As someone who aspires to a living provided by full-time writing and a citizen of the good ol' USA, I am very much in favor of the 1st amendment. There are limits, of course, and nowhere are the limits pushed more frequently than social media.
I don't envy the responsibilities of the social media companies to allow free speech while removing content and people that are truly dangerous. The permaban, and much more insidious shadowban, are the tools of the trade for the likes of Facebook and Twitter to police their networks.
Today, Twitter permabanned President Donald Trump, citing his rhetoric and call-to-arms to his followers that precipitated the siege on the Capitol this week. I think most reasonable people would agree that this ban has been a long time coming and is long overdue. I do have a concern about the timing.
Does it make sense to outright ban Trump, who is very unstable and still has the keys to the kingdom? Would it have been better to shadowban him so that he still thinks he's getting some message out? We are still twelve days out from the Inauguration, and I don't even want to imagine the kind of havoc Trump can still stir up in this vulnerable transition.
I don't envy the responsibilities of the social media companies to allow free speech while removing content and people that are truly dangerous. The permaban, and much more insidious shadowban, are the tools of the trade for the likes of Facebook and Twitter to police their networks.
Today, Twitter permabanned President Donald Trump, citing his rhetoric and call-to-arms to his followers that precipitated the siege on the Capitol this week. I think most reasonable people would agree that this ban has been a long time coming and is long overdue. I do have a concern about the timing.
Does it make sense to outright ban Trump, who is very unstable and still has the keys to the kingdom? Would it have been better to shadowban him so that he still thinks he's getting some message out? We are still twelve days out from the Inauguration, and I don't even want to imagine the kind of havoc Trump can still stir up in this vulnerable transition.
The only real excuse Twitter has is that, as a private company, they have the right to make their own rules. Which is why, instead of bullshitting around the dangers of letting him onto their platform, they should be saying loud and clear, "We don't like Trump and we don't like his message, which is why we will no longer allow him on our platform." Then they deal with *that* fallout (if any).
Cloaking the argument around the dangers and violence of speech is an even more dangerous and slippery slope than allowing it to begin with. It is appalling. This is why social media on the blockchain is the future. It's probably going to be Trump's next big investment as a freedom of speech martyr turned VC.
As for free speech, maybe we should all have a discussion about it.