After Trump, Twitter pretty much said they weren't going to block official government accounts from any country.
Here's the catch: if Twitter cuts off free speech, then they are now the
governing judge for the information that hundreds of millions of people have access to. So basically a bunch of nerds (lovingly said) in silicone valley are making decisions on information access globally. Facebook is already scary enough:
Facebook’s stated mission is to, “give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.” For the month of September…
bunkerbob.medium.com
The problem then becomes what rules to create & enforce on their respective social media platforms. Hate speech is an obvious one, as anything that can lead to people getting hurt is bad. Social media companies have tried to figure out where to draw the line between free speech & protection; like with Facebook, they now put notifications for articles & content they deem to be anti-COVID-safety. This gets really, really,
really tricky tho:
1. What if the Keiv regime really
is engaging in genocide? Can Silicone Valley even decide that without fact-checking first? Do some geeks (lovingly said) in a server room somewhere get to decide that? On the flip side, the UN & Nato & whatnot are pretty ineffective against major issues like Russian invading the Ukraine just because Putin wants to exercise his ago. On that tangent, my buddy is from Ukraine & is Russian-Ukrainian. He said when Russia fell, they basically drew lines & included half of native Ukraine & the other half is Russia. He wants his part of the Ukraine to split off & go back to Russian because their families & heritage are Russian, not Ukrainian. It'd be like if the U.S. split & wrapped up California with Mexico, then came back into power & wanted to pull California (Americans) back in...they're not Mexican, they were just bundled in. I had NO IDEA that was the situation because our news never explained that!
2. And what about China? China has millions of Uyghurs in concentration camps &
are doing really bad things to them, but the world is forced to turn a blind eye due to economics & politics. We even just hosted the Olympics there! China has bans on certain social media like Facebook & Twitter, but nobody really wants to poke the bear because we do so much business with them. Plus they just
lifted the restrictions on Russian wheat exports and are also
flying aircraft in Taiwan's airzone.
3. Which also begs the question, should the Unites States be the world's policeman? We spent like
$300 million dollars a day for 20 years straight in Afghanistan & it didn't end so well for them OR for us. That's over
2 trillion dollars. Imagine using that money to solve homelessness, help people overcome addiction, pay off ALL private & public student loans (under $140 billion!) to create a bright future for our country through the next generation of kids, setup universal basic healthcare & universal basic income to get people healthy & help lift them out of poverty, bring manufacturing back to America through incentives in order to help us be independent on the global business board, etc. On the flip side, remember what happened last time we ignored what was brewing on the other side of the world? (re: Hitler)
It's a
super difficult position to be in. Like when they deplatformed Trump, it was a very sticky legal situation, per the letter of the law:
In recent years, the conversation around free speech – and arguments to protect it – have been dominated by the right. Should liberals try and reclaim the value for themselves?
www.theguardian.com
I feel bad for Twitter...invent a fun platform for people to talk to anyone about anything in real-time worldwide, and then they have to figure out how to handle crazy politicians, war propaganda, etc.
Why can't we all just get along?!