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posted by
martyb
on Monday October 29 2018, @08:15AM
from the social-commentary-on-social-media dept.
from the social-commentary-on-social-media dept.
The social network gab.com is apparently going down on Monday, October 29th at 09:00 ET. Their ISP has terminated their services, ostensibly because Robert Bowers, the Pittsburgh mass shooting suspect, had made offensive posts on Gab.
To get this out of the way: I have mixed feelings about Gab, more specifically, about the founders. However, the idea that some social network somewhere should refuse to censor anything that is not outright illegal? This is good. Social media has become the modern "market square", and free speech should be guaranteed, even if the platforms are technically private.
If you want free speech, you apparently don't want to be in the U.S.
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Social Media and the Pittsburgh Shooter: Gab.com Going Down
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Let us remember that ours is a nation of lawyers and order.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 29 2018, @10:54PM (2 children)
You don't see a problem with the fact that governments and corporations are working closely with one another to determine what should and should not be allowed on these corporate platforms? You don't see a problem with the fact that corporations are capable of controlling what people see and hear to this extent? Do you want to unleash the power of the free market when it comes to censorship, even though you'd be skeptical of corporations in nearly any other context? Then you are short-sighted.
When traditional platforms are restrictive, it's common advise to go start your own platform and make your own rules. Yet, when someone does that, the web host can cut them off, and they have to hope they can find another one. So much for a free and open web. And thank you, dear sir, for supporting multi-billion dollar corporations; they truly need the help.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 29 2018, @11:06PM
Nope, don't see a problem. Now if we could just get jmorris to shut up about the SJW convergence in his mom's basement, that would be an achievement!
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Tuesday October 30 2018, @10:26PM
How is the government involved with this? I see that the ISP shut them down, I have seen nothing that shows the government was involved. It's an unfortunate fact of life on the internet, one I learned some twenty years ago, that if you use someone else's service as a platform you are completely at their mercy as far as your continued existence there goes. They are not going to expend any time and money to defend you.