The article contradicts itself. The internet in Russia is controlled and censored, this is part of why propaganda is so successful. Not the only reason, some people just want to believe, but dictators certainly do not want a free internet at all so the articles core statement is certainly very wrong.
We are also subjected to propaganda since Google though it would be a nice idea to work more closely with government and press outlets after it established dominance in the search market. It is always the same story. A controlled internet means that someone has control. It won't be the common internet user, it will be governments like that in Russia or that in the US, China or other countries.
Trump was successful because people were fed up with established and detached politicians and activists that thought controlling language would be sensible to solve any problems. There is not much more to it, it is not rocket science. And yes, some people enjoyed the outrage someone like Trump has caused. A free internet is not the reason for this at all, it is just the same iteration on a grand misunderstanding on what motivates Trump voters.
[Silencing the opposition]
> These moves were necessary to protect American democracy.
Every dictator will think these exact line when suppressing content and information. Trump has changed formerly liberal people into caricatures without any backbone. This was his true power and how his followers see their opposition. If you think information has to be suppressed for democracy, people are correct to search for better suggestions.
I don't like Billionaires having much power over any form of communication infrastructure, but we would need people that champion a bit of freedom these days.
> even less accountable
Accountability of random internet users is not a problem, we have problems of accountability on many level in public. Twitter comments is not among that by an extremely large margin.
Talk about outcomes. Show us outcomes from all the Like/Click/View/Follower chasing free speech that has happened on social media?
Did it stop the war in Iraq?
Did it stop the financial collapse?
Did it stop outsourcing?
Did it reduce inequality?
Did the culture wars achieve anything?
Did it do anything to tech monopolies?
Sure ppl are fed up but they haven't produced any solutions or outcomes in a single complex problem of the last 2 decades by jabbering about it.
Free speech is as over rated as Elon Musk.
Hard problems don't get solved through pandering. And social media is only fir for propping up the best panderers as long as everything is built on top of collecting Likes and Followers.
You cannot propose that freedom of speech has to solve these problems and if the issues remain deduce that restricting speech is the solution. That would be false reasoning.
You could say the same about ice cream, yet banning it would not solve anything as well.
I sympathise with the notion that free exchange of ideas should perhaps have netted more enlightenment. But my expectations of free speech isn't that is solves everything. It is something I see as a human right and essential for any intellectual discourse.
Information about the Iraq war was suppressed and whistleblowers responsible are still imprisoned. With the Google and press of today I can assure you that you might have never known anything about that. It would be classified as conspiracy theory or something along that lines.
> Hard problems don't get solved through pandering.
See, this is where that line of thinking is very much along the lines of your popular dictator. I don't know Elon Musk personally, perhaps he is horrible. But I would take my chances if the alternative is a "heavy handed approach of censorship". It was an easy decision.
You are free to believe whatever you want. But if those beliefs are resulting in zero outcomes they don't matter.
The more complex an issue is the less it matters what the entire chimp troupe is jabbering about. Especially on social media,
Cuz even if there is one chimp in some corner that stumbles upon something useful, the current Like based architecture of social media that promotes and favors the most mindlessly ambitious, attention craving panderers, makes zero guarantees that chimp will ever be found. FFreedom of speech hardly matters in such a system. There is just so much noise drowning everyone out
When I read articles like this, I can’t help but to think the media has it out for social networks and the internet because it absolutely destroyed their revenue models and they’re still sore about it.
5 comments
[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 24.4 ms ] threadWe are also subjected to propaganda since Google though it would be a nice idea to work more closely with government and press outlets after it established dominance in the search market. It is always the same story. A controlled internet means that someone has control. It won't be the common internet user, it will be governments like that in Russia or that in the US, China or other countries.
Trump was successful because people were fed up with established and detached politicians and activists that thought controlling language would be sensible to solve any problems. There is not much more to it, it is not rocket science. And yes, some people enjoyed the outrage someone like Trump has caused. A free internet is not the reason for this at all, it is just the same iteration on a grand misunderstanding on what motivates Trump voters.
[Silencing the opposition]
> These moves were necessary to protect American democracy.
Every dictator will think these exact line when suppressing content and information. Trump has changed formerly liberal people into caricatures without any backbone. This was his true power and how his followers see their opposition. If you think information has to be suppressed for democracy, people are correct to search for better suggestions.
I don't like Billionaires having much power over any form of communication infrastructure, but we would need people that champion a bit of freedom these days.
> even less accountable
Accountability of random internet users is not a problem, we have problems of accountability on many level in public. Twitter comments is not among that by an extremely large margin.
Did it stop the war in Iraq? Did it stop the financial collapse? Did it stop outsourcing? Did it reduce inequality? Did the culture wars achieve anything? Did it do anything to tech monopolies?
Sure ppl are fed up but they haven't produced any solutions or outcomes in a single complex problem of the last 2 decades by jabbering about it.
Free speech is as over rated as Elon Musk.
Hard problems don't get solved through pandering. And social media is only fir for propping up the best panderers as long as everything is built on top of collecting Likes and Followers.
You could say the same about ice cream, yet banning it would not solve anything as well.
I sympathise with the notion that free exchange of ideas should perhaps have netted more enlightenment. But my expectations of free speech isn't that is solves everything. It is something I see as a human right and essential for any intellectual discourse.
Information about the Iraq war was suppressed and whistleblowers responsible are still imprisoned. With the Google and press of today I can assure you that you might have never known anything about that. It would be classified as conspiracy theory or something along that lines.
> Hard problems don't get solved through pandering.
See, this is where that line of thinking is very much along the lines of your popular dictator. I don't know Elon Musk personally, perhaps he is horrible. But I would take my chances if the alternative is a "heavy handed approach of censorship". It was an easy decision.
The more complex an issue is the less it matters what the entire chimp troupe is jabbering about. Especially on social media,
Cuz even if there is one chimp in some corner that stumbles upon something useful, the current Like based architecture of social media that promotes and favors the most mindlessly ambitious, attention craving panderers, makes zero guarantees that chimp will ever be found. FFreedom of speech hardly matters in such a system. There is just so much noise drowning everyone out