Big Tech Authoritarianism

[dowie]

I was saying in the SC thread earlier that twitter banning someone for breaking the terms and conditions is little different to us doing it.

I'd disagree with that, Twitter (and FB) are a significant way for politicians (and others with agendas) to get their message across to the public and that is part of what is putting it in the sights of legislators.

If I own a small fashion boutique in West London and I want to keep "riff-raff" out no one is going to care about my door policies (some of these places you have to be buzzed in etc..). If a tech entrepreneur decides to set up a national supermarket/grocery chain and implements a door policy (tap in with the app, exclude people they don't want) legislators would likely pay attention.

 

[Deleted User 234324]

Doing what they did has played right into the hands of Trump and his followers to declare victim hood status. It will only get worse and end badly for everyone.

 

[Dirk Diggler]

Very.

I was saying in the SC thread earlier that twitter banning someone for breaking the terms and conditions is little different to us doing it.

I agree 100%. There are rules to be followed and if they aren't then it's ta-ta. What's the alternative; allow anyone to define your brand as they see fit, that's what. No commercial enterprise would or should stand for that.

 

[Yas786]

I don’t understand why certain people in here can’t get it through their heads that it was the right thing to do ie ban him from Twitter.
Twitter is a PRIVATE company and they can and will ban anyone that breaks their t’s and c’s. Which Trump has done on many occasions but they allowed him because he was a person of interest or whatever they called him back then.

The simple fact that he incited a pathetic failed coup is reason enough for Twitter to ban him. He’s at that point where he will further incite people to do stupid things.

This is where it ends and about bloody time.

And why is @mmj_uk allowed to post his nonsense in here?? I get that he is banned from SC but we already have a couple of threads discussing this.

 

[Raikiri]

first they came for the Jews and I said nothing......

The quote you're looking for is "First they came for the socialists".

You know, the thing people like you often use as an insult for people on the left.

 

[GGizmo]

Its a strange world that we have self identified liberals defending big private corporations, while so called nutzis are protesting against it.

We're seeing the take over of government by private companies that are more powerful than them. This isn't just about Trump. He is the carrot dangled in front of people.

We know from a few weeks ago how traditionally the Presidential twitter account gets changed to the new President and he keeps the followers. After the Biden team made enquiries about the change over Twitter told him they have stopped doing it. So the Presidential account will be wiped (which is probably another reason why they took the Trump action) and Biden will have to build up his own followers.

I feel sorry for Jack Dorsey. The guy is obviously being pressured by people inside his own company to ban conservative opinions. He's even said many times that they have a problem with moderating those kind of posts, and that it needs to be counter balanced, and here Twitter is going further down the rabbit hole.

 

[stockhausen]

Its a strange world that we have self identified liberals defending big private corporations. . .

As opposed to the normal world where self identified illiberals are all in favour of . . . . say . . . . BigTech you mean?

As a matter of interest, what do you think that Trump would "selfidentify" as?

 

[Deleted User 298457]

Its a strange world that we have self identified liberals defending big private corporations, while so called nutzis are protesting against it.

We're seeing the take over of government by private companies that are more powerful than them. This isn't just about Trump. He is the carrot dangled in front of people.

We know from a few weeks ago how traditionally the Presidential twitter account gets changed to the new President and he keeps the followers. After the Biden team made enquiries about the change over Twitter told him they have stopped doing it. So the Presidential account will be wiped (which is probably another reason why they took the Trump action) and Biden will have to build up his own followers.

I feel sorry for Jack Dorsey. The guy is obviously being pressured by people inside his own company to ban conservative opinions. He's even said many times that they have a problem with moderating those kind of posts, and that it needs to be counter balanced, and here Twitter is going further down the rabbit hole.

Crikey. Get a reality check, man. Its twitter and followers you are talking about here. Changing of the accounts is not to be likened with changing of the guard, deeply embedded in tradition or whatever else you are hilariously implying.

 

[Theophany]

Its a strange world that we have self identified liberals defending big private corporations, while so called nutzis are protesting against it.

We're seeing the take over of government by private companies that are more powerful than them. This isn't just about Trump. He is the carrot dangled in front of people.

We know from a few weeks ago how traditionally the Presidential twitter account gets changed to the new President and he keeps the followers. After the Biden team made enquiries about the change over Twitter told him they have stopped doing it. So the Presidential account will be wiped (which is probably another reason why they took the Trump action) and Biden will have to build up his own followers.

I feel sorry for Jack Dorsey. The guy is obviously being pressured by people inside his own company to ban conservative opinions. He's even said many times that they have a problem with moderating those kind of posts, and that it needs to be counter balanced, and here Twitter is going further down the rabbit hole.

Everybody defends an ideal until it no longer fits with their agenda, this is nothing new.

 

[Narj]

I'm not sure about this "deleting" of people either.

I like a tweet I saw on Elon Musk's feed.. "we need to go back in time and destroy MySpace".

Social media is a cancer upon society IMO. It's not encouraging open, robust discourse at all.

 

[Calabi]

The thing is it was all happening anyway. Its not like if Trump wasn't banned things would get better. He would only get worse and because he's on twitter his audience is far larger and he can just divide the country even faster. Let him move to Parler. That platform is perfect for him, a complete echo chamber or hate, bigotry and conspiracy theories. He'll fit right in. Another "Trump" was always coming for 2024, hopefullyhis actions and those of his his boot lickers in Congresson on Wednesday have weakened their chances in 2024 with moderate Republicans, people who will always vote red but want a candidate that is not a complete lunatic. If that isn't the case then its too late anyway and America is completely broken.

Yeah deplatforming really does work. If he or even the Vaccine deniers for instance can't spread there lies on these large platforms then fewer people are converted. People aren't going to download that stupid Parler app to be converted. Trump relies on these social medias platform and there easy access to millions of people, they don't go anywhere for there news they just listen to him. No one is censoring him, your just not entitled to advertise how you want to start an insurrection to millions of people on a private platform.

 

[Roar87]

I don’t understand why certain people in here can’t get it through their heads that it was the right thing to do ie ban him from Twitter.
Twitter is a PRIVATE company and they can and will ban anyone that breaks their t’s and c’s. Which Trump has done on many occasions but they allowed him because he was a person of interest or whatever they called him back then.

The simple fact that he incited a pathetic failed coup is reason enough for Twitter to ban him. He’s at that point where he will further incite people to do stupid things.

This is where it ends and about bloody time.

And why is @mmj_uk allowed to post his nonsense in here?? I get that he is banned from SC but we already have a couple of threads discussing this.

"Everyone who disagrees with me shouldn't be allowed to speak"

 

[Colonel_Klinck]

Yeah deplatforming really does work. If he or even the Vaccine deniers for instance can't spread there lies on these large platforms then fewer people are converted. People aren't going to download that stupid Parler app to be converted. Trump relies on these social medias platform and there easy access to millions of people, they don't go anywhere for there news they just listen to him. No one is censoring him, your just not entitled to advertise how you want to start an insurrection to millions of people on a private platform.

Yep. Is society a better place now Britain First, EDL and the like aren't spreading their poison into peoples Facebook feed everyday? Damn right it is. I don't care if its right wing racism and bigotry or left wing. Putting it in people's faces every day is never going to be a good thing for society. Let it fester in the fringe internet where it will just poison those minds that are already lost to it.

 

[Fubsy]

I'd attribute those idiots falling away to the way side to the larger and larger amounts of exposure they got which allowed them to be destroyed in debate, reason and the outlet of the Brexit referendum coming to a head with the 52/48. Big data won that referendum - remember that.

Leaving it to fester in the fringes is dangerous and will bite us all in the arse. Also allows us to sleepwalk into a society where you have to think a certain way or you are pushed into an ever growing "fringe".

 

[Dem2k]

If a President of the most powerful country in the world cannot get himself unbanned from a US tech company then maybe the office isn't as all powerful as we were lead to believe, good. Personally I think he should remain banned, too much suffering and fear that he as a leader is responsible for by his poor unpresdential leadership.
He has shown zero skills in order to placate,compromise,or to bring calm. He is exceptioanlly good at antgonsing , being as unpolitically correct as can be (Which I think was his biggest strength as President, too bad he didn't use it in positive ways to get people to sit around the table on both sides drop the formalities speak minds and work together to achieve).

The other side are also responsible for this too. I think any strategist on the democratic side could easy have determined that the Presidents biggest weakness was his hot-headedness , brashness and how brazen he is. Any civil unrest would be testing for any President but for Trump it was his achilles heel. They would have leaped at the tragedy of George Floyd and the unrest it caused and Trump's heavy handedness, pro law enforcment, pro millitary , unempathetic tough guy approach that he thought got him into the white house in the first place just would not work to win him votes in this climate. The whole blatent refusal to accept defeat accusing the other side of fraud, even if it were true would have only made him look worse, unless they had substansal irrefutable evidence that it occured in bulk to effect the result, which it seems they didn't.

You could have predicted this violence occuring which is qutie sad because a lot of people voted Republican, a lot of famillies in America are conservative and like tory voters in the UK are not all bad people or phobic in any regards, With population of 300+ millon you can guarantee there is plenty of pockets of insanity on all sides of the spectrum.

There needs to be a lot of mending under Bidens leadership, and I predict the Dems will likely win at least the next 2-3 maybe four terms unless they do something really extreme like start a war. Lets hope its a replication of the Clinton era, and Biden doesn't get caught frolicing with the underaged.

 

[jsmoke]

If a President of the most powerful country in the world cannot get himself unbanned from a US tech company then maybe the office isn't as all powerful as we were lead to believe, good. Personally I think he should remain banned, too much suffering and fear that he as a leader is responsible for by his poor unpresdential leadership.
He has shown zero skills in order to placate,compromise,or to bring calm. He is exceptioanlly good at antgonsing , being as unpolitically correct as can be (Which I think was his biggest strength as President, too bad he didn't use it in positive ways to get people to sit around the table on both sides drop the formalities speak minds and work together to achieve).

The other side are also responsible for this too. I think any strategist on the democratic side could easy have determined that the Presidents biggest weakness was his hot-headedness , brashness and how brazen he is. Any civil unrest would be testing for any President but for Trump it was his achilles heel. They would have leaped at the tragedy of George Floyd and the unrest it caused and Trump's heavy handedness, pro law enforcment, pro millitary , unempathetic tough guy approach that he thought got him into the white house in the first place just would not work to win him votes in this climate. The whole blatent refusal to accept defeat accusing the other side of fraud, even if it were true would have only made him look worse, unless they had substansal irrefutable evidence that it occured in bulk to effect the result, which it seems they didn't.

You could have predicted this violence occuring which is qutie sad because a lot of people voted Republican, a lot of famillies in America are conservative and like tory voters in the UK are not all bad people or phobic in any regards, With population of 300+ millon you can guarantee there is plenty of pockets of insanity on all sides of the spectrum.

There needs to be a lot of mending under Bidens leadership, and I predict the Dems will likely win at least the next 2-3 maybe four terms unless they do something really extreme like start a war. Lets hope its a replication of the Clinton era, and Biden doesn't get caught frolicing with the underaged.

That's what Putin said, not very powerful.

 

[Malevolence]

"Everyone who disagrees with me shouldn't be allowed to speak"

Which is why people like that are best ignored and just left to fester in their little echo chambers.

 

[Angilion]

I think the truth lies somewhere in between - there is certainly too much agenda lead censorship taking hold in big tech and media but there is plenty of legit reasons to censor some of the latest stuff from Trump as well.

I'm less convinced about the legitimacy after seeing the BBC misrepresent what he said to such an extent that they were effectively lying. It's not the first time, either. Nor is it just the BBC, obviously. In fact, they're much less bad about it than many sources.

Specifically in this case, the BBC reported that Trump had called the people who stormed the government building "patriots" in a tweet.

What he actually said was that the 75 million people who voted for him were patriots. He specifically stated the 75 million figure. He was explicitly referring to everyone who voted for him. Not the people who stormed the government building.



Right now, I'm at the stage where I'm assuming that everything said about Trump is a lie. Absolutely everything and from all sources, pro and anti. I'll be wrong sometimes, but not often. It's a reasonable assumption.

 

[Malevolence]

Are you actually surprised that the BBC is lying when it comes to reporting on Trump? They've been actively biased against him and his administration since day one, as they are against anything they perceive as being to the right of Marx. Personally I think Trump, like all the other ***** in the US political system, is a ******* idiot but I'm pretty sure that the BBC is meant to be impartial when reporting - and when it comes to Trump they've been anything but.

 

[Deleted User 234324]

Which is why people like that are best ignored and just left to fester in their little echo chambers.

At which point you'll be the first to wonder why said person commits some heinous crime because you left them to fester in their own little echo chamber. Rather than just listen to them in the first place.