Ask HN: Social media disabling dissenting views | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Social media disabling dissenting views

2 pointsNoRagrets17 comments

With social media taking stances on the what is acceptable and what isn’t, does it mean there is no such thing as first amendment rights anymore on the web?

Often, they collect personal details and have no healthy serious competition : Twitter, Facebook, Google, Nextdoor. Linkedin has surprisingly been a conflict free zone. It’s mob rule everywhere else.

Will this lead to a homogeneous society? Is it time to quit the righteous social media?

The world is now divided into right vs righteous. I can’t stand it anymore. I am tired of hearing just one narrative.

I guess my question is...where are we going? Adults in public spaces are acting like kindergarten kids telling on neighbors, co-workers, bosses and anyone they perceive as ‘the other’.

For now, the liberal/progressive side is the rule maker. It won’t take long to flip to the other side. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. So this is a dangerous trend.

Belive it or not, not everyone uses social media for politics. Some people use it to stay in touch with their friends and family.

Maybe the real problem isn't censorship but infiltration of politics into a social network simmilar to everyones drunk uncle at thanksgiving.

Maybe the political news media has corrupted social media to create an echo chamber to reinforce the outrage they push on their network tv.

Maybe Grandma just wants to see the new pictures of the baby but is forced to consume ultra partisan propaganda in order to do so.

Maybe the social media companies make too much money off politics to do the right thing and cancel it like racisism or pornography.

Is that a good thing?

Indeed. On top of that, not everyone is on social media or is an 'active user' on there: [0] [1] [2] So it doesn't reflect reality and has become another distortion field. Especially when the opposing viewpoint is banned.

As long as the advertiser income keeps coming in, these social media companies and some of its famed users will do everything they can to silence or disable dissenting accounts.

As mentioned in one of the comments made by another HN user, the real question is how will this end and when will it happen?

[0] https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2020/10/15/differences-...

[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/01/je...

[2] https://news.yahoo.com/turns-progressive-twitter-isn-t-18053...

I wonder if the traditional political media people have been forced to jump on social media to chase the advertising dollars that they used to recieve pre 2016? Although only a fraction of the profits made historically by traditional political media earned through advertising, I would imagine there is a buck or two to be earned through hyper partisan articles and affiliate linking.

I think it’s also an age thing. Young people are more comfortable online and kids in high school ten years ago are the tech bros in FAANG.

This seems to be a time for them to ‘give it back’ to an oppressive older generation they can rebel against. I too never agreed with my previous generation but I never wielded this kind of power.

The 50 something year old who is banned from Twitter by a 25 something techie probably cannot comprehend why he is suddenly a hateful racist villain. Just 7-8 years ago, he had friends! I see many a middle aged woman on Nextdoor completely bewildered by why high school kids are calling them ‘Karen’ between zoom class breaks. If it werent so tragic, it would be comical.

Awesome!! I hope you weren't being sarcastic because I feel like You hit the nail on the head. Uggg am I'm a Karen? It must be a generational thing and I'm a bit ashamed, as until now I have not heard of Nextdoor! I guess it's not targeted towards my generation :(

Better get some hair dye :P

The rules of modern virtue and values and morals are being written by school kids in public schools funded by the adult tax payers they hate.

Also women can now be called menstruators’ or ‘persons with vulvas’. (Serious..not being facetious)

You could be a TERF. I just found out about it. Pasting what I posted elsewhere:

[..]

Apparently there is a name for her. TERF.

[..] If you didn’t already know – and why should you? – ‘TERF’ is an acronym coined by trans activists, which stands for Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist. In practice, a huge and diverse cross-section of women are currently being called TERFs and the vast majority have never been radical feminists. Examples of so-called TERFs range from the mother of a gay child who was afraid their child wanted to transition to escape homophobic bullying, to a hitherto totally unfeminist older lady who’s vowed never to visit Marks & Spencer again because they’re allowing any man who says they identify as a woman into the women’s changing rooms. Ironically, radical feminists aren’t even trans-exclusionary – they include trans men in their feminism, because they were born women.[..]

From: https://www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-...

As a biological woman, I feel this surprising sense of..loss. Like a loss of identity. I don’t know what to feel. I am gobsmacked.

[..]

This is creating ripples even amongst Uber-feminists. A friend(from India..of all places) got called a TERF because she wanted ‘paid period leave’ for..well..menstruators. Apparently not very inclusive. And boom! Interesting times.

Whoa!!! Sorry, I'm not quite ready to swallow that particular red pill!!!:(!!

I think maybe my ranting gave the wrong impression, probably the "Monday Night Football Wine" is to blame.

Tomorrow I am going to look into Neighborhood * EDIT NEXTDOOR and if it turns out to be something I like I will support it.

So I checked out Next Door, unfortunately there is very little information available until you sign up. I was not convinced it was worth sharing my email and opening an account.

It's really unfortunate as I was interested and driven to their site only to have them lose me due to somewhat of a closed site. There might be a lesson there for future developers.

This might be working now but the demographic with most spending money are the retirees and not young people anymore.

Young people are inheriting homes rather than buying them. I see tinder like apps but very little for the AARP demographic that has more money than the younger generation. The advertisers are targeting the wrong broke group.

This is why states like California is scrambling to increase property taxes and building affordable homes rather than making money from sales or investing in infrastructure. It’s like no one knows or understands macro economics 101.

Deeply held moral views shouldn’t grab markets by the balls. That is not capitalism. That is not free markets. That’s is a complete breakdown of free market economy because it is very easy to manipulate emotions. To use social media to do that means it’s being used to manipulate a very thin slice of population. To rely on emotions to running an economy is even more hard brained.

Anyone who remembers the ad industry in the late 80s and 90s can see how it’s different now to sell. Ads don’t sell products anymore. They sell IDEAS. This is a dangerously ill thought strategy because it is unstable.

> "first amendment rights anymore on the web"

The First Amendment does not and never did apply to corporations; it is a subset of free speech that specifically only binds what the government may do.

Is this better or no different than the good old days of flame wars in bbs and irc? At least one had anonymity back then.

It’s like living in bizarro world now.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24903372 : HN too!!!

Nobody wants to discuss things anymore. Here on HN, if you don’t like an opinion..you can downvote anonymously. Why discuss things and understand others POV when we can live in a Black Mirror world?

I don’t understand why HN can’t institute a vote on the basis of a comment. Users are already anonymous here. You can downvote if you engage. Even if it’s one word. Or walk away.

On other social media, it’s even more comical. Because the techbros and start up founders are themselves products of institutions aka public schools that believe in homogenous mind lumps, it’s like having your best buddy who thinks and walks and talks like you as the hall monitor. This is leading to not just a closed ‘hive mind’ online but also shutting down of any nuanced or in depth discussion and dissection. It’s like the clowns have taken over the circus.

More like shaping views. Same way shaped society views privacy. Dark times for liberty, privacy, security.

How will this end? And what’s the timeline?

(Non American view)

Every platform needs rules, as there are always abusers. 4chan had an issue With cp. Facebook censors delete cp, suicide videos, torture etc. You can’t have a “censorship free” platform. There must be rules, but should those rules be decided by tech guys or politicians?

I suggest quitting social media. Because truth is buried in a sea of lies.

Social media promotes what is popular (shocking) not what is truth.

Millions of bots spread shocking fake news like Qanon, covid conspiracies.

This is damaging your country. Several terrorist attacks happened in your country, inspired by propaganda on social media.

The amendment was written for humans. Sure free speech, but should free speech apply to millions of robots spreading fake news?

It’s not like tech companies don’t know bots are spreading propaganda, they just ignore it because it’s “not a priority”.

While platform rapidly censor nudity, they seem to ignore anti American botnet propaganda. Stories like “covid created by NATO”, “bill gates made nano bots vaccine” etc.

Should social media be a platform for hatred? Lies? Terrorists?

Today it is.

The AI terrorism of social media will only get worse. And your tech companies seem to ignore it.

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