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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: 4, Insightful) by lentilla on Friday May 29 2020, @05:10PM (21 children)
There is nothing wrong with having conservative opinions. I truly wish recent discourse would cease conflating "conservative" with "idiot".
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2020, @05:54PM (9 children)
This is true, but when conservatives won't stand against the rising fascism in their own circles they will get lumped in with the authoritarian idiots. Kinda like how all liberals are Democrat Demons who would be better off dead, politically speaing of course according to the POTUS's re-Tweet.
Stop lurking and start calling out the hypocritical bullshit. Change the narrative, don't let bigoted assholes like VLM push factually incorrect bullshit.
(Score: 1) by hemocyanin on Friday May 29 2020, @06:24PM (8 children)
Cancel culture is distributed authoritarianism, I don't see Democrats has particularly hesitant to use the war machine, I do see Democrats pushing the levers of the surveillance state for political purposes, and so I wonder just who the dangerous authoritarians are. Trump though, he sucks as an authoritarian -- he just killed some FISA extension pushed by Pelosi, probably out of spite, but still -- what kind of authoritarian turns down power on purpose?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2020, @07:02PM (7 children)
I meet lentilla part-way and you immediately hop in with more partisan bullshit. Trump doesnt give a shit about FISA, and he didn't give a shit about 230c until Twitter fact checked him. He only cares about power when it is useful to him, you are right that he is an incompetent dictator.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by hemocyanin on Saturday May 30 2020, @02:43AM (6 children)
What I fear is a competent dictator, like HRC or whoever pulls Biden's strings. And worse, no Democrats will complain about the evil their party does, they in fact won't even notice have all gone out for brunch. At least with Trump in power, they can pretend to care, but they've become so complacent, that pretend caring does go far -- like how they all support FISA abuses and vote for expanded military spending while sucking bankster dick.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @09:27AM (5 children)
Obviously you haven't been paying attention to Trump's incompetent distractions that have allowed the feds to dismantle all of our protective agencies and sell out every last bit they can. I wish I could pity you, but you're so lost in hatred and conspiracy that I just can't muster up the sympathy. We libbies have consistently panned HRC, and not one on here has defended Obama's authoritarian bullshit, yet STILL you assholes try throwing that in our faces like we are the hypocrites. You can't even take Trump's fascist nonsense seriously, so get juiced you twit.
(Score: 1) by hemocyanin on Sunday May 31 2020, @02:38AM (4 children)
You and me complaining means absolutely zero. The legacy media has made Obama into Jesus 2.0 and rehabbed GWB. I had hoped 2016 would be a wakeup call for the DNC. Instead they tried to get us into a new cold war with a nuclear power -- that alone is enough for me to think of Democrats as the greater danger -- you know, global thermonuclear war ain't some made up woke bullshit crisis -- it's the real deal.
As for Trump -- he's a mean comedian, sucks at authoritarianism, and at worst, is on par with Democrats in the corporate giveaway department. He has not lived up to his anti-war rhetoric but Democrats are the heavy duty hawks these days so I see that as a wash.
In order to get to anything better in the future, the entire current power structure of the DNC needs to be gutted. It looks like one loss is not enough so yeah -- here I am hoping that Trump wins again so that we can get to what comes next sooner. If the Dems do win this time, then the whole endless war wall street felating job exporting wealth transferring bonanza they've been wallowing in since Clinton will just get worse. Things will not get better until the DNC fails totally or fundamentally changes, and that won't happen by voting for it in its current configuration.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2020, @08:53PM (1 child)
Do you have a sock puppet named Fustakrakich?
(Score: 1) by hemocyanin on Monday June 01 2020, @04:54PM
No. I have considered making a sock puppet though. It feels like there is already a sockpupet mob out there already, but since I don't know that for a fact, I've refrained.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2020, @03:23AM (1 child)
Let's not forget the other offices that are up for election this year, not least all 435 House seats. Lest we live through another 4 years of Russia, Russia, Russia and impeachments, we should turn Congress back to the republicans too.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2020, @07:57AM
Republican party is dead. No one will be elected under that party name, and few will retain their seats. Trump will have his towers around the country rebranded, or burned down. Jared with write a liberal orthodox Jewish platform for the Republican party, approved by Netty, and the whole thing will go down the tubes.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Friday May 29 2020, @07:43PM (5 children)
There are probably multiple reasons that happens.
Being "conservative" should merely be a difference of opinion about matters of public policy.
But we have climate change deniers. COVID-19 deniers. (Microorganisms don't care about your politics!) People who openly dislike smart people and education. People who think they have "a right" to infect other people with a disease.
These people tend to be the loudest and cause the most controversy. After all: teach the controversy, not the lies. Simply get people to believe that the truth is controversial.
If you want to break the association of "conservative" with "idiot", then:
1. the conservatives need to actually far outnumber the idiots
2. the conservatives need to speak out loudly about the idiots
In other words, if you're not part of a group, you need to distance yourself from that group. And don't let them hijack your party name. I would like to be generous and think these people are but a vocal loud minority. Prove me right.
But it is telling that I see very little of this. Which leads me to conclude (but I hope mistakenly) that "conservatives" and "idiots" are almost one group with little separation. In general.
Would a Dyson sphere [soylentnews.org] actually work?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2020, @08:13PM (1 child)
Due to the manipulation and lies from Fox and conservative talk show hosts who got the green light from the 1st Amendment to spout absolute lies with no repercussions. At most Fox's news outlet must publish corrections/retractions and those are small bylines that most viewers will completely miss, so even factual corrections don't really make up for the original lies.
So much bullshit and emotionally manipulative misinformation has been spread around that they truly believe things that are not real. There is no solution except for Republican leaders to lead the way back out of the darkness, to correct the lies and bullshit. After that we need to reimplement the fairness doctrine and figure out how to prevent this situation in the future. Possibly it will just be the "eternal vigilance" as any regulation to clamp down on misinformation is a few short steps from true tyranny.
Just a tough, shitty situation we're in.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday May 29 2020, @08:58PM
Maybe just codify that Freedom of Speech is about freedom of ideas, not a freedom to spread lies and misinformation. We can disagree about ideas. We should generally be able to agree about basic truths and falsehoods. Does the sun rise in the East or in the West?
What puzzles me is why do we have so much misinformation. Microorganisms don't care about your or my politics.
Would a Dyson sphere [soylentnews.org] actually work?
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2020, @08:35PM (2 children)
Not even knowing that a virus is NOT a "microorganism" and still mouthing about "COVID-19 deniers" does that to you.
Indeed, bacteria and viruses do not care about your politics. But they care very much about the idiotic actions you make out of your ignorance and gullibility. As do all the other things, real things, dangerous things of this real world. Of which, the economy is one.
Reality does not care that you were led to imagine things and it is not your fault. Reality just happens to you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @03:09AM (1 child)
I love how they have you so programmed that you cannot even imagine that a program like "unemployment" could exist for a time like this.
You've become a fascist. You live to struggle. If you're not struggling for the boss' profits, against the hated enemy, you wouldn't know what to do with yourself.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @03:29AM
And you have been programmed to think that money can be created out of thin air without repercussions.
Your life aspirations may only extend to lapping up that sweet $600+UC for as long as it lasts, but I am saving up so that at some point I can retire. That free money is devaluing all our savings, and it is happened because of a stupid Chicken Little panic and grand government fuckup.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday May 29 2020, @07:51PM
I have seen something, but I wish had seen more of it in the last few years.
It goes like this . . .
"I'm a Republican, but I cannot abide Donald Trump . . . etc etc"
"I'm a Republican, but I agree with science regarding . . ."
Public policy should be derived from science, math, facts rather than policy dictates science, math, facts.
We can disagree about the best way to balance the budget. Etc. Well intentioned people should be able to discuss such things. But we end up talking about whether global warming is real because some people don't like the reality that it is going to lead to.
We have people who are actively against green energy, despite Tesla's success in Australia.
Would a Dyson sphere [soylentnews.org] actually work?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Friday May 29 2020, @08:29PM
And we all wish recent "conservatives" would stop making the conflation true and obvious, by supporting Donald Trump and his idiot opinions.
William F. Buckley, George Will, no longer conservatives. All that is left are the idiots, too stupid to realize that the alt-right has tricked them into a self-parodying non-forced idiocy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 29 2020, @08:50PM
Oh, but there is an easy distinction between them, at least in the US: conservatives are the members of the elephant party. The idiots are the ones who vote for them.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday May 30 2020, @12:45AM
When people calling themselves "conservative" stop being not just idiots but self-destructive morons with a stated goal of either getting what they want or taking the entire country down in a flaming Hell of civil war...then we'll stop pointing said conflation out. Until then...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 30 2020, @11:37AM
I truly wish recent discourse would cease conflating "conservative" with "idiot".
If you are finding that your conservative heroes are regularly being confused with "idiots" then the problem might just be with the "conservatives". Just sayin'.