"Why can't an American citizen watch whatever he or she wants to?" That's Tucker Carlson from Fox News, reacting to YouTube's announcement that they won't allow disinformation on the election results from the recent elections in Brazil, where Lula has won and the far right Bolsonaro has lost.
source: YouTube
So, let's answer Tucker's dumb question with another dumb question: why can't we all freely watch child-porn on TV? That's limiting freedom of speech, isn't it? According to Tucker Carlson, what YouTube did is "choosing sides" and influencing the elections in a sovereign nation. Well, if "your" side can only win by spreading lies, yes, your chances for victory will be hurt if those lies aren't allowed on major social platforms. But whose problem is that? That's an honest question, one I'll rant on a bit here.
When Elon Musk first announced that he would be taking over Twitter, there was a collective sigh of relieve in the vocal far right contingent of the platform. Musk said he wanted more freedom of speech on Twitter, hinting even on a removal of Trump's ban on the platform, which made the neo-Nazis salivate with sweet anticipation. And to be sure, when the deal finally went through there were headlines everywhere indicating that hate speech and racism spiked after the takeover:
Researchers for the study found that about 398 hate tweets an hour were made in the 12 hours after the acquisition was finalized – a number that nearly quadrupled from the 84 tweets an hour in the week leading up to Musk's takeover. Hate-driven tweets skyrocketed to 4,778 times over that span compared with the average 1,000 beforehand.
source: MSN
That's just one of hundreds of articles on the subject. "The character of what Twitter will look like with Musk as the head remains speculative, despite his stated intentions," said the same report. "What is not speculative, however, is the extent to which his date of formal acquisition was celebrated by racist and extremist users on the platform."
Right-Wingers Are ALREADY Turning on Elon Musk—And He's Coping HARD as a Result
That celebration didn't last long though. You see, Elon Musk is a billionaire businessman before anything else, and he realizes that, in order to have at least a chance to make back some of the billions he spent on acquiring Twitter, he has to keep the platform advertiser-friendly. The same Musk-rats who celebrated his takeover, just as quickly dumped on him when he announced that moderation will stay, and that there'll be no significant changes to Twitter moderation policy for the near future. Watch the above linked video explaining how "Right-Wingers Are ALREADY Turning on Elon Musk".
Hell yeah! We can say the N-word again! ... Oh, wait. No we can't! Musk is an asshole! However much I agree with Musk being an asshole (for completely different reasons though), I must say: is this the level of your fight for freedom? Really? You get mad because you're not free to be an asshole in another man's house? Twitter, like all big social platforms, is privately owned, remember? If you're constantly being a racist, bigoted, homophobic asshole in my house, I'd kick you out as well. Live with it. Your vision of freedom of speech has nothing to do with freedom at all.
We live in a society and we have to find ways to coexist. For that goal we have tons of written and unwritten rules. Imagine you live in a house that you share with three other persons. Every week the garbage is collected and you have an agreement that you each take turns every week to take the garbage out. Everyone but you takes their turn, but when it's your turn, you always have some lame excuse to not take out the garbage. How long before the others find a way to make you? Or how long before they find someone else to take your place? Answer these same questions if you're the only one who's constantly being an annoying, racist, bigoted prick.
Here's another scenario relating to democracy and elections. Before the civil rights movements and when segregation was still legal, it wasn't illegal for white folks to hang around election-booths and stare down brown people. It still isn't. But you can imagine how this has a chilling effect on the black vote, right? Point is, there are a lot of things that aren't illegal but bad for society, and there are a lot of things illegal that could be good for society. Freedom of speech is a means to an end, not an end in itself. That end is a just, fair and reasonable society in which we can all coexist in peace, and we all have a chance to be happy.
It's not illegal (in America at least) to be a racist. It's not illegal to spout racist slurs. You can be as racist as you want, really. Just don't expect there to not be consequences; it's how societies have functioned since time immemorial. Society is complex and lots of things that aren't readily available to be represented in cold, black-and-white rules are up to us to implement on a daily basis. Freedom of speech, and freedom in general is such a thing. I'm well aware that corporations and governments alike ultimately can't be trusted to decide for us what's fair, reasonable or true. But ask yourself: has the freedom given to us by the internet made us better, smarter, more responsible? Or just the opposite?
INSANE Article On Government Censorship Drops
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