Alex Jones and
Infowars, the fact that major internet players all acted in concert to
deplatform over the space of 12 hours is self evident collusion.
Is this a coordinated political act of free speech suppression prior
to the November mid term elections in the hope of fostering an
anti-Trump outcome that will then lead toward attempts at initiating
impeachment proceedings?
Hmm all this in a country that has more guns in the hands of people
than there are people, interesting times ahead come November then.
What will be interesting to see is how the internet's much vaunted
"intrinsic ability" to route around censorship expresses itself in the
aftermath of 8-8.
Will the actions of Apple, Facebook, Google/Youtube et al trigger a
balkanization of both audience and revenues?
Such an unintended consequence would have the positive outcome of
placing upper limits on the ultimate scale and market share of the
current dominant players, positive for choice and competition and not
for shareholder value though.
There are certainly web alternatives to Youtube eg D-Tube as well as
p2p mechanisms that now may gain sudden traction.
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Dave Farber
2018-08-15 00:38:22 UTC
Permalink
Date: August 14, 2018 at 11:24:31 PM GMT+9
Subject: RE: [IP] re 8-8-18 will go down in history as the day the first amendment died sent with approval of Guy
Although I agree with the effort of EFF and others (mentioned in a separate thread by David Greene’s WaPo op-ed) to secure voluntary the voluntary adoption of transparency principles for takedown decisions, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/beware-the-digital-censor/2018/08/12/997e28ea-9cd0-11e8-843b-36e177f3081c_story.html?utm_term=.5fe7f8d625d2, it is an exaggeration to portray the removal of Alex Jones’ material from several major platforms as monopolistic. There are multiple major platforms, and not all have taken him down – Twitter, for example, has chosen to leave him up (to the distress of many folks with whom I share a political perspective) https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/14/17686856/twitter-proud-boys-ban-alex-jones And Automattic is the focus of this article, focusing on its refusal to take down Sandy Hook denialists (not clear to me whether jones has anything on that specific platform
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/13/business/media/sandy-hook-conspiracies-leonard-pozner.html
Paul Alan Levy
Public Citizen Litigation Group
1600 20th Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20009
(202) 588-7725
https://www.citizen.org/our-work/litigation/internet-free-speech
Public Citizen Foundation participates in the Combined Federal Campaign with the CFC Code 11168
Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2018 9:47 AM
Subject: [IP] re 8-8-18 will go down in history as the day the first amendment died sent with approval of Guy
Date: August 14, 2018 at 10:29:22 PM GMT+9
Subject: Re: [IP] 8-8-18 will go down in history as the day the first amendment died sent with approval of Guy
Oh come on.
Problematic as I find the idea of "hate speech" laws, I have a hard time getting riled up about some private publishers making decisions based on what pleases or riles up their customers, or their managers. Somehow the same editorial process being performed for centuries by the likes of NYT or Fox News hasn't been the harbinger of the death of are speech.
Nobody is preventing Alex Jones from putting up his own web site. There is no monopoly.
Now if they bit transporters decided that the particular arrangement of bits were somehow their business that would be a different matter. And that used to be addressed by net neutrality -- which Alex Jones opposed! Lucky for him it's gone.
8-8-18 will go down in history as the day the first amendment died, at
least so far as uncloaking the reality of how private for profit
monopolies dominate public discourse by acting as
politically-unaccountable speech police.
Mindful of the words of Martin Niemoller
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_...#The_text ),
regardless of what anyone feels about the words of Alex Jones and
Infowars, the fact that major internet players all acted in concert to
deplatform over the space of 12 hours is self evident collusion.
Is this a coordinated political act of free speech suppression prior
to the November mid term elections in the hope of fostering an
anti-Trump outcome that will then lead toward attempts at initiating
impeachment proceedings?
Hmm all this in a country that has more guns in the hands of people
than there are people, interesting times ahead come November then.
What will be interesting to see is how the internet's much vaunted
"intrinsic ability" to route around censorship expresses itself in the
aftermath of 8-8.
Will the actions of Apple, Facebook, Google/Youtube et al trigger a
balkanization of both audience and revenues?
Such an unintended consequence would have the positive outcome of
placing upper limits on the ultimate scale and market share of the
current dominant players, positive for choice and competition and not
for shareholder value though.
There are certainly web alternatives to Youtube eg D-Tube as well as
p2p mechanisms that now may gain sudden traction.
This message was sent to the list address and trashed, but can be found online.
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