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Comment by krapp | Hacker News Reader

>We are heading back toward the "TV" era... Where speech is controlled/censored 98% of the time.

That's an odd assertion to make when you're talking about Reddit, where anyone can fork a subreddit at any time, or even the web where anyone can launch a website for free or without much expense that can be seen by almost anyone on Earth, or even Donald Trump whose every word and deed still makes headline news and who is currently launching his own multimedia platform.

Speaking of which, Trump and his followers have to be the least censored "censored" political group in history. They're constantly shouting from every social media platform and every comment section about how censored they are. It's ridiculous.

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Trump is banned from at least Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube- so it's not like Trump supporters have zero basis for their complaints. I think these platforms are generally considered mainstream, so being forced out of them can be pretty impactful censorship. How many platforms have Biden, Obama, or any previous president been banned from? This censorship of major political players is unprecedented in US history afaik.

I presume Trump supporters are all about keeping the government out of private business matters, so they do seem to have zero basis for their complaints.

Trump wasn't banned for his political beliefs, he was banned for violating the TOS. Trump's supporters conveniently forget that he was allowed to run rampant across social media for four years and given far more leniency than anyone else, and of course they're pushing the narrative that his ban was part of some vast leftist conspiracy, but the reason he was banned and Biden, Obama and others weren't is because Trump was raving like a lunatic and seemed like he was about to start a civil war, and Biden and Obama have done nothing of the sort.

And what has been the impact been of Trump's ban? He's still perfectly capable of getting his message out. His followers are perfectly willing to move to non-mainstream sites like Parler and Gab, and they're still all over the mainstream sites to boot. He's still the overwhelming favorite for the GOP in 2024, and he's starting a social media platform and possibly a streaming TV deal. Trump simply not being President anymore has had a bigger chilling effect than being deplatformed.

As always, the right's hatred of the left has led them to overplay their hand. It's obvious to everyone that neither Trump nor his supporters are oppressed, suppressed or censored in any meaningful way, and certainly not to the degree that they claim.

> It's obvious to everyone that neither Trump nor his supporters are oppressed, suppressed or censored in any meaningful way, and certainly not to the degree that they claim.

Well, I'm not a Trump supporter, and have no horses in the left/right race- however, it seems obvious to me that there is censorship involved, given Trump is literally banned from those platforms. Anecdata- the only time I ever saw anything Trump had to say was on Twitter, and since his banning, he might as well not exist in my own infosphere. It's amazing to watch the pretzels people tie themselves in trying to justify their ideology.

I wish that mega corps would be required to be dumb pipes like ISPs and let law enforcement make requests to take stuff down.

Ah yes, more government intervention. The cornerstone of any nutritious conservative breakfast

Trump was given more leniency then his opposition for years. Where his detractors were blocked and censored for same things, he was not because of his political power.

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