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posted by martyb on Saturday April 13 2019, @05:36PM   Printer-friendly
from the let's-talk-about-it dept.

Packt reports that Gab's Dissenter browser extension was removed from Mozilla's Firefox add-ons on April 10th (people already using it can continue to do so), and was booted from Google's Chrome browser the next day. Gab pitches itself as an anti-censorship social media platform that only prohibits speech that is illegal. Their Dissenter browser extension and associated website allow people to share comments about any webpage, giving users the ability to share comments on articles, videos, etc., regardless of whether or not the website hosting the content has a comments section. Mozilla's rationale for the ban was that Dissenter was being used to promote violence, hate speech, and discrimination, but they failed to show any examples to bolster that claim. Gab plans to develop their own browser in response.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 14 2019, @01:04AM (13 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 14 2019, @01:04AM (#829194)

    I understood perfectly. And I'm saying what you call "censoring" is what I will do to keep my advertising dollars flooding in.

    You see, your claim that if it isn't banned by law it should be allowed anywhere and everywhere isn't practical for my capitalism to function. If my advertisers don't want their products shown next to hate speech, or videos of animals being tortured, or little girls in bikinis, etc then I need to keep them happy. So, I can prevent the content my advertisers don't want, and most of my product users don't want, from ending up on my platform or I can try to figure out a way to allow everything on the platform but keep them apart from the people that don't want to see it.

    I am not censoring your right to free speech because your right to free speech does not exist on my platform. Governments that support free speech cannot restrict your free speech, but my platform is not a government. In fact, many governments (including yours) are demanding my platform do more to restrict content.

    If you want platforms to be treated as publishers, and make platforms responsible for content, then we will limit what can be posted in order to protect our business, our advertising dollars, and our function as proxies to limit speech on behalf of governments that aren't allowed to.

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  • (Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Sunday April 14 2019, @01:19AM (11 children)

    by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Sunday April 14 2019, @01:19AM (#829198) Journal

    If you want platforms to be treated as publishers, and make platforms responsible for content, then we will limit what can be posted in order to protect our business, our advertising dollars,

    And here is where we disagree on outcomes.
     
    Limiting the platform in this fashion so you are not losing your shirt on liability (basically in house moderation of all content) will frustrate and lose your users as well.
     
    Users will migrate to an open platform more like the social media companies of old, and the advertisers will follow because the platform is not what is important for advertising, the eyeballs are.

    --
    В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
    • (Score: 5, Informative) by aristarchus on Sunday April 14 2019, @04:38AM (10 children)

      by aristarchus (2645) on Sunday April 14 2019, @04:38AM (#829240) Journal

      Limiting the platform in this fashion so you are not losing your shirt on liability (basically in house moderation of all content) will frustrate and lose your users as well.

      Who said anything about risk exposure? It is not liability we private organizations worry about, we are not the one's advocating violating anyone's human or legal rights. It is minimizing exposure to insanity that is our goal! That is what drives away decent people, the foaming at the mouth racism, misogyny, transphobia, and libertarianism. So it is in our interests to not allow such lunacy on our platforms. Quite simple, really. Political correctness is just another word for manners, and not being batshit crazy in public.

      • (Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Sunday April 14 2019, @04:55AM (7 children)

        by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Sunday April 14 2019, @04:55AM (#829249) Journal

        So look to PC activists for good manners?

        --
        В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
        • (Score: 1, Flamebait) by aristarchus on Sunday April 14 2019, @09:40AM (6 children)

          by aristarchus (2645) on Sunday April 14 2019, @09:40AM (#829304) Journal

          Yes? Do you not think that those who incorrectly point out differences between races are not both rude factually incorrect? Those who point out that they are being racist are only trying to help them be more tactful and factually correct. Basically, PC Activists are trying to save cretin conservatives and alt-right types from publicly embarrassing themselves with their misguided ideology.

          But it is like trying to show khallow the errors of his ways, when he is incapable of recognizing, let alone admitting, error.

          "Conservatism: An ideology for those whom to think hurts them." Ogwald Spengler.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 14 2019, @01:20PM (2 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 14 2019, @01:20PM (#829358)

            Yes? Do you not think that those who incorrectly point out differences between races are not both rude factually incorrect?

            Nice tautology.

            Those who point out that they are being racist are only trying to help them be more tactful and factually correct. Basically, PC Activists are trying to save cretin conservatives and alt-right types from publicly embarrassing themselves with their misguided ideology.

            Strong positive correlations for criminality in modern civilization? Low IQ? [psychologytoday.com] If you want to challenge it, you have to challenge "affirmative action". [googleusercontent.com] What else?

            Black males do not have elevated testosterone as previously assumed, they do have elevated estradiol levels. [nih.gov] Symptoms of elevated estrogen in males include depression [nih.gov] and poor emotional regulation. The irony of "toxic masculinity" being associated with increased levels of estrogen!

            Discussing genetic, [springer.com] environmental [nih.gov] and nutritional [universityworldnews.com] effects on behavior is not "muh racism". We are what we eat and you need to layoff the excrement because you're full of it!

            • (Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Sunday April 14 2019, @02:18PM

              by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Sunday April 14 2019, @02:18PM (#829368) Journal

              Yes? Do you not think that those who incorrectly point out differences between races are not both rude factually incorrect?

              Nice tautology.

              Indeed. I would also argue against 'rude' being related to correctness or incorrectness to any significant degree.

              --
              В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @12:13PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @12:13PM (#829770)

              I just read an article in a most prestigious journal by leading scientists, and they said white supremacist have, on average, mind you, phalli that are 3 inches shorter than normal, or approximately 6.8cm. Not sure if they measured the men, or the women, or if it would have made a difference. Racism = bad science. End of story.

          • (Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Sunday April 14 2019, @02:20PM (2 children)

            by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Sunday April 14 2019, @02:20PM (#829370) Journal

            So look to PC activists for good manners?

            Yes?

            Uhh...are you asking or answering?

            --
            В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
            • (Score: 1, Flamebait) by aristarchus on Monday April 15 2019, @10:47AM (1 child)

              by aristarchus (2645) on Monday April 15 2019, @10:47AM (#829754) Journal

              Uh huh. Are you cognitively challenged?

              • (Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Monday April 15 2019, @10:48PM

                by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Monday April 15 2019, @10:48PM (#830145) Journal

                Depends if any of theses are cognitive impairments

                  - often stops reading when hitting obvious logical fallacies in a post.
                  - often abandons conversations with oviously invalid/unshared premises/assertions (unless addressable)
                  - rarely puts more than a passing thought into, or leaves hanging, conversations where a participant descends into incivility

                This results in 'losing' a lot of arguments from some perspectives (or in this case accusations of cognitive deficiency). So be it.

                --
                В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 14 2019, @10:51AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 14 2019, @10:51AM (#829314)

        If you are a publisher you are liable for everything on your site, regardless of who put it there. Expect slander/libel suits to come rolling in unless you either censor heavily or have the just-a-carrier defense. That means expect anything more controversial than 'I like strawberry icecream' to be censored.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 14 2019, @11:04AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 14 2019, @11:04AM (#829316)

          I hate strawberry ice cream, and only white supremacists like strawberry ice cream! Everyone knows it has to be strawberry cheesecake ice cream. Geez, does stuff like this still need to be expained?

  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday April 14 2019, @02:10PM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday April 14 2019, @02:10PM (#829367) Journal

    I think you're passing the buck here.

    "Alright, people, I'm not actually censoring anything, it's the ADVERTISERS WITH LOTS OF MONEY who demand the censorship. They have money, so it's alright to censor. Don't blame me!"