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Leaked draft details Trump's likely attack on technology giants:
The Trump Administration is putting the final touches on a sweeping executive order designed to punish online platforms for perceived anti-conservative bias. Legal scholar Kate Klonick obtained a draft of the document and posted it online late Wednesday night.
[...] The document claims that online platforms have been "flagging content as inappropriate even though it does not violate any stated terms of service, making unannounced and unexplained changes to policies that have the effect of disfavoring certain viewpoints, and deleting content and entire accounts with no warning, no rationale, and no recourse."
The order then lays out several specific policy initiatives that will purportedly promote "free and open debate on the Internet."
First up is Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
[...] Trump's draft executive order would ask the Federal Communications Commission to clarify Section 230—specifically a provision shielding companies from liability when they remove objectionable content.
[...] Next, the executive order directs federal agencies to review their ad spending to ensure that no ad dollars go to online platforms that "violate free speech principles."
Another provision asks the Federal Trade Commission to examine whether online platforms are restricting speech "in ways that do not align with those entities' public representations about those practices"—in other words, whether the companies' actual content moderation practices are consistent with their terms of service. The executive order suggests that an inconsistency between policy and practice could constitute an "unfair and deceptive practice" under consumer protection laws.
Trump would also ask the FTC to consider whether large online platforms like Facebook and Twitter have become so big that they've effectively become "the modern public square"—and hence governed by the First Amendment.
[...] Finally, the order directs US Attorney General William Barr to organize a working group of state attorneys general to consider whether online platforms' policies violated state consumer protection laws.
[Ed Note - The following links have been added]
Follow Up Article: Trump is desperate to punish Big Tech but has no good way to do it
The Executive Order: Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday May 29 2020, @04:57PM (14 children)
If Twitter and Facebook were destroyed by a nullification of Section 230, it could force overseas or decentralized platforms to be used, which could be of great benefit to many people. You could get real free speech (including lots of spam and defamation) on platforms not subject to U.S. law or governed by a centralized entity. Also, a business opportunity would be created for some country to welcome Twitter, Facebook, YouTube et al. to migrate and operate as they do now. Speed/latency could be hurt slightly if the companies need to avoid putting servers in the U.S. You would be reaching servers in Canada, Mexico, Cuba, etc.
More likely IMO, the Supreme Court fixes the problem or the executive order doesn't get implemented. Or it gets reversed by Biden.
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(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2020, @05:52PM
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* Typo fixed, SN provides no edit option
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday May 29 2020, @06:17PM
Yum, what the hell do you have to lose!?!
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @10:07AM (5 children)
NICE!
All the conservative jackasses getting their rocks off IP banning speech they don't like. In a story about social media sites where they complain about the same kind of censorship.
My my it has been a fun experiment in hypocrisy. Good job idiots :)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @07:25PM (4 children)
What, exactly, has been banned?
modded down != banned
If it had been banned, you wouldn't be able to see it to comment about it would you?
What's that horrible smell? Oh yeah, it's you talking out of your ass.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2020, @04:21PM (3 children)
Wow you are a dumbass. If something gets modded as spam, or the admins/eds think it is spam they can IP ban people. While no one likes spam, please explain how copy/pasting on topic messages is different from distributing pamphlets on the street? The point is that SN is not a pure free speech haven and they ban activity they don't like, thereby violating 1st amendment rights. So if twitter shouldn't be allowed to moderate their content then neither should SN.
I guess logic and hypocrisy don't mix too well ;P
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2020, @05:17PM
You're absolutely right. In fact, SN is just rife with censorship, inequality and unfair IP bans (at least 50 every day).
It makes you wonder what anyone is doing on here at all. Take the hint. You won't be missed.
(Score: 2) by martyb on Monday June 01 2020, @08:14PM (1 child)
First off, the First Amendment does not apply here.
Here is the complete text [wikipedia.org]:
See that very first word? "Congress". It says that the United States Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press. The First Amendment states no prohibitions on what private organizations may or may not do.
As for spam, whenever moderations are available (logged-in users only -- ACs cannot mod), it is one of many choices that are made available; whether admin or not. It is meant to be used sparingly: on spam. It is intended to allow the community to police itself from copy/pasta, from GNAA trolls, etc. See the Moderation FAQ [soylentnews.org]. Misuse of the spam mod has consequences, too: loss of ability to moderate for a while. When in doubt, do not mod as spam. But, mistaken moderations are possible, so admins have the ability to revert a spam mod. If you think a comment has been modded as spam in error, send the CID link for that comment to this email address: admin (at) soylentnews (dot) org and it will be reviewed. (For the parent comment to this comment, that link would be under the #1001405; it would look something like: "https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=37750&commentsort=0&mode=threadtng&threshold=-1&page=1&cid=1001405#commentwrap") Accidental spam mods happen; I know I've reversed several spam mods and know of others that have been reversed as well.
Copy/Pasting the same comment is spam; expect to be modded that way. If you don't like those consequences, then... don't spam.
A spam mod deducts 10 points from the comment maker's karma; other downmods deduct 1 point. Karma is earned from story submissions and up mods on one's comments. The better one's karma, the more privileges are made available. Lower karma results in fewer privileges. As Wil Wheaton's law states so succinctly: Don't be a dick [typepad.com]. (See also: Don't be a jerk [wikimedia.org]: "If a significant number of reasonable people suggest, whether bluntly or politely, that you are being one, the odds are good that you are not entirely in the right.")
If one gets low enough karma, one of the consequences is an IP ban. Don't like it? Don't be a jerk. A good rule of thumb is "Say what you mean. Mean what you say. Don't say it mean." It also helps to support your statements with verifiable citations.
And also realize we are all human and we all occasionally make mistakes. It happens. I've admitted it on stories on the main page! (More than once!) Karma is not a reflection of IQ or hat size or anything. Heck, people are dying from COVID-19 right now or are spending weeks in the hospital, suffering in severe pain and struggling to breathe. And doing so alone because visitors are forbidden. Please have some perspective on the relative importance of different things. If comment moderation is the worst of your problems, please take another look around you.
In case you were wondering, admin users get no more mod points than anyone else: 10 points are provided to each eligible user at 00:10 UTC each day.
In a nutshell, SoylentNews provides a place for the community to come together and discuss things. It also provides tools for the community to take care of itself. Your actions have consequences. Don't be a dick.
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 02 2020, @07:42PM
Wow martyb you really missed the point.
I am arguing with the people who think Twitter should be punished for fact checking Trump, such as TMB who said "I'm against all censorship, government or corporate" along with the other posts supporting Trump's attack on internet forums.
My point was that SN censors spam, and thankfully there is not too much of a probem surrounding that, but I simply will not allow TMB's hyporisy to go unchallenged. He can't attack Twitter while defending SN and pretending the two actions aren't the same. Perhaps if someone else, preferably a staffer, was standing up against this level of stupid hypocrisy then I wouldn't have to make a stink about it.
"Your actions have consequences. Don't be a dick." right back at you, try following along before posting a lecture.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2020, @06:21PM (2 children)
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(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday May 29 2020, @07:31PM (1 child)
A better alternative is Canned Unicorn Meat [amazon.com]
Or try eating babies or kittens. They are tasty and nutritious and loaded with protein.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2020, @08:03PM
I prefer selling spam, if these nutters want to promote free speech than I can keep selling my spam on the site and they'd better not censor me!!!
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday May 29 2020, @07:13PM
The pessimist in me expects Trump to be re-elected, for at least one more term.
Yes, I do believe that, in aggregate, we've become that crazy as a nation.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @11:27AM
"If Twitter and Facebook were destroyed by a nullification of Section 230..."
...nothing of value would be lost.