That was very well articulated. What I have never understood is why is the platform held responsible for the speech of the users utilizing the platform? Can’t it just be a mutually beneficial arrangement where the platform requires a waiver and the user has the ability to control their exposure? You could even have separate requirements that confirm adult age. Beyond that, if the platform is not held responsible (and isn’t responsible for the actions of others) the users are only held responsible for threats of violence. This all started with “hate” crime. Please tell me, what crime isn’t hateful?
There already are platforms like that! Most of them happen to be extremely toxic, but I appreciate that they exist.
There's more to the laws about what constitutes a platform versus what constitutes a publisher; these laws have been basically stretched to the breaking point in recent years with blatant infraction from social media companies.
Ultimately, because the website owner is effectively the property owner, they are legally responsible for what happens on it, in some capacity. If some degenerate sicko starts posting child porn, or something like that, they are legally obligated to remove that as soon as they are aware of it, or they will face charges as well. The same can be said about, as you mentioned, incitements of violence, though, to a lesser degree.
But yeah, the biggest reason that the "jurisdictions" of forums and individuals have blended so much is because there is a group actively seeking to destroy opposition opinion. If you were to have a government working to preserve freedoms, or an organization of [the] people with the will and teeth to enforce it (like some groups used to be/claim to be), you'd see things in a lot better state.
Unlike what a lot of people on here are claiming with regards to censorship being the slippery slope that got us here, I think the truth is far more painful:
What brought us here wasn't censorship or some "slippery slope" regarding it. What really got us here was complacency by the populace; pretty much everyone is responsible; the people here included. By allowing them to systemically infiltrate and seize our institutions whilst we made no effort to maintain them, we destroyed our rights. This isn't just about freedom of speech, it's about all of our constitutional rights. They didn't die because most forums censored the N word, they died because the institutions that would have been in place to fight them overstepping their own bounds were allowed to be corrupted.
That was very well articulated. What I have never understood is why is the platform held responsible for the speech of the users utilizing the platform? Can’t it just be a mutually beneficial arrangement where the platform requires a waiver and the user has the ability to control their exposure? You could even have separate requirements that confirm adult age. Beyond that, if the platform is not held responsible (and isn’t responsible for the actions of others) the users are only held responsible for threats of violence. This all started with “hate” crime. Please tell me, what crime isn’t hateful?
Thank you!
There already are platforms like that! Most of them happen to be extremely toxic, but I appreciate that they exist.
There's more to the laws about what constitutes a platform versus what constitutes a publisher; these laws have been basically stretched to the breaking point in recent years with blatant infraction from social media companies.
Ultimately, because the website owner is effectively the property owner, they are legally responsible for what happens on it, in some capacity. If some degenerate sicko starts posting child porn, or something like that, they are legally obligated to remove that as soon as they are aware of it, or they will face charges as well. The same can be said about, as you mentioned, incitements of violence, though, to a lesser degree.
But yeah, the biggest reason that the "jurisdictions" of forums and individuals have blended so much is because there is a group actively seeking to destroy opposition opinion. If you were to have a government working to preserve freedoms, or an organization of [the] people with the will and teeth to enforce it (like some groups used to be/claim to be), you'd see things in a lot better state.
Unlike what a lot of people on here are claiming with regards to censorship being the slippery slope that got us here, I think the truth is far more painful:
What brought us here wasn't censorship or some "slippery slope" regarding it. What really got us here was complacency by the populace; pretty much everyone is responsible; the people here included. By allowing them to systemically infiltrate and seize our institutions whilst we made no effort to maintain them, we destroyed our rights. This isn't just about freedom of speech, it's about all of our constitutional rights. They didn't die because most forums censored the N word, they died because the institutions that would have been in place to fight them overstepping their own bounds were allowed to be corrupted.