from Hacker News

Deplatforming Is Wrong

by riffnote on 1/11/21, 6:08 AM with 25 comments

While I don't use Parler, it probably serves an important social purpose for 95 percent of its members: being a place where they can be heard and not feel isolated.

Deplatforming isolates people at the worst time ever, during a global pandemic. It shuts up a huge swath of the American population who need to be heard and understood. Big tech is wrong here. They are not our saviours. They are not defenders of democracy and freedom.

Please see this for what it is: groupthink on a grand scale.

  • by mproud on 1/11/21, 6:17 AM

    When a platform refuses to monitor and remove seditious activity and incitement for violence is when they fail and need to be dropped.

  • by lordkrandel on 1/11/21, 9:08 AM

    Deplatforming is right.

    Private companies have TOSes. They are publishing user content and they must act for child p*rn or violence.

    Go talk again with your politicians if you want to change that. There is no online court, just executives that have to uphold the law, just like everybody else

  • by SubGenius on 1/11/21, 6:52 AM

    Deplatforming is a net positive (to me personally) if it helps establish more decentralized and free networks of communication.

    I feel like the timing is almost right, with all the emerging technologies from the past few years (matrix, fediverse etc) just reaching stability.

  • by HelloNurse on 1/11/21, 8:53 AM

    The problem is feeling entitled to services (individual extremists to social networks, Parler to AWS) in the name of free speech, while in reality these problem customers are demanding a commercial relationship with companies who dislike them enough to refuse business.

    Despite contrary perception, web sites aren't a limited resource (like, say, newspaper distribution) that needs antitrust regulations. Parler can run its service without AWS, and individual extremists can exercise their right to free speech elsewhere, without imposing their presence where they are unwanted.

  • by rcaught on 1/11/21, 7:31 AM

    Republicans, pick one: - Government regulation - Small government

  • by drKarl on 1/11/21, 7:57 AM

    I don't understand why has this post been flagged, it's a legitimate opinion

  • by grepnork on 1/11/21, 6:29 AM

    In the UK Bolt is an alt-Uber app, which for some journeys is cheaper than Uber.

    I had an interesting conversation with a Bolt driver recently, after he remarked surprise that I was a 'decent' passenger; it turns out Bolt is the app for everyone banned from Uber.

    Many of the drivers work multiple apps and apparently quite a few are refusing to pickup Bolts or treating Bolts with suspicion because Bolt doesn't have the same driver protections as Uber.

    When I ran a nightclub ~20 years ago we would share photos of people we had banned, so other venues would also ban those patrons. That left them to the 'trouble pubs' which were consequently heavily policed. What is happening now is no different.

    Ultimately there are groups of people within society that can't behave themselves and ruin the experience of [whatever] for everyone else, and society acts accordingly.

  • by badraig on 1/11/21, 7:13 AM

    This article explains that groupthink and self-justification very well:

    https://threader.app/thread/1347912743605698560

  • by cable2600 on 1/11/21, 6:24 AM

    Companies don't want to be tied to hate speech or speech that causes people to riot. It may not seem fair, but companies are private and not a part of the government so there is no freedom of speech.

  • by hashtagread on 1/11/21, 7:48 AM

    Doesn't posting in an echo chamber isolate you from the larger share of the population anyway?

  • by drKarl on 1/11/21, 7:28 AM

    I'm European, but if I were in America I would not be republican, I might be democrat. I don't like Trump as President or even as a human being. I think Trump is a sore loser who should've accepted the election results and I think it's despicable that he incited his followers to insurrect and take the Capitol. I also think he's desperate because either he exiles to a country without extradition with the USA or he's going to prison (I believe he'll exile).

    I can even understand Twitter and Facebook banning him until the 20th to avoid another violent incident.

    On the other hand, I never used Parler, but I think Amazon and other providers should not deny service to Parler, as I understand Parler is just a Platform that allows free speech. They're just killing the messenger. I don't agree with those MAGA or QAnon or Antivaxxers, but they should be allowed to discuss freely. I'm an atheist, what if someone decided atheists have dangerous ideas and they shouldn't be allowed to have a platform to discuss? If the internet existed a few centuries ago that would've definitely happened.

    Also Trump had a personal crusade against Jeff Bezos, so I believe Bezos is just trying to claim some payback.

  • by vanrysss on 1/11/21, 9:41 AM

    Nazis don't deserve to be heard.