4 ms·

Censorship doesn’t win hearts and minds. If that’s the best we can come up with, we are no better than China - don’t tell me what I’m allowed to see or read onl

Censorship doesn’t win hearts and minds. If that’s the best we can come up with, we are no better than China - don’t tell me what I’m allowed to see or read online, or make it deliberately unpleasant - those amount to the same. That’s how you get me to antagonize you for the rest of my life. I don’t need corporations or the state to filter data before it gets to me in any way shape or form. They can’t possibly do a good job at it anyway.

pjmlp 5y ago
First generation out of Salazar dictatorship. That is not really something that we should go back to.
cbg0 5y ago
This approach works very well for those that are capable of getting their news from multiple sources and are capable of critical thinking, but in many places the majority of the population is not like this. If you look at some interviews of people in some regions of Ukraine and Russia you'll see that folks are convinced of what the fake stories that Russian state media has pushed along the years, namely that Ukraine is being controlled by Nazis. It's not very difficult to see how the same propaganda could spread to other countries quite easily and become a threat to national security - one of the reasons why Moldova blocked off the sputnik.md domain today. It's a touchy subject indeed, but when you have state controlled media that is spewing outright lies, I think countries have an obligation to block off those sources of fake news in order to protect the citizens that are most vulnerable to this sort of manipulation, especially in an age when people believe everything they see on social media.
DyslexicAtheist 5y ago
I agree censorship is bad. But there should be rules that apply to all. If Russia blocks access to twitter then shall RT be allowed to continue posting for their Western audience while Russians are unable to evaluate the same content (or are totally prevented from using the platform)? What I'm opposing here isn't that ordinary Russians are prevented from having their voice be heard but RT which is financed by Putin is somehow allowed to continue posting. If the playing field would be level then they would also be prevented from posting until they restore access to the rest of Russians citizens. Would that be a fair compromise? What else is there that twitter can do to not have blood on their hands by enabling such an asymmetry? (keep in mind that information pushed into these networks is also seen by combatants and will shape morale, so the argument that twitter is somehow neutral is hard to justify)
- barbacoa 5y ago
  >If Russia blocks access to twitter then shall RT be allowed to continue posting for their Western audience? Unquestionably yes. Why is HN becoming more and more in favor of China style restrictions on information?
deleted 5y ago
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pjmlp 5y ago

First generation out of Salazar dictatorship. That is not really something that we should go back to.

cbg0 5y ago

This approach works very well for those that are capable of getting their news from multiple sources and are capable of critical thinking, but in many places the majority of the population is not like this. If you look at some interviews of people in some regions of Ukraine and Russia you'll see that folks are convinced of what the fake stories that Russian state media has pushed along the years, namely that Ukraine is being controlled by Nazis. It's not very difficult to see how the same propaganda could spread to other countries quite easily and become a threat to national security - one of the reasons why Moldova blocked off the sputnik.md domain today. It's a touchy subject indeed, but when you have state controlled media that is spewing outright lies, I think countries have an obligation to block off those sources of fake news in order to protect the citizens that are most vulnerable to this sort of manipulation, especially in an age when people believe everything they see on social media.

DyslexicAtheist 5y ago

I agree censorship is bad. But there should be rules that apply to all. If Russia blocks access to twitter then shall RT be allowed to continue posting for their Western audience while Russians are unable to evaluate the same content (or are totally prevented from using the platform)? What I'm opposing here isn't that ordinary Russians are prevented from having their voice be heard but RT which is financed by Putin is somehow allowed to continue posting. If the playing field would be level then they would also be prevented from posting until they restore access to the rest of Russians citizens. Would that be a fair compromise? What else is there that twitter can do to not have blood on their hands by enabling such an asymmetry? (keep in mind that information pushed into these networks is also seen by combatants and will shape morale, so the argument that twitter is somehow neutral is hard to justify)

barbacoa 5y ago
>If Russia blocks access to twitter then shall RT be allowed to continue posting for their Western audience? Unquestionably yes. Why is HN becoming more and more in favor of China style restrictions on information?

deleted 5y ago

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