@ludolphus Not surprised since it’s more of a violent coup attempt that pushed them too far. However, it does create a precedent that any site might be banned if it hosts any toe of suspicious content.
@joe what they (the tech companies) think is suspicious content. Because they are so big and practically have a monopoly these decisions should be taken somewhere else. What is suspicious content anyway? don’t agree: ban? /@mandy@33MHz
@ludolphus@33MHz@joe@mandy Apple and Google getting backlash from the far right for removing Parlor amuses me to no end. Conservatives always say the free market should choose and now those corporations said, nah we don't like the sentiment expressed...
@thedoctor don’t forget the far left.. anything extremist is not good I guess.
So these corporations are now political institutions then. Conservatives (and others that do not comply to Jack’s wishes) are not welcome? /@mandy@joe@33MHz
@ludolphus@33MHz@joe@mandy I would tend to agree except right now the far left is talking about student loan forgiveness for all, whereas the far right is about abducting and/or killing dually elected government representatives.
@ludolphus@33MHz@joe@mandy one of those rhetorics is an aggressive financial plan (that I don't agree with) and the other is terrorism and a severe blow to our democracy
@ludolphus@33MHz@joe@mandy so that's the deal about using services like Twitter, Facebook, etc. You are always bound to the terms of service. So if they feel you violate their ToS, they can kick you off the platform. In the same vein, if you...
@thedoctor It does not even matter if the action is right or proper. There is often no avenue of discussion or way to find out who did it or why. I just dealt with such a situation.
@thedoctor I need some technical support but now have no way to get anything from a certain company, They tool *all* means of contact except email and phone from me.
@ludolphus@33MHz@joe@Mandy ... on this platform. So we are stopping them (Parlor in this instance) from using our services. The private sector says no thanks and they lose their mind about it. Ironic.
@thedoctor@Mandy@33MHz@ludolphus Yep, and the companies are within their rights to ban any company especially the Terms of Service part of things. Also there's a reputation/bottom line reason if they didn't do this especially AWS' part.
@joe@33MHz@Mandy@thedoctor Wikipedia: "Parler is an American alt-tech service". The fact it is called 'alt-tech' already feels like it is something strange, not normal. Guess us pnuts are 'alt' too then. Yes it's an alternative to ... dont use 'alt'.
@thedoctor I suggest to you that some of us are taking note of the extreme *inconsistency* of the services’ position and looking for a way to avoid them. /@joe@33MHz@ludolphus
@ludolphus it is interesting you bring up Arab Spring. I do not know what, if any, free speech protections, those countries in the middle east have. If we theoretically applied the US Constitution to Arab Spring… @mandy@33MHz@joe
@ludolphus@mandy@33MHz@joe …then it would be a violation of our First Amendment right because the Egyptian government shut down those social media platforms. The difference in the case with Parler is AWS, Google, etc (ie companies) removed the social…
@ludolphus@mandy@33MHz@joe …media platform from their services. Contrary to the belief of many, the First Amendment only prohibits the government (at any level) from restricting your free speech. Reading the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights states
@thedoctor I doubt Steven thinks what they're doing is illegal.
No one associates AWS with Parler. Reminds me of white-hat hackers finding issues in peoples' work; sometimes it's really helpful/productive, other times not at all. The hacker has no idea.
@33MHz I don't think @ludolphus and I disagree per se. My dad was a history teacher for 30+ years and I just love a good discussion about the US Constitution. Maybe others feel differently than me. It is good to be exposed to views that oppose yours.
I think a concern is the scope creep and weirdness of groups of massive companies blocking whole businesses and individuals... "Who won't block them?" - hair dressers? dentists? OK, utilities are off limits. #cancelculture
@33MHz@thedoctor the way how see it is that these companies (FB, Amazon, Twitter,etc.) have become like utilities, maybe Amazon more than the others. Yes you can go to others (like pnut instead of Twitter). But the reach is not there. Big ones are too big
@thedoctor@33MHz I am not a US citizen of course and do not know much about US laws and all that. Just worried about the power some of these so called social networks have. Google (+Youtube), FB, Twitter make money on ads, not users (ok google a 'little')
@ludolphus@mandy@33MHz@joe "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press;"
@joe@ludolphus@33MHz@thedoctor I don’t believe any of us are in full disagreement here, we just have different views on which aspects are most important. I.E. this article, aspects that really concern me weren’t mentioned until the end & were downplayed
@ludolphus@mandy@33MHz@joe so if Congress managed to pass a law mandating Parler or WhatsApp be taken down, due to a view the government does not agree with being expressed on that site, that would be illegal.
@thedoctor I agree with @kabuku that social media really is best if not relied upon. Like a pastime. And fooey if somebody gets kicked off it. And if you're building biz in a volatile field, you're subject to the whims of it all.
@ludolphus@mandy@33MHz@joe in regard to the US being ok with the actions taken by those governments, that is as much a US pasttime as baseball or apple pie. Look at South America or the middle east. In these regions, the US will frequently support or…
@ludolphus@mandy@33MHz@joe …install actors within the government that support the US foreign policy agenda. Not saying I necessarily agree with that action, but Arab Springs would hardly be the first occurence of it.
@mandy@ludolphus@33MHz@joe I don't really think their is an apples to oranges comparison here, other than agreeing that terrorists and pedophiles are both rotten fruits and we shouldn't be involved with either group.