Twitter locks WikiLeaks account days before Assange's extradition hearing

Re:Twitter locks WikiLeaks account days before Assange's ext... by Notorious_BLT on Monday February 17, 2020 @05:49PM (#22351665)

I believe this proposal would more or less be the DEFAULT were it not for Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996.

Section 230 has had both good results (bloggers aren't going to get in trouble because someone posted something illegal in their comments) and bad results (twitter/youtube/paypal were all allowed to nuke Alex Jones from orbit simultaneously, removing his ability to distribute content, communicate with followers, and accept payments).

I don't like or agree with Alex Jones (he's a wacko, but people have made some funny videos out of his freakouts), but people have to remember: if it can happen to one person, the same could happen to anyone. People praised this "deplatforming" because they didn't like the target. But this is essentially praising these sites for crippling someone's career without any oversight.

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Re:Twitter locks WikiLeaks account days before Assange's ext... by simlevesque on Monday February 17, 2020 @07:25PM (#22352317)

> twitter/youtube/paypal were all allowed to nuke Alex Jones from orbit simultaneously, removing his ability to distribute content, communicate with followers, and accept payments

That is not a bad result.

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Re:Twitter locks WikiLeaks account days before Assange's ext... by clutchingstraws on Monday February 17, 2020 @09:26PM (#22352912)

It's a convenient result in the short term for those of us on the left who think that Alex Jones' views are utterly repugnant, but ultimately these sorts of deplatforming actions are counterproductive. Alex Jones' fans will no longer be exposed to rational arguments from non-fans on the same platform. They'll instead become increasingly trapped in their own filter bubbles, and now have even more of a martyr complex. The cure for bad speech is good speech in an open forum.

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Re:Twitter locks WikiLeaks account days before Assange's ext... by nl on Monday February 17, 2020 @10:37PM (#22353253)

Alex Jones' fans will no longer be exposed to rational arguments from non-fans on the same platform. They'll instead become increasingly trapped in their own filter bubbles, and now have even more of a martyr complex.

This is a common argument, and yet every study of conspiracy theories shows this isn't the case. Conspiracy theories thrive on reach, and in the absence of reach they tend to die out.

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Re:Twitter locks WikiLeaks account days before Assange's ext... by asdfasgasdgasdg on Monday February 17, 2020 @06:29PM (#22351948)

> if it can happen to one person, the same could happen to anyone.

A guy stands on a hill holding high an umbrella in the middle of a thunderstorm and is then struck by lightning. "If it could happen to one person it could happen to anyone." Technically true, but you have a lot of control over the odds. Being a racist harassing villain is the common thread shared amongst almost everyone who has been deplatformed so far. Stay out of that territory, and stay off hills during storms. You'll be fine.

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Re:Twitter locks WikiLeaks account days before Assange's ext... by xxpor on Monday February 17, 2020 @06:18PM (#22351861)

Limiting deplatforming is taking away Twitter/YouTube's etc 1st amendment rights.

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Re:Twitter locks WikiLeaks account days before Assange's ext... by stale2002 on Monday February 17, 2020 @06:47PM (#22352083)

Would you say the same exact thing about the phone companies?

Phone companies are platforms in the same exact way. Do you believe their 1st amendment rights are being taking away, because they can't "deplatform" phone calls from people they don't like, or from their competitors?

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Re:Twitter locks WikiLeaks account days before Assange's ext... by saurik on Monday February 17, 2020 @06:31PM (#22351964)

If the choice of deplatforming someone is a 1st amendment speech act (which I am ok with), then the choice to not do so needs to be a prosecutable offense (at which point you are just arguing that everyone should be a "publisher"). (Then, if websites can't manage to exist in this legally-consistent regime, maybe we finally get research into distributed systems in order to have true "platforms".)

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Re:Twitter locks WikiLeaks account days before Assange's ext... by dooglius on Monday February 17, 2020 @07:07PM (#22352206)

Did you miss a "not" there or are you saying deplatforming should be a requirement?

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