Is Free Speech Under Attack in this Country?

[sturg33]

Leftists - "if you don't like twitter's rules gtfo off twitter and make your own platform!"

(people make own platform)

Leftists - "whoa! this platform is dangerous. it must be shut down!!"

[nsacpi]

UPDATE: The calls for violence over on Parler are getting much, much worse.

There are now open calls for the murder of police officers and planning for violence on January 20th

This obviously severely violates the law, much less the @AppStore and @GooglePlay rules.

flush em out

[sturg33]

Looks like Trump's been banned from Twitter.

[cajunrevenge]

I downloaded parlor. Apparently there are violation points and when you reach 20 you are suspended but it says you are judged by "a jury of your peers" and not Parlor employees. I am going to test this free speech platform you told me about.

[cajunrevenge]

Lol first comment was like lobbing a hand grenade at a hornet's nest lol

[sturg33]

Google has removed Parler

They are moving extremely fast now that they have secured power

[cajunrevenge]

Straight to the gulags with you comrade Sturg.

[cajunrevenge]

I wish all these conservatives outraged were there for us when a medical marijuana ad was banned from the Super Bowl.

[zitothebrave]

Google has removed Parler

They are moving extremely fast now that they have secured power

It's amazing what happens when Congress threatens to remove protections from companies like Google, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

[mqt]

Google has removed Parler

They are moving extremely fast now that they have secured power

Is the idea that Google and Apple should be compelled to support specific applications now?

[goldfly]

Fraud boy sticking up for traitors of the constitution

[sturg33]

Fraud boy sticking up for traitors of the constitution

Cheer on your censorship. You are a good citizen.

Even the nut job ACLU is condemning this ****. We've been warning about it for years. Its happening now. We aren't that far from China.

You are a weak and spineless fraud.

[sturg33]

Reasonable people who despise Trump are starting to get concerned. That's a start but it is too late. They are weak and spineless and will watch idly by as all political opponents of the left get removed from the public discourse

[sturg33]

Yall can't think past step 1.

Censoring people doesn't make them go away. It makes them angry

[cajunrevenge]

No one has freer speech than Trump. Almost literally everything he says is front page news. If Twatter was his only way to communicate then I would agree. I am old enough to member a time when Presidents didnt twatter.

[sturg33]

No one has freer speech than Trump. Almost literally everything he says is front page news. If Twatter was his only way to communicate then I would agree. I am old enough to member a time when Presidents didnt twatter.

There have been hundreds of thousands people banned on Twitter and Facebook the last 2 days.

There is a coordinated attack on the free speech alternative platform.

If they are willing to ban the President they will certainly ban you. Better update your profiles with pronouns in your bio, you may survive a little longer

[sturg33]

Thread

This was all extremely predictable

[sturg33]

Among young Democrats, university students believe in restricting speech 37% more than non college students.

Interesting

University is doing their part to create this culture. I fully understand why erasing student loan debt is such a priority

[Runnin]

There have been hundreds of thousands people banned on Twitter and Facebook the last 2 days.

There is a coordinated attack on the free speech alternative platform.

If they are willing to ban the President they will certainly ban you. Better update your profiles with pronouns in your bio, you may survive a little longer

If you aren't dealing in sedition inciting BS you should be alright. If not, no worries. I can live quite well without them.

[sturg33]

I'm a firm advocate of free speech. I think using any kind of power to silence any viewpoint is a dangerous business to start. I've never encountered anything so awful, dangerous, and evil that it can't be talked about.

When I try to argue with people that free speech is important, the argument I often hear back justifying people taking action to shut down someone they disagree with is "The first amendment only protects you from the government. It doesn't protect you from other people." This is a legally true statement. You have every right to protest and demand someone's business be destroyed or their employer fire them. However, I find that abhorrent to the philosophical reasons supporting freedom of speech.

A marketplace of ideas only works if people are not afraid of retribution for stating their belief. And I don't think where the retribution comes from should make a difference. In the past, the government has been the one shutting down free speech. It often still does. But more and more we're seeing people banding together and using new media to try to exert power or pressure institutions with power to use that power to silence speech.

Suppose you have a scientist who wants to publish a paper detailing how the dumping of certain chemicals contaminates water supplies and causes cancer. Now suppose there's a company that dumps a lot of these chemicals that's also a big donor to the private university that employs that scientist. The company tells the university they wont donate any more money if any faculty members publish any papers about those chemicals. The university then tells the scientist that if he publishes that paper, he'll be fired or never get tenure.

In this case you've had a private actor (the company) pressuring another private actor (the university) to silence the scientist and so hold back what could have been beneficial information to society. This is the danger of silencing speech whether it's a government silencing it or a private actor.

Bump.

This is especially relevant in covid era where scientists who don't go along with the narrative get banned