4 ms·

I just don't want to live in a world where my trans friends get relentlessly harassed and cyber bullied until they kill themselves. Can I have that?

colechristensen 4y ago
Call the cops, file restraining orders, and get a good therapist. Assholes and trolls are still going to exist regardless of what any platform does. You can’t have what you want by trying to pressure cloudflare, it won’t make a positive difference. Do something real instead of advocating for something toothless and symbolic.
- FullyFunctional 4y ago
  How exactly do you file a restraining order against an unknown group of unnamed people? It seems like a very privileged victim-blaming POV.
  - remarkEon 4y ago
    The FBI, and increasingly police departments, have fairly large cyber forensics capabilities. If someone is doing something illegal, report it.
    - Dylan16807 4y ago
      Do you actually think there is any chance they would investigate?
      - remarkEon 4y ago
        I'm not sure what you mean by this. Are you implying that the police will decline to investigate death threats and the like for political reasons?
        Dylan16807 4y ago
        I am implying that police don't care about internet death threats. As long as they're not against the president or something.
  - colechristensen 4y ago
    - dang 4y ago
      Attack other users like you did in those first two sentences will get you banned here, regardless of how right you are or feel you are. No more of this, please. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
spencerchubb 4y ago
Harassment is already a crime. No need for companies like cloudflare to implement their own bespoke judicial system
- Cr4shMyCar 4y ago
  Selling drugs is already a crime, no need for eBay or Facebook to implement their own bespoke judicial system. Something being illegal doesn't mean people won't do it.
  - account42 4y ago
    I agree, eBay and Facebook should not be policing drugs beyond what they are legally required.
Banana699 4y ago
Yes you can, convince your friends to deactivate their social media accounts where\when they're harrassed or aggressively block those who harrass them. Teach them tips and tricks to bully back (bullying is really easy). Find them mental health professionals and services, and possibly help them financially with those services.
- Cr4shMyCar 4y ago
  Harassment isn't something that Just Happens and it's not something that's impossible to stop or prevent. If a group of people is shooting others, would you only teach people what to do if they've been shot or would you find and take action against the people shooting others?
  - Banana699 4y ago
    Great analogy, too bad it's hyperbolic and doesn't actually say anything about the situations it's supposed to help us think about. People need to get it through their head that speech is not violence, words are not weapons. Your Exquisite Analogy about how speech laws should Akshually reflect gun laws or martial laws doesn't work, never worked, and never will. Every single argument against free speech is a general argument against living in any kind of large networked society. Your problem is not the tools the harrasser uses, your problem is the harrasser themself, the tools they use is the same tools used by dissidents and freedom fighters to "harrass" the oppressive governments they are rebelling against. We went through this entire tiresome arguments before with the debates around cryptography and anonymity, people just keep Missing The Point. Yes, building backdoors into encryption standards and harvesting data without users' permission will allow you to catch The Big Bad Pedos, but it will also allow Putin and Ibn Salman unprecedented power to catch their own type of enemies. "Oh, we just want to do bad things to the bad guys only" no, you can't, believe me, you can't and you won't, every single thing you advocate for can and will be used against you.

colechristensen 4y ago

Call the cops, file restraining orders, and get a good therapist. Assholes and trolls are still going to exist regardless of what any platform does. You can’t have what you want by trying to pressure cloudflare, it won’t make a positive difference. Do something real instead of advocating for something toothless and symbolic.

FullyFunctional 4y ago
How exactly do you file a restraining order against an unknown group of unnamed people? It seems like a very privileged victim-blaming POV.
- remarkEon 4y ago
  The FBI, and increasingly police departments, have fairly large cyber forensics capabilities. If someone is doing something illegal, report it.
  - Dylan16807 4y ago
    Do you actually think there is any chance they would investigate?
    - remarkEon 4y ago
      I'm not sure what you mean by this. Are you implying that the police will decline to investigate death threats and the like for political reasons?
      - Dylan16807 4y ago
        I am implying that police don't care about internet death threats. As long as they're not against the president or something.
- colechristensen 4y ago
  - dang 4y ago
    Attack other users like you did in those first two sentences will get you banned here, regardless of how right you are or feel you are. No more of this, please. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

spencerchubb 4y ago

Harassment is already a crime. No need for companies like cloudflare to implement their own bespoke judicial system

Cr4shMyCar 4y ago
Selling drugs is already a crime, no need for eBay or Facebook to implement their own bespoke judicial system. Something being illegal doesn't mean people won't do it.
- account42 4y ago
  I agree, eBay and Facebook should not be policing drugs beyond what they are legally required.

Banana699 4y ago

Yes you can, convince your friends to deactivate their social media accounts where\when they're harrassed or aggressively block those who harrass them. Teach them tips and tricks to bully back (bullying is really easy). Find them mental health professionals and services, and possibly help them financially with those services.

Cr4shMyCar 4y ago
Harassment isn't something that Just Happens and it's not something that's impossible to stop or prevent. If a group of people is shooting others, would you only teach people what to do if they've been shot or would you find and take action against the people shooting others?
- Banana699 4y ago
  Great analogy, too bad it's hyperbolic and doesn't actually say anything about the situations it's supposed to help us think about. People need to get it through their head that speech is not violence, words are not weapons. Your Exquisite Analogy about how speech laws should Akshually reflect gun laws or martial laws doesn't work, never worked, and never will. Every single argument against free speech is a general argument against living in any kind of large networked society. Your problem is not the tools the harrasser uses, your problem is the harrasser themself, the tools they use is the same tools used by dissidents and freedom fighters to "harrass" the oppressive governments they are rebelling against. We went through this entire tiresome arguments before with the debates around cryptography and anonymity, people just keep Missing The Point. Yes, building backdoors into encryption standards and harvesting data without users' permission will allow you to catch The Big Bad Pedos, but it will also allow Putin and Ibn Salman unprecedented power to catch their own type of enemies. "Oh, we just want to do bad things to the bad guys only" no, you can't, believe me, you can't and you won't, every single thing you advocate for can and will be used against you.