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Comment by endymi0n | Hacker News Reader

I used to be a huge fan of censorship resistance, freedom and privacy, but I didn‘t appreciate just how much self-selection there was in the kinds of people who went to great lengths to access IRC in the times of dial-up modems.

These days, I have the feeling there are only two kinds of platforms left:

The clean ones with strong moderation, where any form of edginess and possibly controversial topics including breastfeeding, violence or discussing human rights can be banned globally or in certain countries.

And the other ones, where the Nazis, lunatics and scammers hang out.

I‘m still not sure what to take from that.

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There may be a third category for those with technical know-how, that tend to be like the early internet, since they apply the same selection bias. I'm thinking of things like Gemini and SSB. If SSB could work out the challenges that make it hard to implement in non-JS, I think it could become something like email in its ubiquity.

I'm like you except I've reached a clarity: the Internet and anonymity destroyed free speech and it's now dead as an ideal.

The internet has shown that free speech simply doesn't work if literally anyone has the power to broadcast whatever they want to thousands of algorithmically selected users.

Comparing "speech" pre and post social media is like comparing "weaponry" between knives and nuclear weapons.

I can appreciate censorship if I thought the authorities and experts had any idea what they were doing. I don't think that's the case anywhere at this moment. Seems a good time to create new alternative spaces.

"And the other ones, where the Nazis, lunatics and scammers hang out.

I‘m still not sure what to take from that. "

Probably because the Nazis, etc have been pushed off the mainstream networks and had to find alternatives and the rest of the people didn't and those new/smaller networks haven't been required to censor yet.

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