Re:Amazon, Apple and Google Cut Off Parler
by throwaway201103 on Saturday January 09, 2021 @10:48PM
(#25709531)
Maybe it's better that the discussions are happening where they can be seen? The other half of the problem on Wednesday was how unprepared and weakly defended the Capitol was, in light of all this planning was going on on Parler.
If it had been happening on GPG-encrypted email, would that be better?
Re:Amazon, Apple and Google Cut Off Parler
by newacct583 on Saturday January 09, 2021 @10:58PM
(#25709661)
I don't think there was any problem with the intelligence side of things. We knew the mob was going to be there because they were attendees at a rally organized by the president for the express purpose of pressuring congress. And we knew the rhetoric around this had been violent going back months.
As far as the honeypot idea: I guess you have to balance that against the danger that these communities will fester and grow. To be blunt: Parler isn't a planning tool for Serious Terrorists, it's a casual internet feed for people who aren't sophisicated enough to use encrypted email or Signal.
The danger to Parler isn't that it's a place for a tight team to plan an overthrow of the government, it's a place for millions of MAGA fans to be convinced that overthrowing the government is a good thing.
No, there are other hosts. But... is it really so wrong to be glad that someone is trying to arbitrate this? Parler was a persistent host to exactly the kind of violent rhetoric that turned into Wednesday's coup. At some point we have to make a call and shut stuff like that down, right?
I mean, yes, it sucks that the overlap between "conventional republican politics" and "rhetoric inspiring real life violence" is so high. So surely there is some friendly fire here on speech we'd like to keep. But... I don't see why Amazon should be responsible for letting this fester like it has either.