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The key thing here to recognize is that this unlimited free speech on platforms ended the day Trump was elected. It's presented as about hate speech or preventi

The key thing here to recognize is that this unlimited free speech on platforms ended the day Trump was elected. It's presented as about hate speech or preventing misinformation but it's really about class and culture. The top 20% or so of the population, those that are employed by and control all the American mega corporations comprise the professional managerial class. There is nothing they despise more than the cultural values of the Walmart-shopping working class. When those people elected that insane clown as president is the day the professional managerial class decided they need to play a more active role in projecting their moral and cultural values onto everyone else. Incidents like the one in the article are collateral damage to this policy.

ClumsyPilot 5y ago
"top 20% or so of the population, those that are employed by and control all the American mega corporations" Dont the top 2% that actually own these corporation control them?
- barbacoa 5y ago
  It's the rank-and-file employees demanding these moderation policies too.
philipkglass 5y ago
Facebook never allowed porn or even artistic nudes. YouTube only sometimes allows nudity/sex. Twitter and YouTube started scrubbing media drops from ISIS and other violent Islamist groups before Trump even had the nomination. They did so after bipartisan calls for social media to deplatform terrorist propaganda. Reddit also cracked down on Syrian civil war media around this time. The videos were often gruesome propaganda and evidence of war crimes at the same time. The reason people called on social media to remove this material instead of making it a job for law enforcement is that First Amendment protections are very broad. Praising ISIS or sharing "inspirational" videos of them killing government soldiers is not a crime if it doesn't also call for imminent lawless action. But few Americans of any political affiliation want such material to spread freely online, so it has been suppressed by other means on major platforms. I'm not endorsing or condemning how these platforms behave. I'm just pointing out that they have long suppressed material that the First Amendment protects. The timeline of moderation well predates the Trump presidency.

ClumsyPilot 5y ago

"top 20% or so of the population, those that are employed by and control all the American mega corporations" Dont the top 2% that actually own these corporation control them?

barbacoa 5y ago
It's the rank-and-file employees demanding these moderation policies too.

philipkglass 5y ago

Facebook never allowed porn or even artistic nudes. YouTube only sometimes allows nudity/sex. Twitter and YouTube started scrubbing media drops from ISIS and other violent Islamist groups before Trump even had the nomination. They did so after bipartisan calls for social media to deplatform terrorist propaganda. Reddit also cracked down on Syrian civil war media around this time. The videos were often gruesome propaganda and evidence of war crimes at the same time. The reason people called on social media to remove this material instead of making it a job for law enforcement is that First Amendment protections are very broad. Praising ISIS or sharing "inspirational" videos of them killing government soldiers is not a crime if it doesn't also call for imminent lawless action. But few Americans of any political affiliation want such material to spread freely online, so it has been suppressed by other means on major platforms. I'm not endorsing or condemning how these platforms behave. I'm just pointing out that they have long suppressed material that the First Amendment protects. The timeline of moderation well predates the Trump presidency.