A search for Threads content on Twitter currently brings up zero results, despite plenty of links to Meta’s microblogging rival being posted on the platform.
Elon Musk runs the whole of Twitter like the jealous, power-drunk moderator of a small 5,000-member Discord server.
People are free to either agree with the CEO view or to not use the platform. Sad but true. At least it reminds us all that it is a private for-profit company and always has been. No matter whether the “value” of it was mostly provided by user-created contents.
But, I really hope this twist of fate of how he accidentally bought Twitter in the first place helps people learn the lesson about all that “free speech” they were whining about. Your speech is not free when it is moderated by a corporation. Yes, the constitution allows you to say what’s on your mind, but it does not tell media corporations that they must allow you to say whatever is on your mind. If the uneducated people haven’t caught on yet, they shall never catch on, which really might mean stupid is just stupid, no matter how much education you throw at it.
It’s not even that, free speech is about the government, not private entities, it’s about not being arrested for what you say, it has nothing to do with what private companies do on their platforms, they’re free to do what they want and they’re not limiting any free speech by doing so because they’re not the government.
It’s baffling how many people still don’t understand that and go on crying about free speech related to private entities.
the constitution allows you
I thought the point of the constitution was that it confirms existing rights, not allows or forbids something. While the usual laws do allow or forbid.
Free speech in the web was really funny in the 00s, when moderators could partake in long discussions about it, and then just ban somebody for looking at them wrong (figuratively).
He’s done everyone a few favors. He showed us that the government sticks it’s fingers into social media in ways that are illegal, and he also showed us that corpos aren’t a good alternative because they’ll stick their fingers into social media in ways that are legal.
Decentralization and self-hosting is ultimately the only protection against forces that want to force us to see what they want us to see and nothing else.
He showed us that the government sticks it’s fingers into social media in ways that are illegal
That’s what a few right wing media repeatedly claim but I haven’t seen anyone actually providing any proof. Or do you mean the recent crazy judge decision?
Maybe he is aware of that, but wants to remind us all how internet communities were in the 00s.
Banning people for mentioning competing platforms just brings nostalgic tears.
Or maybe he doesn’t, just all the benevolence social media owners would show goes down the pipe when there really are decentralized alternatives which work. When they didn’t feel threatened, they could seem wiser.
Maybe he is aware of that, but wants to remind us all how internet communities were in the 00s.
This i don’t know. Any news references or links?
That’s like asking for news references for somebody being kicked out of a bar (doesn’t matter whether it’s unjust).
It just was a common thing - posting links to competitor sites gets you disciplined and possibly banned. Of course, competition was not for money, but for people. Cause if nobody comes to your site, then your ego is hurt and you’re depressed. Also posts advertising other people’s sites spoil the mood in general, contributing nothing.
EDIT: There were also friendly\allied sites, of course. With little banners somewhere at the bottom of the page leading to those.
No surprise there. Weren’t they banning people for posting their Mastodon/Cohost accounts or something?
Yes. Twitter was at one point tagging links to Mastodon as “potentially harmful” and removing them.
But the one thing that’s been shown consistent about Mr. Musk’s ownership of Twitter is that it is consistently self-contradicting. So as Twitter positions itself as “free speech absolutist” one can rest assured that the reality will be “self-contradicting”.
Let us not forget that time that Musk said that “Elon Jet Tracker” would not be banned WHILE it was indeed banned. Literally tweeting verifiably false information and then subsequently being called out on it, only for Musk to do the traditional “ignore and move on”.
And no one is surprised.
Elon made it clear shortly after taking over that “free speech” was speech he happened to agree with, and he had no intentions of ethical consistency on ‘free speech’ when it came to speech that was critical of him or his platform. Twitter already went nuclear on links to Mastadon and similar alternative platforms earlier this year while their dumpster fire was raging.
I don’t like when people use their boosted presence to say that minorities are a threat and ought to be exterminated, yeah.
What’s with people pretending we are talking about pineapple on pizza whenever hate speech is mentioned?
Lol are the goalposts so far gone that we are trying to imply hate speech just isn’t a thing that exists anymore? They didn’t say what was classified as hate speech, just that it is definitely on Twitter. If you don’t believe there’s hate speech on Twitter, well… I’d offer to sell you the Golden Gate Bridge but I don’t want to take advantage of such low cognitive ability.
Yeah, I think what he said was that anything allowed by law would be permitted, whatever that means. But then when they started impeding links to mastodon he was like “we don’t have to let you advertise our competition >>>:(.” Elon/Twitter has gotten so tedious to hear about.
how is that free speech, twitter is blocking a competitor for obvious reasons
same as reddit did with lemmy and kbin when they banned users and sub for mentioning it and giving migration howto’s
They did? Have a source? That seems like one more argument against the “Lemmy doesn’t matter to Reddit” crowd.
Because anyone who cries “freeze peach!” at any provocation are really just people that want to say hateful shit without repercussions. Generally, those same people are the ones to shut other people down from expressing their own freedom of speech.
Anyone that cries “free speech” when government isn’t involved at all is a dolt
Musk fans then: finally! We have absolute free speech
Musk fans now: it’s a private company. He can do whatever he wants
If they think there are legal requirements then yes they are. But wanting platforms to be more open in general is not necessarily a doltish thing. Yes twitter has the legal right to ban anyone they want, but that doesn’t mean that’s a good thing or we shouldn’t seek out platforms that aren’t so arbitrarily censorious.
Or they are neolibs who are seemingly incapable of thinking critically about anything
Logic doesn’t matter. Literally do anything at all and say “it’s because free speech” or “it’s to stop cancel culture” and the fan boys will cheer it.
I won’t, and I really am against cancel culture (I’m for developing reputation systems to help you automatically ignore those you don’t want to read, but to be able to read what they say in case you suddenly want that).
Now, this whole Twitter-Threads dynamic seems like an exemplary “toad vs viper” case.
I didn’t think cancel culture was a great tactic until I saw its effect on Alex Jones and Milo Yieanowetpahppolis.
Deplatforming fascists works, and we have observed it. We should do more of it.
Ah yes. The exact kind of action I would expect from someone who has measured responses like “Zuck is a cuck”.
Use a platform ran by a five year-old, expect five year-old behavior.
