Re:In the U.S., His Site Has Been Linked to Massacres. In Ja...
by mind-blight on Sunday December 18, 2022 @10:01AM
(#34038304)
> Websites don’t create extremists. Broken social structures and fabrics create extremists.
I mostly agree, however our methods of communication are fundamentally part of our social structures. I don't think they can be extricated from the actions that we take. If a website's infrastructure encourages and promotes extremist dialogue, that is, in of itself, part of the broken social structure.
> No amount of 4chan posts will cause a healthy person to become a violent extremist. And no amount of censorship can stop the rise of extremism.
I think this lacks nuance. 4chan absolutely won't take a healthy person to an extremist. But extremist content absolutely takes mildly unhealthy people and 1) radicalizes them, and 2) gives them a social infrastructure to support extremist behavior. This is why YouTube blocks ISIS recruitment videos.
It's a contradiction to believe that both "freedom of speech matters" and "regular consumption of extremist speech has no impact".
I mostly agree, however our methods of communication are fundamentally part of our social structures. I don't think they can be extricated from the actions that we take. If a website's infrastructure encourages and promotes extremist dialogue, that is, in of itself, part of the broken social structure.
> No amount of 4chan posts will cause a healthy person to become a violent extremist. And no amount of censorship can stop the rise of extremism.
I think this lacks nuance. 4chan absolutely won't take a healthy person to an extremist. But extremist content absolutely takes mildly unhealthy people and 1) radicalizes them, and 2) gives them a social infrastructure to support extremist behavior. This is why YouTube blocks ISIS recruitment videos.
It's a contradiction to believe that both "freedom of speech matters" and "regular consumption of extremist speech has no impact".