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Comment by larrywright | Hacker News Reader

There are lots of horrible things on Parler from what I’ve seen (I don’t have an account, I’ve just seen screen shots). The most egregious example was the post from Trump attorney Lin Wood calling for Pence to be executed by firing squad. It was up for days, and only taken down when this all blew up.

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For reference, this was on Twitter & Parler. Twitter didn't take him down for at least a week.

Similarly, I've seen people regularly call for violence on all sides and not be removed from Twitter.

The reality is that the moderators are overwhelmed, etc.

Too busy to moderate Trump's inner circle.

Twitter, though, at least has moderators, and makes an effort to remove threatening content from its service. The speed and efficacy of Twitter's abuse team is a topic for debate, but they have (and enforce) policy.

Parler famously had no such policy, that's why it was so attractive to the insurrectionists. The CEO, even after January 6th, went on record that he didn't feel it was Parler's responsibility to moderate user-generated content at all. Whatever last-minute olive branch they tried extending to AWS regarding a potential future volunteer moderator system obviously wasn't sufficient for Amazon.

Twitter and Facebook took how many years and millions of dollars to scale up a moderation strategy? I guarantee they weren't worrying about moderation at Parler's scale.

Twitter didn't take him down for a week, but they took that post down faster (I think). I regularly report twitter posts that are similar to that - violence mostly. It often takes two or three days, but they do get them taken down.

Here are some examples that are just as egregious:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ErTzgBxXcAAuTkC?format=jpg&name=...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ErTzgBuXYAAB4y2?format=jpg&name=...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ErTzgB3XIAcffGC?format=jpg&name=...

and i think a key point about this particular example is that Lin Wood is a very visible public figure. This wasn't a single crazy comment buried in a long thread that a moderator could have missed. If there was any good-faith effort by Parler to moderate content, it would have caught the Lin Wood rant.

I find it hard to understand why that should not be allowed to be said. I know it's in extremely bad taste, but still...

You're wondering why making threats of violence against a person or trying to rally a credible threat against them isn't permitted under the first?

I would have to see the exact text, but the way it was mentioned up in this thread it didn't sound like either of those.

He didn't call for him to be executed: https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/01/02/06/37509512-9105875-...

Ah, so it's a load of bullshit. As I imagined.

What is he proposing then?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ErGzmjYWMAI_POS?format=jpg&name=...

Thanks for sharing that, I hadn't seen that post.

I can see how you would take it that way, but honestly people have been saying a lot worse on the internet for a long time now.

I believe he's saying that we should have military tribunals to try and execute traitors, but of course those words were implied, not explicitly said.

I agree it's inflammatory for sure, but after all the crap I've seen on the internet, this is hardly a post to justify removing the entire platform this was posted on.

And after the tribunals are setup and operational and people are getting executed - would it be enough then? Or not quite yet still? What's your "this is enough, guys" point? Do you have one?

We got mighty close this time, didn't we? Do we need to get "closer"? Should Nancy Pelosi have had to be captured by some "patriot" with zip-ties and an AR-15?

No, you misunderstand. I don't want a mob to hold a tribunal. I want a real military tribunal that follows all procedures, exposes their crimes and then punishes them.

The masses long for justice while the elite and elite-wannabes try to convince themselves that the system isn't completely broken.

> I want a real military tribunal that follows all procedures, exposes their crimes and then punishes them.

Exposes which crimes exactly? Don't tribunals normally take place after you've got a good idea of what the crimes are?

> The masses long for justice while the elite and elite-wannabes try to convince themselves that the system isn't completely broken.

The multi-millionaire son of a multi-millionaire, truly the only person that knows the hardships put upon everyday americans. It's such a shame our hero was hoodwinked by all those nasty corrupt people who just happened to run his campaign, legal team and otherwise generally surround him...

You have opinions. I have opinions. It's easy to jump to conclusions.

We should have trials to get to the truth instead of smearing people for having money and being successful. If we assume the worst about people because they were born into a wealthy family where does that leave us?

You don't believe the swamp could be that corrupt. I do. Is it ok for me to hold that opinion? Is it ok for me to speak it, or will I be silenced for wrong think?

> We should have trials to get to the truth

You're still being cryptic about this. I'll ask you again what the basis of these trials should be? who and what should we be investigating?

I'm aware of a few trials that have already happened, my favourites:

Paul Manafort, former campaign chairman of the Trump campaign sentenced to 7.5 years in prison[1]. Collusion with suspected Russian operatives, lying about that collusion. Sentenced separately in Virginia for ~4 years for bank fraud, tax fraud, and hiding foreign accounts[2].

Michael Cohen, former personal attorney to Donald Trump sentenced to 3 years in prison. "charges involving campaign finance violations, tax evasion and lying to Congress"[3].

A fun list of the rest of the swamp dwellers that have been charged or convicted[4].

> If we assume the worst about people because they were born into a wealthy family where does that leave us?

We aren't assuming the worst about people born into a wealthy family. We're asserting that they cannot relate to those born into a lower or middle class family.

> You don't believe the swamp could be that corrupt. I do. Is it ok for me to hold that opinion? Is it ok for me to speak it, or will I be silenced for wrong think?

You're intentionally ignoring the fact that the man who told you there was a swamp is entirely surrounded by people found guilty of some form of fraud or corruption...

[1] https://www.axios.com/paul-manafort-sentenced-years-prison-r...

[2] https://www.axios.com/paul-manafort-sentenced-prison-mueller...

[3] https://www.axios.com/michael-cohen-prison-sentence-mueller-...

[4] https://www.yourtango.com/2020336767/trump-associates-have-b...

> We're asserting that they cannot relate to those born into a lower or middle class family.

That's a big leap to make. I'm sure we have much different narratives we find to be true, but Trump is basically filling stadiums wherever he goes. Maybe he relates to the lower and middle classes better than you are giving him credit for.

> You're intentionally ignoring the fact that the man who told you there was a swamp

To be fair, you have no idea how I came to believe there is a swamp. I thought that long before Trump became president for a variety of reasons.

I'm not going to get into the details of what I believe. There's just too much to cover. I'm not claiming that I could persuade you that I am right. We are on the sidelines in all this. We are in the middle of an information war, and probably have been our entire lives.

It does neither incite or produce imminent lawless action, nor likely to incite or produce such action.

Twitter contains worse.

No, it's a violent call to action in front of an angry mob willing to commit violence.

Well, it's illegal in the US for one: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/871

There's also the fact that an angry mob overran the US Capitol while chanting "Hang Mike Pence" as a direct result of Lin and Trump's posts/comments

I hope no one ever posts a horrible thing like calling for the death of a politician on twitter.

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