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An individual website is not the internet. Anyone who uses the internet has a choice of millions of websites. Everyone using twitter and seeing the twitter not
by javagram 6y ago
An individual website is not the internet.
Anyone who uses the internet has a choice of millions of websites. Everyone using twitter and seeing the twitter notification on Trump’s tweets knows that twitter placed it there. If they were outraged, they can use Google and find alternative social media sites like Mastodon or Gab.
Trump could do the same.
There is simply no comparison to a “public square” since there are easy, accessible alternatives to get the messages out over the internet.
If you want to talk about “public square”, perhaps the easiest comparison would be internet access itself. If ISPs cut off Trump’s internet connection for posting wrong think, that could be seen as a free speech issue I think. But even banning him from any specific individual website is simply a matter for that website’s owner to decide.
- Thorentis 6y agoThey don't have a choice of millions of websites. Like I said in another comment in a thread with you, the network effect is real. People go where there are other people. Nobody goes to an empty street to protest. What would be the point in that? We have allowed the most populated spaces for people to express their opinions to be controlled by private companies.
- javagram 6y agoTrump has an email and SMS list with millions of supporters. He can also post on facebook whenever he wishes, or address the nation in prime time speeches that will be carried on TV channels and live streams. He can also continue to post on twitter, as twitter didn’t delete any of his tweets, so he can use network effects on twitter and simply post Gab or Mastodon links and try to get his enormous base of followers to use another platform. His speech is not being suppressed. In fact, he’s probably the person who has the least problem in the entire country of being heard or noticed. Edit: by the way, ask MySpace, AOL, MSN, or other failed once-popular social networks how well the “network effects” worked out. People know how to use a different website if they actually care to do so.