Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work

Re:Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work by padraic7a on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @05:27PM (#21275962)

Being a publisher might get you off in the States, but in a lot of countries publishers are held to be legally culpable for material they publish. So publishing nazis, online abuse, illegal content etc is a legal issue.

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Re:Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work by weberc2 on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @05:37PM (#21276092)

> If it's illegal, we'll take it down. Give us a court order. Otherwise we don't touch it.

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Re:Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work by kelnos on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @05:47PM (#21276241)

What about jurisdictions where the act of allowing something to be published will trigger a fine or other bad consequences? Doesn't it make sense to pro-actively remove things then?

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Re:Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work by mch82 on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @05:48PM (#21276258)

This is also true in the US. See my reply to the parent. The Naval quote is wrong.

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Re:Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work by anm89 on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @05:53PM (#21276317)

He's exactly right on it. Facebook is not a court. If certain speech is illegal, how would they even decide? If certain speech is illegal, have a court label it illegal and send them an order to remove.

That concept exists within our system.

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Re:Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work by mch82 on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @06:00PM (#21276393)

Naval is exactly wrong.

Facebook must choose between being a “platform” like a phone company and being a “publisher” like a newspaper or broadcaster.

The rules are different and the accountability is different, which is why Fb lawyers spent years and millions arguing for “platform” status.

Edit: my main goal for posting my comment is to prevent some startup on HN from reading the parent & deciding to classify itself as a “publisher” only to find later that was a huge mistake. I’m not a lawyer & they shouldn’t take my advice, but hopefully they’ll at least double check with someone who is.

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Re:Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work by prepend on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @07:02PM (#21276990)

Facebook certainly wants to be a platform based on their lobbying. But they are clearly a publisher by setting editorial guidelines and sponsoring and removing content.

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