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President of Mexico warns about Silicon Valley censorship
- zmmmmm 6y agoWhat is weirdest about this whole thing is that Trump remains one of the most speech empowered people in the world; he can get up at any point and have a press conference, he can plaster messages all over the whitehouse web page etc. So in that light whether or not any specific company chooses to give him even more speech rights -it seems completely discretionary and companies can and should decide what is in their business interests. I'm also prompted to tell these politicians - well how about you support open platforms and mediums rather than buying into proprietary walled gardens in the first place? It's not like these things don't exist.
- StanislavPetrov 6y ago>What is weirdest about this whole thing is that Trump remains one of the most speech empowered people in the world Most people I know don't like Trump at all but are deeply concerned with the coordinated censorship and narrative campaign being waged by the tech monopolies, banks, payment processors and other corporations. Thoughtful people understand that this incredible, unaccountable power to erase people from society is incredibly dangerous in a democracy, even if there are many, less intelligent people, who are okay with it because right now they perceive this awesome power as being used against their perceived political.
- robin21 6y agoWhat's to stop the tech platforms censoring the next person who the Trump supporters follow which is almost half the voting pop in US.
- Majestic121 6y agoMultiple heads of states across the world are sharing the same message, see for example Germany and France : https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-11/merkel-sees-closing-trump-s-social-media-accounts-problematic https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-11/merkel-se... > Rights like the freedom of speech “can be interfered with, but by law and within the framework defined by the legislature -- not according to a corporate decision."
- tpush 6y agoSmall inaccuracy by Bloomberg: Merkel was speaking of freedom of opinion(Meinungsfreiheit) and not freedom of speech(Redefreiheit), the latter doesn’t exist as such in Germany.
- samoa42 6y ago> freedom of speech(Redefreiheit), the latter doesn’t exist as such in Germany. yes it does! article 5 of the constitution http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/gg/art_5.html http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/gg/art_5.html
- tpush 6y agoWell, that’s freedom of expression. Not quite the same, but I will concede your point :)
- bzb6 6y agoIt takes balls to say that as the prime minister of Germany, probably the western country that limits speech the most.
- Majestic121 6y agoThey are disturbed by the fact that this speech limitation is decided single-handedly by the management of private companies, not by the speech limitation in itself.
- psychoslave 6y agoThese private companies didn’t come out of nowhere. They were able to exist because people were educated in a certain fashion that allowed large central attention grabbers to have a large impact on people. And this came largely as a consequence of political decisions.
- throwaway54095 6y ago
- 29athrowaway 6y agoThe President of Mexico has higher priority problems to work on and he is using this as a distraction for those problems. AMLO should man up and do something about the illicit domestic activity. For example, make use of the air force and facilitate self-defense across Mexico.
- tomp 6y agoNot sure if it's a good idea that you're inciting violence on a privately-owned public forum.
- logicchains 6y agoIt seems like the poster was encouraging the Mexican head of state to deal with the drug cartel problem there; I'm not sure if that's the kind of thing people would usually describe as "inciting violence".
- Daho0n 6y agoHow do you self-defend without violence?
- 29athrowaway 6y agoNot only illicit substances but also fuel theft, extortion, kidnappings, etc. Many forms of crime going on there and the rate at which crimes get resolved by low enforcement is low.
- Jonnax 6y agoThese governments should build their own media platforms that allow their politicians to tweet. And only have it that it's mirrored on services like twitter
- vorhemus 6y agoMedia platforms should train their own engineers from an early age with their own money instead of hiring them "for free" after the public has paid their school education. That's your style of argumentation and I doubt it brings us far.
- lordnacho 6y agoThe government already puts stuff out on websites, right? People just don't go there, the audience is on FB, Twitter, etc. But my guess is Trump will be the first guy to set up his own network, looks like he needs it, plus he has enough of a following that people will install an app just to hear his content.
- cudgy 6y agoOn what platform will his app appear? Apple and Google will ban any app associated with Trump.
- lordnacho 6y agoHe can make his own website, surely? It just needs to be a forum site, much like any old hobby might have. If he wants an app he can offer an APK for Android. Not sure the bulk of Trump supporters can figure out TestFlight, but someone could put up detailed instructions. In any case you don't really need the app, you can have a browser link.
- throwaway69123 6y agoTwitter should build its own global internet infrastructure
- ABeeSea 6y agoIs that just a press release? Trump is free to do as many of those as he wants.
- bserge 6y agoIsn't it kind of funny how they're all worried now? It's not like the big platforms didn't ban people before Trump. But they were small fries, who cares, right? Wait until they hear about doctor appointment waiting times for normal people and how they can't get proper care. Now that would be a shock.
- kome 6y agowell, there is a big difference between a democratically elected politician and some random troll.
- pjc50 6y agoNot any more there isn't.
- bserge 6y agoThere's plenty of people who didn't do anything wrong getting demonetized and deplatformed. Could be someone else (who's more "important") didn't like them or just an algorithm problem. They often have no recourse, and the government tells them "well, it's a private platform, we can't do anything".
- HoverSausage 6y agoExtra rights for politicians should not be a principle in a democratic society.
- throwaway69123 6y agoSilencing politicians is the same as silencing their constituents
- kome 6y agoI agree with this. That's how representative democracy works.
- Majestic121 6y ago
- dmode 6y agoI am all for censoring fascists
- shripadk 6y agoThis is the exact thing a fascist would say. A liberal would never say this. If you want to censor someone's speech just because you don't agree with them, congratulations you are already a fascist.
- hedberg10 6y agoI declare you to be a fascist and ban you. You may protest at spam@hedberg10.com
- zuminator 6y agoI completely support your right to deem people fascist at a whim and ban them from your web properties.
- peytn 6y agoThe situation is considerably more complex with Amazon. For one, hedberg10 stands to gain little from terminating business relationships with political opponents of the incoming administration. Amazon does. I’m not sure my right to be able to buy eBooks from a variety of suppliers in a competitive market is being given due protection.
- ralusek 6y agoAnd what about when those web properties are monopolies? What about when those monopolies regularly collude in broad daylight so as to lock out persons and companies from being able to host products in marketplaces, infrastructure, and even process payments or access banking?
- dmode 6y agoIf I have done activity that deems I am a fascist based on a corporations policy, that's totally fine. Don't see a problem with that. Unless you think ISIS should also exist on Twitter promoting their beheading video series
- throwaway69123 6y agoThis really has the potential for regulatory retribution towards Twitter from governments around the world.
- loraa 6y agoIt's almost childish for leftists to play this game of revenge, especially when liberal men tend to be pansies.
- shripadk 6y agoAll Big Tech censorship related posts have been pushed to the 4th page on Hacker News. Even if it has more upvotes than many items on the front page. Even Hacker News is in on this censorship.