Parler wasn't "censored" because it contained "new stories" that were "remotely controversial". Parler was blocked because of rampant unmoderated violent content that correlated with real world political violence.
Look, when you have major thought leaders on your platform calling for the VP to be executed, you need to expect some repercussions when a mob takes the rotunda screaming "Hang Mike Pence!".
This doesn’t seem sufficient to me. Given that the US has the death penalty at all, how can we declare that it is not ok for people to call for it when they believe a crime has been committed?
Organizing an extrajudicial mob to carry it out, is another thing entirely, but just calling for it seems like it can’t be enough.
And there's also the fact that there's no basis in reality for the claims to be begin with.
In all of this confusion, it is true that Parler was essentially (Edit: not! obviously 'not' moderated)moderated - and - there was a lot of really terrible stuff happening there. Like 'kill these people'. The cover that Twitter can use is that they actual do moderate people and try to get rid of them. Mostly.
Parler must have had a huge leadership failure to play that game and think they were going to get away with it. There is zero chance that hosting people directly calling for violence, unmoderated, is going to last when associated with other people's brands.
I believe the CEO actually wanted to do something but his backers didn't.
Agreed, which is why “Hang Mike pence” is not sufficient. On it’s own, it doesn’t make the distinction between two.
If you want to make the case that assassination was being called for, you need to quote something else.
"Arrest Mike Pence" is not.
"Put Mike Pence to Trial and then Hang Him" isn't either.
You have to qualify 'Kill That Guy' with something more in order for it not to be calling for someone's murder.
This activity was out in the open, uncontrolled on Parler which is why it was a problem, even if technically it might be legal, Apple doesn't want to deal with that.
I think their response was on point, though Amazon's cancellation has more material effect their responsible response should have been 'you can't go live with that while on our servers you have 3 months to change policy or move out'. Granted, they may have been warned.
The fact that you have to use the phrase ‘kill that guy’ which is a straw man, shows that the logic doesn’t work.
Consider, ‘he should get the electric chair’. It’s pretty clear that this is not a call for assassination.
There is some ambiguity around hanging which is less present with the electric chair, but is not the clear call for assassination you assert it to be.
Speech that advocates support and action by terrorist groups is not protected by the first amendment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Providing_material_support_for...
> Organizing an extrajudicial mob to carry it out, is another thing entirely
Where did I insinuate this?
Does the crime they believe was committed have the death penalty? If not, then calling for the death of the "criminal" is certainly not ok. ( And generally I find calling for death and the death penalty to be morally wrong, but that's another story)
I don’t agree with your logic that this is necessary though. Someone can reasonably call for a higher penalty than is currently the statute, as long as it is not clearly extrajudicial.
> (And generally I find calling for death and the death penalty to be morally wrong, but that's another story)
Yes - I’m not making a claim about the morality of calling for death or the death penalty, but I am saying that if the death penalty is legal, it must be legal to call for it.