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Is the government allowed to shut them down without a court order? If not, why should you be able to? Do you feel you can do a better job? There's something to
by ars 5y ago
Is the government allowed to shut them down without a court order? If not, why should you be able to? Do you feel you can do a better job?
There's something to be said for not shutting down someone unless they break a law. I do acknowledge the court would need to be much faster and easier to access for these kinds of things though, you don't want to burden a provider with enormous legal bills just to deal with this kind of thing.
- epolanski 5y agoPlatforms can have any arbitrary rule. If I host a service for manchester city fans, why would I not be able to ban annoying united fans? Who cares if what they do is legal. What if I post NSFW content here on hn. It's not illegal so it's okay? Just this month content creators from Russia or belarus have been banned from dozen of services, they did not violate any law. It's ridiculous to think that yout platform isn't free to apply it's own rules.
- ars 5y agoThat's not the same question though, that's basically a strawman. We're talking about platforms that are not so restrictive in their topics.
- epolanski 5y agoBut my point doesn't change, on my platform I'm judge, jury and executioner too. Unless you can prove in a court of law you're being restricted for illegal reasons, there's not much you can do. Internet is full of stories of people losing their livehood overnight in these services and there isn't much one can do.
- zuminator 5y agoSetting "is it illegal?" as the bar would allow nigh any content whatsoever as creators could just go host-shopping until we found a country where our objectionable material was legal.
- remram 5y agoIf you do the same in a public space, a cop will stop you immediately without waiting for a court order. Or even a security guard. Judges are definitely not the starting point of all security actions.
- maccolgan 5y agoCops aren't allowed to stop you from saying neo-Nazi things on a government-owned public space unless you live in a country where free speech doesn't exist.
- remram 5y agoSo you claim, random Internet user. The rest of the world sees things differently. Even in the USA, plenty of things are explicitly illegal to say out loud in public, such as calling out "fire" or anything pornographic. You also still have a political prison in Guantanamo where people are detained indefinitely without trial, but sure, tell us what freedom means.