Lies are free speech, and protected as such. Only threats and statements made to intimidate are 'nor free speech'. Censorship is censorship, even when the recipient is an unrepentant asshole.
I realize that this is specifically talking about UK groups and that even in the US the 1st only applies to the government and not to any private person or entity, but it amazes me how many people complain about the massive amount of information Facebook has about them, complain about how Facebook has misused or sold that data, and then complain that Facebook hasn’t banned someone they find offensive.
Communication has become insanely centralized in recent years. Facebook can’t be trusted to have or use your information, but you’re fine with them being the free speech police?
I talked with some friends at the weekend over pints. We didn't need facebook to act as a middleman.
I don't need facebook to stand on soapbox either.
This hasn't changed.
This is why the internet was invented and why there were free and open protocols invented to communicate using it. Unfortunately then AOL and AIM started and it was downhill after that... now we all rely on Facebook or Google or Twitter to relay our messages and that’s not great for anyone.
They’re free to place any demands on their platform as they see fit. I have no problem with anything they’ve done.
The problem arises when you insist that Facebook do things according to your political leanings, but then suddenly your political leanings don’t line up with everyone else’s anymore and you’re the odd one out and now people are demanding that you be banned.
Yes, for 99.999999% of people that’s never going to be a problem. The crap they post on FB is so worthless I’m sure it’d be a negligible loss to the world if they were, but that’s the point - banning them isn’t the right way to get them to change their minds or to improve their posts.
Great, I'm glad we agree!
The problem arises when you insist that Facebook do things according to your political leanings, but then suddenly your political leanings don’t line up with everyone else’s anymore and you’re the odd one out and now people are demanding that you be banned.
Yes, for 99.999999% of people that’s never going to be a problem.
Including me, because I do not advocate for harming, killing, or stripping the civil rights from others, unlike the folks who are being banned. :-)
banning them isn’t the right way to get them to change their minds or to improve their posts.
Who wants to change their minds or improve their posts? I want them the hell out of my face, permanently, and I'm happy that Facebook agrees.
Everyone has a right to spout whatever crap they want. Online or on a soapbox on a street corner. You also have the right to ignore them. Exercise it and be happier in your daily life.
You’re stripping the civil rights from people you disagree with...
If you think deleting viral lies on the internet is censorship, then you're really not going to like how social media is going to develop over the next 5 years.
Facebook is shutting down what it considers the most prominent, aggressive, and dangerous of those who do such things. That is not, in itself, bad.
If they proceed to shut down the right but not the left, if they start deciding that mainstream right positions are "hate speech", that's going to be a problem. But if they have kind of a threshold, and anybody else who crosses that threshold (no matter what their position) gets shut down, that's a good thing. (The threshold may be higher than many of us like. That's probably also a good thing.)
But, someone saying transgenderism might be a mental disorder is not a threat, so should not be banned. Likewise saying capitalism has led to overpopulation, environmental destruction and cultural imperialism is not a threat and should not be banned, regardless of whether it is true or not.
I also think some sort of enforcement of etiquette that is content agnostic would be great, but that's a bit trickier to draw the line.
Noam Chomsky has this to say:
"It seems to me something of a scandal that it is even necessary to debate these issues two centuries after Voltaire defended the right of free expression for views he detested. It is a poor service to the memory of the victims of the holocaust to adopt a central doctrine of their murderers."
Well it's the UK isn't it? They're a little ahead of you.
You turn controversial ideas into forbidden knowledge. Alex Jones is probably more powerful now to his followers due to the fact that he's contraband