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Comment by wybiral | Hacker News Reader

They can't really win.

If you try to squash conspiracy theories like this there will be those free-speech hardliners who see it as crossing a line.

If you allow the crazy conspiracy stuff then there will be people who complain about the platform being a toxic influence and promoting hate speech etc.

Personally I don't see anything wrong with attaching additional information like this as opposed to outright censorship or something. But my guess is that plenty of other people will complain.

Side note: I can't help but notice how polarizing issues involving free speech have become in recent years. Any topics involving perceived censorship by any host simply ignite.

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You don't get "free speech" on Youtube. Its not a government censoring you. Its a private company doing whatever they want on their private website. Same with Facebook, Twitter, etc. The only public spaces online are decentralized ones, and even then you are subject to nodes actually accepting your peerage. If every Mastodon instance deems yours toxic and blocks it you can't cry fowl of censorship to anyone.

> You don't get "free speech" on Youtube. Its not a government censoring you. Its a private company doing whatever they want on their private website.

Oh, I agree. But this topic keeps coming up over and over recently.

It seems like people forget that by moving everything into the homes of Google and Facebook they agreed to these terms. You can still host content yourself. If you want free speech, do that.

I'm not sure how Google qualifies as a private company, but I would like to play devils advocate. Tell me how I can refuse to bake a cake for someone because their personal views differ from mine. I dare you.

I'm not sure how Google qualifies as a private company

It qualifies as a private company because it is, as a matter of law, a private company.

Tell me how I can refuse to bake a cake for someone because their personal views differ from mine. I dare you.

Assuming, based on your choice of example, that you're talking about the US legal context: You absolutely can refuse someone's business because of their beliefs. What you can't do is refuse someone's business because of their race, or their age, or one of small number of other protected characteristics.

> Tell me how I can refuse to bake a cake for someone because their personal views differ from mine.

I think you should be able to. But I also think that people can boycott you for doing so.

s/conspiracies/conspiracy theories

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