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Do you think that just because someone is a politician they should be given a completely and totally unlimited freedom to do and say whatever they want? What if

Do you think that just because someone is a politician they should be given a completely and totally unlimited freedom to do and say whatever they want? What if you're a politician literally running a platform based on genocide? On taking away voting rights from women? On bringing back child labour? On making slavery legal? Should every platform be forced to host you and your views? Or is there a line where you'd go "ok, yeah, actually I can agree with this". Because if there is a line anywhere, then I don't see how you can still hold a view that free software should always support everyone and their beliefs, politicians or not.

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klyrs 5y ago
Look, I'm no Trump fan, but there's literally no reason to talk politics here, especially that slippery slope stuff. The Trump Group appears to be in violation of the software license they were granted. SFC's mandate is to chase down FOSS license violations. They were made aware of a violation, and they're chasing it down. If my favorite politician was using my code in violation of my license, I'd get up in their grill about that. Was the violation discovered by somebody who dislikes Trump? Yeah, probably. But it doesn't matter. The Trump Group exposes itself to legal risk by not complying with the license, and compliance is easy: show your users the license, and the code. Comply and the threat of a lawsuit vanishes.
- gambiting 5y ago
  Yeah that is absolutely fair enough. I haven't thought about it from that angle, thanks for writing this.
AlgorithmicTime 5y ago
Obviously yes? Assuming we actually believe in democracy, then we must allow politicians to run on whatever platform they will. More than that, we must allow non-politicians to hold and express any political opinion whatsoever. There's no logical limit to saying "well we have free speech and democracy, except for this set of things I don't like." Well, no, you have neither of those things in that case. You have an oligarchy or aristocracy setting the agenda and then letting the little people argue over minutiae. >Should every platform be forced to host you and your views? Actually, yes. A platform of this type is very much like a common carrier. The post office, the phone company, they are obligated to allow your speech on their platforms even if they don't like it. If you want to be a public platform, all legal speech must be allowed. Obviously exceptions for actual threats and pornography.

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klyrs 5y ago

Look, I'm no Trump fan, but there's literally no reason to talk politics here, especially that slippery slope stuff. The Trump Group appears to be in violation of the software license they were granted. SFC's mandate is to chase down FOSS license violations. They were made aware of a violation, and they're chasing it down. If my favorite politician was using my code in violation of my license, I'd get up in their grill about that. Was the violation discovered by somebody who dislikes Trump? Yeah, probably. But it doesn't matter. The Trump Group exposes itself to legal risk by not complying with the license, and compliance is easy: show your users the license, and the code. Comply and the threat of a lawsuit vanishes.

gambiting 5y ago
Yeah that is absolutely fair enough. I haven't thought about it from that angle, thanks for writing this.

AlgorithmicTime 5y ago

Obviously yes? Assuming we actually believe in democracy, then we must allow politicians to run on whatever platform they will. More than that, we must allow non-politicians to hold and express any political opinion whatsoever. There's no logical limit to saying "well we have free speech and democracy, except for this set of things I don't like." Well, no, you have neither of those things in that case. You have an oligarchy or aristocracy setting the agenda and then letting the little people argue over minutiae. >Should every platform be forced to host you and your views? Actually, yes. A platform of this type is very much like a common carrier. The post office, the phone company, they are obligated to allow your speech on their platforms even if they don't like it. If you want to be a public platform, all legal speech must be allowed. Obviously exceptions for actual threats and pornography.