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> Amazon made headlines in the Washington Post last week for shutting down a website hosted on AWS that featured propaganda from Islamic State that celebrated t

by kodah 5y ago

> Amazon made headlines in the Washington Post last week for shutting down a website hosted on AWS that featured propaganda from Islamic State that celebrated the suicide bombing that killed an estimated 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. troops in Kabul last Thursday. They did so after the news organization contacted Amazon, according to the Post. I'll preface this with the fact that I served in the war on terror. I don't think AWS should. The government is the arbiter of what is legal and not legal. This whole concept that people have built on over decades that "free speech means you won't be oppressed by the government but not that you won't face 'consequences'" is an absolute farce. If our "values" were ever equally enforced then the day Trump was thrown off of Twitter for his amping of radical right wingers that caused an insurrection then Malang Khostay would've been thrown off as well for being the actual spokesperson of the Taliban. It is the government's job to determine minimally viable standards and attempt to compel enforcement, as soon as you make "values" the arbiter people stop baking cakes for gay people and think it's okay.

throwaway210222 5y ago
> free speech means you won't be oppressed by the government but not that you won't face 'consequences'" is an absolute farce. By that definition there is free speech in North Korea.
- kodah 5y ago
  A little different I'd argue. People are talking about private citizens and companies enforcing extra-legal standards on you.
- zxcvbn4038 5y ago
  The loophole in the US has always been the private sector. Most mass media is controlled by a handful of individuals who play along nicely with what the government wants, newspapers and newscasters might present themselves as independent entities focused an a particular geography or demographic, but the viewpoints presented flow down from above. People who don’t play along find themselves not successful in their industry over time. Intense rhetoric between Fox News and MSNBC over how much the wealthy should pay on their income can be an orchestrated distraction from the wealthy not paying any tax at all because they effectively have no income. Facebook and Google can do the dirty work of suppressing viewpoints while anti-trust investigations plod along at a snails pace or issue only token findings. So it’s not like the countries where the tank rolls up to your front door and the storm troopers escort you and your family to new careers in the rock salt mines, but there are a lot of controls in place to guide the conversation and they are mostly implemented via the private sector. You may have thought you saw a UFO but Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey will make sure people know that what you actually saw was Venus.
- oblio 5y ago
  Free speech laws protect you from the <<government>> taking action against you.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]

by kodah 5y ago

throwaway210222 5y ago

> free speech means you won't be oppressed by the government but not that you won't face 'consequences'" is an absolute farce. By that definition there is free speech in North Korea.

kodah 5y ago
A little different I'd argue. People are talking about private citizens and companies enforcing extra-legal standards on you.
zxcvbn4038 5y ago
The loophole in the US has always been the private sector. Most mass media is controlled by a handful of individuals who play along nicely with what the government wants, newspapers and newscasters might present themselves as independent entities focused an a particular geography or demographic, but the viewpoints presented flow down from above. People who don’t play along find themselves not successful in their industry over time. Intense rhetoric between Fox News and MSNBC over how much the wealthy should pay on their income can be an orchestrated distraction from the wealthy not paying any tax at all because they effectively have no income. Facebook and Google can do the dirty work of suppressing viewpoints while anti-trust investigations plod along at a snails pace or issue only token findings. So it’s not like the countries where the tank rolls up to your front door and the storm troopers escort you and your family to new careers in the rock salt mines, but there are a lot of controls in place to guide the conversation and they are mostly implemented via the private sector. You may have thought you saw a UFO but Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey will make sure people know that what you actually saw was Venus.
oblio 5y ago
Free speech laws protect you from the <<government>> taking action against you.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]