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As Twitter’s head, he spends his days navigating issues around free speech for white supremacists, online abuse and the spread of terrorist propaganda The phra
by stcredzero 7y ago
As Twitter’s head, he spends his days navigating issues around free speech for white supremacists, online abuse and the spread of terrorist propaganda
The phrasing seems designed to imply that Free Speech is only for bad people and terrorist propaganda.
The reason why Free Speech is a fundamental human right, is that it keeps powerful people and authorities from squashing dissent. We can't just have "Free Speech, so long as we like it and the speaker," precisely because biased parties can then smear their opponents to squash their speech. (Witness the behavior of the SPLC of recent years. Witness the false smearing of Ben Shapiro as a "white supremacist.")
This does mean that we need to let bad people speak as well. No one can be allowed to arbitrate Free Speech. Not only the government, but also powerful people, press conglomerates, and private organizations.
This is precisely why the ACLU in the 20th century often defended the right of (the same) bad people to speak. Because what must be defended is the right of everyone to speak.
- sparkpy724 7y agoI couldn't agree more. I'm surprised you haven't been downvote brigaded though. Judging by many threads I've seen on HN most(many?) SV types tend to disagree with you. Googlers especially seem to favor the opposite point of view. Not to harp on this specific point but SJW types unironically calling Ben Shapiro, a yarmulke wearing Orthodox Jew and someone I disagree vehemently with on most topics, a Nazi is incredibly prevalent on Twitter and Reddit and totally bewildering to me. Edit: Thank you to the downvoters for proving my point lol.
- CM30 7y agoAgreed. Unfortunately, it seems freedom of speech has become one of those things a disturbing number of people only seem to see the negative side of. In a certain sense, it's in the same quagmire as capitalism, IP laws, and to some extent privacy; easy to see the negatives and abuses in, but also something that helps or protects everyone else too.