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> And no matter what upheaval lies ahead, I am certain that the light that illuminates that dust so brightly can never be put away. There are no more gatekeeper

> And no matter what upheaval lies ahead, I am certain that the light that illuminates that dust so brightly can never be put away. There are no more gatekeepers, oftentimes for worse, but also for better. I am not so sanguine. People in power all over the world are seeing the threat to their power from the Internet and working to curtail it. China is probably the most ahead, but I am sure everyone else is hard at work. The centralization of the Internet makes it a much easier task. If you get Google, Facebook, and Twitter on board, you basically control the flow of information to most of the West. In the West it probably won’t be overt coercion but more likely via monetary and legal incentives. Immunity or liability from lawsuits for user posted content will be the big carrot and stick that will be used to get these companies to do the governments’ bidding. I fear that the George Floyd video equivalent 10 years from now will get immediately deleted by ML algorithms as too disturbing and the uploaders automatically banned

scarface74 6y ago
Yes and HN users are the first to want more government regulation over tech. The current administration is already trying to “shut down Twitter”. Edit Citation: https://www.newsday.com/long-island/politics/trump-twitter-fact-check-mail-voting-scarborough-coronavirus-deaths-fauci-cuomo-spacex-1.45004835 https://www.newsday.com/long-island/politics/trump-twitter-f...
- saagarjha 6y ago
  Government regulation in terms of how they selectively police their platforms, not in the sense of "don't disparage the government".
  - scarface74 6y ago
    So let’s say a platform censored “Focus on the Family” and “Black Lives Matter”, which one do you think the current government would fight for? But the current administration claimed the reason to get rid of Network Neutrality was to “reduce regulation”. If they don’t like the current platforms they should create their own. Isn’t that the entire mantra of conservatives to let the free market address such problems?
- cronix 6y ago
  I think the problem is the select enforcement of the ever-changing rules and not applying them equally across the board, which is getting blatantly obvious on twitter, reddit, etc. There are hundreds of examples, probably more, of tweets promoting violence being allowed to stay up, unaltered. Here's just one simple example of a tweet from a reporter directly violating Twitters policies and inciting violence telling people to "burn that shit down, burn it all down" and being allowed to stay up: https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1267127192330346500 https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1267127192330346500 Please look at the Presidents original tweet that got labeled and logically compare it to that one and justify why one should be labeled and the other stay up unscathed. Of course this same journalist quickly changed his tune when they came to his own upper-income gated neighborhood (2nd pic in above tweet) and started calling them "animals."
  - scarface74 6y ago
    So how do you propose that a government that can’t police fairly, regulate speech fairly? When geeks (of course not used an insult I am a huge one) didn’t like the status quo when it came to the dominant software platforms, they created their own alternatives. If conservatives don’t like the platforms that are available - they can create their own.
germinalphrase 6y ago
I’m in Minneapolis. There are already suspicions that posts post-curfew to Snapchat, Twitter, and Facebook are being blocked or are seeing significant post delays. It’s unconfirmed, but local news is started to dig into it a bit. I have acquaintances who believe they have been censored.
- basch 6y ago
  Leaving riots and looting on the snapmap could be seen as first hand journalism, showing people what is really happening, or as giving a voice to those glorifying destruction. Hiding or delaying riots and looting from the snapmap could be seen as censorship or keeping the peace, by preventing everyone from jumping to join in until its over. An editorial delay to perceived live events, in the interest of public safety, in an interesting wrinkle in the debate between censorship vs fanning the fire.
ses1984 6y ago
I don't think China is ahead of the west, they just take a slightly different approach. People have a really short memory, they already forgot about Snowden, prism, Room 641A: that shit never stopped. Please don't get me wrong I'm not trying to equate China and the west, China is a lot worse but strictly looking at the reaction of those in power to the internet... People in power in the west are definitely reacting strongly. China is more 1984 and the west is more brave new world.
- RcouF1uZ4gsC 6y ago
  > they already forgot about Snowden, prism, Room 641A: I think the scarier truth is that they did not so much forget about it, but that people really didn't care.
- foobiekr 6y ago
  None of the things you listed actually involves suppressing content. The parent author is concerned about suppressing the internet, not spying on it. Both can be bad, but they're not the same thing. China leads on both.
  - ses1984 6y ago
    Suppressing content is just one of the means to the ends of maintaining power and control.
dmix 6y ago
> ML algorithms as too disturbing Coming soon to Twitter: Automated trigger warnings
LargoLasskhyfv 6y ago
The precursors to this are in place since the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christchurch_mosque_shootings https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christchurch_mosque_shootings
rkagerer 6y ago
I think ordinary people will eventually realize that once you stop giving so much of your attention to Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc. there's a whole internet out there for you to discover.

scarface74 6y ago

Yes and HN users are the first to want more government regulation over tech. The current administration is already trying to “shut down Twitter”. Edit Citation: https://www.newsday.com/long-island/politics/trump-twitter-fact-check-mail-voting-scarborough-coronavirus-deaths-fauci-cuomo-spacex-1.45004835 https://www.newsday.com/long-island/politics/trump-twitter-f...

saagarjha 6y ago
Government regulation in terms of how they selectively police their platforms, not in the sense of "don't disparage the government".
- scarface74 6y ago
  So let’s say a platform censored “Focus on the Family” and “Black Lives Matter”, which one do you think the current government would fight for? But the current administration claimed the reason to get rid of Network Neutrality was to “reduce regulation”. If they don’t like the current platforms they should create their own. Isn’t that the entire mantra of conservatives to let the free market address such problems?
cronix 6y ago
I think the problem is the select enforcement of the ever-changing rules and not applying them equally across the board, which is getting blatantly obvious on twitter, reddit, etc. There are hundreds of examples, probably more, of tweets promoting violence being allowed to stay up, unaltered. Here's just one simple example of a tweet from a reporter directly violating Twitters policies and inciting violence telling people to "burn that shit down, burn it all down" and being allowed to stay up: https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1267127192330346500 https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1267127192330346500 Please look at the Presidents original tweet that got labeled and logically compare it to that one and justify why one should be labeled and the other stay up unscathed. Of course this same journalist quickly changed his tune when they came to his own upper-income gated neighborhood (2nd pic in above tweet) and started calling them "animals."
- scarface74 6y ago
  So how do you propose that a government that can’t police fairly, regulate speech fairly? When geeks (of course not used an insult I am a huge one) didn’t like the status quo when it came to the dominant software platforms, they created their own alternatives. If conservatives don’t like the platforms that are available - they can create their own.

germinalphrase 6y ago

I’m in Minneapolis. There are already suspicions that posts post-curfew to Snapchat, Twitter, and Facebook are being blocked or are seeing significant post delays. It’s unconfirmed, but local news is started to dig into it a bit. I have acquaintances who believe they have been censored.

basch 6y ago
Leaving riots and looting on the snapmap could be seen as first hand journalism, showing people what is really happening, or as giving a voice to those glorifying destruction. Hiding or delaying riots and looting from the snapmap could be seen as censorship or keeping the peace, by preventing everyone from jumping to join in until its over. An editorial delay to perceived live events, in the interest of public safety, in an interesting wrinkle in the debate between censorship vs fanning the fire.

ses1984 6y ago

I don't think China is ahead of the west, they just take a slightly different approach. People have a really short memory, they already forgot about Snowden, prism, Room 641A: that shit never stopped. Please don't get me wrong I'm not trying to equate China and the west, China is a lot worse but strictly looking at the reaction of those in power to the internet... People in power in the west are definitely reacting strongly. China is more 1984 and the west is more brave new world.

RcouF1uZ4gsC 6y ago
> they already forgot about Snowden, prism, Room 641A: I think the scarier truth is that they did not so much forget about it, but that people really didn't care.
foobiekr 6y ago
None of the things you listed actually involves suppressing content. The parent author is concerned about suppressing the internet, not spying on it. Both can be bad, but they're not the same thing. China leads on both.
- ses1984 6y ago
  Suppressing content is just one of the means to the ends of maintaining power and control.

dmix 6y ago

> ML algorithms as too disturbing Coming soon to Twitter: Automated trigger warnings

LargoLasskhyfv 6y ago

The precursors to this are in place since the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christchurch_mosque_shootings https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christchurch_mosque_shootings

rkagerer 6y ago

I think ordinary people will eventually realize that once you stop giving so much of your attention to Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc. there's a whole internet out there for you to discover.