And the Purge has begun.
Twitter has finally set a limit on how much mutilation they are prepared to cause American Democracy by dumping Trump and Qanon lunatics in an enormous purge.
This is entirely justifiable because they are a private business who can set their own standards but most importantly because Trump and his Qanon lunatics presented a clear and present danger to incite violence at the very heart of the American establishment that would border upon an outright coup.
Dumping Trump and his demented Qanon followers makes perfect sense and can easily be argued to have met the threshold for such an enormous decision.
If you won’t dump a lying President who just incited an insurrection on the State Capital Building while his electoral loss is being finalised, when the hell will you?
The new problems this purge causes are the sense of enflamed persecution to those now exiled and that some right wingers will be cut off for merely associating with bad opinions.
Domestically this has seen two well known right wing trolls – Redbaiter & Democracy Mum cut off Twitter, ACT Party Incel Stephen Berry has been suspended and Slater’s slumblog has slumped in followers.
But I don’t think many of us on the Left should be cheering.
Today it’s Qanon lunatics and hard right wingers getting banned
Tomorrow it’s people calling for radical action against climate change and capitalism who will be banned.
The manner in which social media networks have profited from this conflict and have actively manipulated us into more and more extreme echo chambers must hold some accountability here and purging voices that have been manipulated by those algorithms doesn’t go anywhere near dismantling the tools that helped generate this radicalisation and toxic polarisation in the first place.
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Like the French revolution, how do you stop the innocents being harmed when ‘it gets out of control’.
I hear the next ‘extremist’ to be banned by Facebook (another near monopoly on ‘news’) for ‘breaking their rules’ (a private company with a vested interest in controlling the narrative, decides who should be allowed to speak on the LIMITED USA/world media platforms, without notice an explanation of what ‘he did wrong’.
Martin Niemöller poem comes to mind…… and Martyn as someone who has been unfairly picked on by the state and it’s media puppy/bitches, you might ‘feel this’ more than most……
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
From Ron Paul. A voice of sanity and reasonableness a USA congressman for a decade or more, who ran for president a few times also.
With no explanation other than “repeatedly going against our community standards,”
@Facebook has blocked me from managing my page. Never have we received notice of violating community standards in the past and nowhere is the offending post identified.
“Ron Paul. A voice of sanity and reasonableness”.. That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard today, and considering the delusional drivel coming from that quarter lately, is really saying something…
Economically, Ron Paul was very ‘dry’, but he talked a lot of sense in things like foreign policy.
What ever happens free speech has to evolve. Freedom of speech was never meant for the internet because it’s privately owned (not a public space no more) and everyone is on it. The internet companies have to be replayed and taxes now the same as media companies y’know with standards, guidelines and regulators.
“Ron Paul. A voice of sanity and reasonableness”.. Now that’s funny….
Tell me how Ron Paul is a threat to liberty and is so dangerous he should be banned.
Oh yeah, that’s just a fig leaf for “I don’t like him, ban him”.
The issue for these corporates is that they have hoisted their petard to the democrat wagon. If the house turns in 2 years, Biden performs badly, The GOP pick a half decent candidate yada yada ya they can expect retribution with a supreme court that will back them to the hilt. Expect section 230 to be pulled back and then lawsuits galore. I suspect this is the opening chapter in social media’s Greek tragedy.
You are right though Bomber – the real issue is who decides who to ban and on what basis. Realistically this has to be objective and via a trusted decision making vehicle. There ain’t one around that everyone agrees on anymore. This is the direct result of politics becoming more radical and more partisan.
Amazing how the best so called liberal leftists can come up with for this is “Private corporations can do whatever they like”.
Let’s just be a bit more specific, you are arguing: “Giant multinational corporations can do whatever they like”.
The problem isn’t that it might hurt left wingers one day. The problem is that it’s wrong, totally illiberal, and contradictory to all the now-exposed-as-self-serving-bullshit the Left ever proclaimed about how they stand for peoples rights against large corporations.
Note: Amazon Web Services is basically an infrastructure firm. This isn’t conservatives not being allowed to write letters to the editor, it’s their ISP’s saying that they can’t have internet altogether, or cutting off roads or power, etc.
Removing infrastructure on the basis of politics is wrong.
Also: I note that NZ law actually prohibits the refusal of companies to provide services to people on the basis of political alignment.
Governments should just separate politics/public records from these social media companies and their totalitarian CEOs. These are private companies so they have no place dictating public policy, censoring archives and determining the direction of a country/countries absolutely (any more than any of us has the right to influence the future). We should perhaps go back to relying on government websites for information releases rather than the biased ideals of the cool kids and their snooping tech platforms (which have now become essential public utilities whether we like it or not and for which these platforms are having their cake and eating it: by being protected from prosecution for hosting harmful material but also acting as judge of behaviour, censor of knowledge, mediator of global data and arbiter of truth). If it means Donny and Jacinda don’t post their selfies with their adoring crowd, so be it, I’d prefer stale and serious governance over this online kabuki theatre and outrage Olympics idol search to find the world’s most maligned
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