Elon Musk takes over Twitter

So when the algorithm is feeding people nonsense, the Government should sit down and shut up?

 

No. The government should tell the truth in as many avenues as it sees fit as often as it is able to.

And THEN shut up and let people make up their mind.


In five months, Facebook posts saying Biden won the 2020 election may be deemed as "misinformation."

You ALWAYS have to strategize for what happens when the other team gets the ball.

 

And when Elon puts his thumb on the scale and amplifies the crazies? What then? Oh well? Powerless?

The answer is largely, "these things are handled by civil servants, not political appointees." Coincidently: Trump promises to dismantle that, too.

 

Sue Elon if you can prove damages. Just like Alex Jones. If intelligent people would just get off his media, it would shrivel into another Parler.

Other than that, yeah, a "free" society has some serious drawbacks sometimes.

 

I certainly don’t love it and I’ll land on the side of free speech. I’ll also want to know more and see some more evidence of what exactly happened and the content in question and not solely rely on what Zuckerberg says happened (or anyone on one side of an issue who has such a large financial stake in an issue).

The characterization by that Twitter account is also a choice. It’s a hyper partisan account that spreads a lot of crap.

I stop before hitting crisis stage because of this line in the letter: “Ultimately it was our choice whether or not to take content down.”

It sort of takes the air out of the balloon.

 

I look forward to the House GOP speaking out against this assault on free speech.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-restrict-first-amendment-1235088402/

 

Imagine you're a newspaper reporter, and you publish a story ...

And the local government contacts you and says, "your story is nonsense for reasons A, B, C, and D."

How are you obliged to act?

 

Seems like that's stuff they could have told you before you published the story, assuming you did your job and contacted the local government for comment.

 

Maybe? Maybe not? Maybe you're a shit reporter? Maybe you just were reaching out to the wrong people? Who knows ...

But should the Government have remained quiet, because they don't want to threaten your freedom of speech to publish nonsense?

 

Ah, but social media platforms abdicate responsibility to verify the accuracy of "content." That would require hiring fact-checkers and would cut into the profit margin.

Plus, hair-on-fire posts generate clicks.

 

We don't have the laws on the books to properly regulate social media. And anyone who argues all social media should be unfettered and unregulated is a foof.

We're also never going to get the laws on the books with this Congress. So now what?

 

Many years ago - and Justin will remember this - Tony Alamo's followers would put fliers under the windshield wiper of every car in the parking lot at, say, the mall or a movie theater or high school football game. For many years, they didn't have their own professional quality printer or copier, so they hired the job out to a local print shop. I asked the owner one time if he was bothered by his role in helping spread outlandish conspiracy theories about the Pope, UN and various US politicians, he said "They pay cash."