3 ms·

All these social media platforms are bad at this. They're in the business of facilitating discourse and giving people a platform to speak. IMO they have an ethi

by mveety 10y ago

All these social media platforms are bad at this. They're in the business of facilitating discourse and giving people a platform to speak. IMO they have an ethical responsibility to protect speech in all forms, unless it's inciting violence/child porn/etc. I can't say that they should disallow illegal speech because governments get this wrong, too. Like how many countries have laws forbidding hate speech. Those laws are as abhorrent as the speech itself because it's stifling discourse.

st3v3r 10y ago
Do they? Do they have an obligation to protect the speech of all the people calling Leslie Jones an ape on Monday? What about the speech of those that are silenced because they know that the racist trolls will come out of the woodwork whenever they say anything? Further, I can't believe that the discourse that is 'stifled' by hate speech terms and conditions on platforms like Twitter was ever valuable in the first place. I can't believe it's more valuable than the discourse of those who are silenced by harassment.
smt88 10y ago
> They're in the business of facilitating discourse and giving people a platform to speak Facebook started as a way to connect with classmates. Instagram started as picture sharing. Twitter started as a way to message friends. At what point were those companies suddenly "in the business" of facilitating discourse? Who decides when they are? Why should we have laws that force a company to behave a certain way just because it's popular? Thankfully, the US has clear laws about this, and private corporations can permit or reject users as they please, as long as they don't do it solely on the basis of gender, race, or religion.