from Hacker News

Texas Could Push Tech Platforms to Censor Posts About Abortion

by nelgaard on 4/16/23, 10:31 AM with 101 comments

• by theshrike79 on 4/16/23, 11:04 AM

  I just hope the big platforms (Meta's mostly) either cut off Texas entirely or corral them to a separate Texas-only instance where they can't see others posts and nobody can see them.

• by neilv on 4/16/23, 12:13 PM

  Have any tech companies already been moving away from Texas and other areas where some politicians are going "anti-tech"? (Closing offices, targeting layoffs, canceling expansion plans, etc.)

  Also, is anything known about whether driving away tech immigrants (with their maybe more Californian values) is an intention of some politicians there?

• by ChatGTP on 4/16/23, 11:24 AM

  The intent we knew is dying and once gone will never come back. I’d go as far to say as it’s already basically done.

  There is just too much interference with its functioning, combine this with the dangers of autonomous AI systems hacking infra, growing government weariness over recent leaks and the growing ease of spreading lies, I can’t see how it can continue.

  This is absolutely crazy, but here’s the thing. Because the internet is becoming so centralised and new surveillance tech has emerged, this type of censorship just seems more and more possible. More possible than anytime in history.

• by pornel on 4/16/23, 11:06 AM

  Pointing out hypocrisy doesn’t work against authoritarians. Getting away with hypocrisy is a demonstration of their power.

• by elijah_moham on 4/16/23, 12:06 PM

  Bodily autonomy is a contradiction to abortion rights. Control over one's body logically implies not allowing a second body formation. The autonomy of the child overrides access to abortion since now in pregnancy, there are 2 bodies.

  Similarly, access to expensive and elective medical services is a privilege, not a right.

• by friend_and_foe on 4/16/23, 9:47 PM

  They're just getting in on the game. The EU does it, various European countries do it, as well as India and others. About the only ones who don't get the special treatment are China and Iran.

  So now US states are doing it. What do you expect? I should be able to run a website and if you don't want your people to see it, put up your great firewall or get fucked. But we decided to take a different path, where countries can charge companies and people for violating their laws when they've never set foot there and creators have to geoblock. And plenty deriding this move applauded it when it was their ideologies being protected.To those people: help us free the internet again or go cry in a corner about it. This is your fault.

• by baremetal on 4/16/23, 10:54 AM

  The slippery slope of censorship.

  However I am anti-abortion. I used to be pro abortion, I was a hardcore liberal just a few years ago, before covid (still not a Trump supporter, just rabidly apolitical now). And considering what the federal government has been doing censoring the right via tech platforms when it goes against their narratives.. aw shucks I can't get behind censorship.

  Sorry Texas.