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Re:Twitter locks WikiLeaks account days before Assange's ext... by jjeaff on Monday February 17, 2020 @05:40PM (#22351606)
I think the big platforms would love to be treated as platforms only. But the problem is that the platform owner is the best positioned to police the content. If they have to rely on the legal system to take things down, there is going to be a lot more nefarious activity that goes untouched. And I don't think the public or our politicians have the stomach for that.
Re:Twitter locks WikiLeaks account days before Assange's ext... by pmilot on Monday February 17, 2020 @05:53PM (#22351699)
Because they don't give tools to law enforcement agencies to enforce their local laws. As a platform, it would be within their power and their right to do so. I think that is preferable to them doing the enforcing themselves.
Re:Twitter locks WikiLeaks account days before Assange's ext... by root_axis on Monday February 17, 2020 @06:20PM (#22351875)
> give tools to law enforcement agencies to enforce their local laws

Is that really a world you want to live in?

Re:Twitter locks WikiLeaks account days before Assange's ext... by buzzkillington on Monday February 17, 2020 @06:30PM (#22351953)
We already live in that world. It's just that we have another master on top of that.
Re:Twitter locks WikiLeaks account days before Assange's ext... by jjeaff on Tuesday February 18, 2020 @10:23PM (#22362806)
Not quite. Facebook can kick you off their platform, but they can't bring you up on charges and throw you in prison.
Re:Twitter locks WikiLeaks account days before Assange's ext... by root_axis on Monday February 17, 2020 @06:31PM (#22351968)
Well the whole discussion becomes moot from that point of view.
Re:Twitter locks WikiLeaks account days before Assange's ext... by AmericanChopper on Monday February 17, 2020 @05:46PM (#22351645)
> If they have to rely on the legal system to take things down, there is going to be a lot more nefarious activity that goes untouched.

The DMCA does a reasonably good job of handling that exact problem for copyright infringing content, while still providing due process.

Edit: I have no idea why this is being downvoted, what I’ve said is completely true. If you’re mad about YouTube’s terrible policies, they’re not related to DMCA. They have their own completely seperate (and highly oppressive) system for handling infringement claims (in addition to their DMCA obligations).

Re:Twitter locks WikiLeaks account days before Assange's ext... by noodlesUK on Monday February 17, 2020 @05:52PM (#22351693)
This DMCA?

https://twitter.com/JRhodesPianist/status/103692924465446092... https://www.eff.org/takedowns

The DMCA is fundamentally flawed and is a terrible model to base any future system on.

Re:Twitter locks WikiLeaks account days before Assange's ext... by AmericanChopper on Monday February 17, 2020 @06:12PM (#22351821)
The DMCA is fine. It’s everything services providers to in addition to DMCA that causes problems. The DMCA process is very simply:

1. You receive a takedown notice

2. If it’s not valid, you submit a declaration that it’s not

3. Your content is restored and the claimant now has to take you to court if they still think it’s infringing

4. If you lied on your counterclaim, your now also guilty of perjury

The only thing it’s really missing is an imminent threat of perjury for frivolous claims (there also some obvious areas to make the process more efficient). But as far as a simple way of managing offending content, while still providing due process, the general format is quite good. It’s other unrelated policies that tend to get people the most riled up.

https://www.publicknowledge.org/blog/universal-music-group-a...

Re:Twitter locks WikiLeaks account days before Assange's ext... by FireBeyond on Monday February 17, 2020 @06:36PM (#22352014)
> 4. If you lied on your counterclaim, your now also guilty of perjury

In theory, yes. In reality, no. "I was not aware to the best of my knowledge..." because the DMCA claimant never vetted things, they just employed a bot to spam claims all over the internet.

It wasn't a "knowing" lie. So it's effectively without consequence or fall back.

Hint: how many people have been charged with, let alone convicted of perjury in the history of the DMCA?

Answer: None. Even in the small small small minority of counterclaims that have ended up in court, with the most egregious lack of standing, the worst that has happened is (and even this only in a single digit number of times) awarding of costs.

Those are pretty good odds if you're a content creator (or copyright troll).

Re:Twitter locks WikiLeaks account days before Assange's ext... by epicgiga on Monday February 17, 2020 @09:58PM (#22353080)
Copying is a fictional crime.