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Comment by wyattpeak | Hacker News Reader

To be honest, I like this rule.

I'm glad that social media platforms remove people violating community guidelines, whatever they are. I don't want people here on HN who do nothing but post flamebait, and I don't want people on Twitter who do nothing but post hate speech. I don't want platforms to be required to host any and all people.

But it's critical that politicians can reach us by whatever means we're using. They are a special class of people, because they're the people we're choosing to represent us. If a political candidate can't reach an audience because they don't agree politically with the platform providers, that's a big fucking problem for democracy.

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I would rather have a rule that politicians may not post on social media. They have plenty of other channels for reaching people.

Why?

I want politicians to post on whatever people are using to get information. Almost nobody I know my age is regularly watching the news on TV, or checking the local paper's website. They might have other channels, but they certainly don't have other channels with the same reach.

So all I have to do is file paperwork as a candidate and can misbehave however I want.

So long as it's not criminal, yes.

I'm not saying I like the idea, but it's vastly better to me than to have the Overton window chosen by the platform provider. If you can propose a way to stop bad-faith candidates from abusing it, that'd be a great thing, but it's secondary to preserving the ability for political candidates to state their positions, whatever they are.

> but it's secondary to preserving the ability for political candidates to state their positions, whatever they are.

Is this a problem currently? I am not aware of any political candidate not being able to state their position, whatever they are.

It’s even pretty cheap to do so with the advent of the internet, cheaper and easier than it has ever been.

No, perhaps you're right. I was originally responding specifically to the argument that politicians shouldn't be treated differently from other people, but I've let my point drift.

I don't know whether the rule is necessary. But if it becomes so, I do believe a special rule for political candidates, as opposed to requiring all platforms to host all people, is the right choice.

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