It's sad that Patreon is paying a price for kicking an abusive person off their platform, but forced arbitration needs to die, and I hope cases like these end the practice entirely.
The Patreon arbitration is the beginning of the revolt against cancel culture and the censorship of conservative voices on various platforms.
DoorDash's arbitration clause enabled the same attack, with no free speech concerns at play.
Let's be clear, he's a holocaust denier, and that's not just an unpopular "political view".
He has every right to say it to whoever will listen, but private companies should not be forced to amplify that shit.
From what little I've seen, Owen Benjamin rejects that description of himself, so I'd be interested to hear why you think he is.
Worth noting that outlets that reported him as a "holocaust denier" also claimed that he would definitely lose this lawsuit, which was clearly false. Not only did Patreon lose, but the judge went so far as to point out that the cases they cited undermined their own case.
> He has every right to say it to whoever will listen, but private companies should not be forced to amplify that shit.
Private companies have an obligation to honor their Terms of Service, which Owen did not violate, and why he and his fans filed for arbitration in the first place.
I'm excited to see forced arbitration hurt companies that intended to use it to hurt their users.
I'm a bit disappointed to see it benefit a Holocaust denier at the same time.
The existence of auschwitz is undeniable; you can visit it. If someone wants to look like a fool, let them. If you believe the fool, equally a fool. If fools are responsible for the suppression of fundamental rights, the system is broken and an immune response should be expected.
I also subscribe to the concept of the paradox of intolerance (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance) - that having a tolerant society requires intolerance of certain beliefs. There's some good evidence that deplatforming works. (https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bjbp9d/do-social-media-ba...)
Be legal? I suspect so.
The Orion Welles “War of the Worlds” recital should feature more in the discussion of the ethics of free speech, along with study of propaganda and the predisposition of humans to believe the first version of a story they hear.
Holocaust denial does hurt people, just because you don’t see the harm being done doesn’t mean it’s not happening. Typically what happens is one person with a public position denying the Holocaust happened empowers their audience to engage in anti-Semitic behaviour, which ultimate devolves to abuse of semites (typically Jews more than arabs).
As an example of how unlike the rational actor with perfect information most humans are, just one newspaper report here in Australia regarding two POC violating quarantine has friends who are also POC starting a petition wanting the quarantine violators thrown in jail — no regard for the rich white COVID-positive couple who returned from Aspen Colorado and hosted multiple dinner parties while in “quarantine.”
Some folks are so focussed on their perceived rights they have no time o pay attention to social obligations such as duty of care.
Meanwhile in the real world we are not all born psychopaths with the privilege of only working with people like us who like us. In addition we live in the same world where “only following orders” is still a thing: so one person’s public suggestion that you are not a nice person is someone else’s call to action to punish you for being you. Accusations that a woman used sexual favours to get better reviews for a computer game led to complete strangers turning up on her doorstep threatening violence.
Words aren’t just words. What people are scared of isn’t just the words but the retribution they have learned follows those words as surely as night follows day.
“Just be an emotionless robot” misunderstands the complaint completely.