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The politics of private citizens are their own business and explicitly not the government's. Furthermore even if that had any bearing on their search results w
by someonelse17 8y ago
The politics of private citizens are their own business and explicitly not the government's.
Furthermore even if that had any bearing on their search results whatever google presents on their own damn website is also none of the government's business.
- simula67 8y agoIt is if Google wants DMCA safe harbour protections
- someonelse17 8y agoI'm not sure what's behind the recent prevalence to this theory but that is false. Also we should all want section 230 protection it's what preserves free speech online and the principle on which the whole web economy is built.
- simula67 8y agoI don't like the idea that Google or any other entity can control how I think by presenting only one side of a story when the other side may have a reasonable objection, because it does not fit the politics of the operators of a platform. This is within the spirit of free speech. I think it fair to say that if Google wants to be a publisher, they should be held accountable to the content they publish. If they want to be a neutral platform, they should not favor any particular viewpoint
- someonelse17 8y agoWhat you want and what the law allows are different things, also just don't let any entity control how you think. As for 'being held accountable' as publisher, I'm sure you're aware of many publishers that favor one side or one "viewpoint" in fact it's most of them, and they aren't being held accountable for that because we live in a free country.
- jimbobimbo 8y agoThey (publishers) actually are held accountable for the stuff they publish (e.g., publishing copyrighted material w/o permission will land you in the courtroom). This is why FB/Twitter/YouTube do not want to be publishers. However, because of their approach to moderation, they could wander in those waters.
- someonelse17 8y agoThey're not held legally accountable for political views. The copyright stuff applies to everyone already.
- jimbobimbo 8y agoNot political views, but slander/libel - publishers are liable.
- beaner 8y agoIt's funny to hear someone only ever make this argument when what is being censored is conservative. If it were the opposite way, and they were blocking results on, say, the travel ban, or competing startups, people would be up in arms.
- someonelse17 8y agoI don't know about the prevalence of other opinions but what I'm suggesting (and there are many legal precedents to support this) is that the first amendment shields them from this nonsense as well as any antitrust allegations and complains about how some entitles think they should be featured in their results.