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Comment by pfisherman | Hacker News Reader

I do and don’t understand all the hubbub about “free speech” on Twitter and other social platforms.

I can understand the perspective that if someone is making claims that your platform / forum allows “free speech” then people are justified in being upset when this is not the case.

On the other hand the rule since the days of dial up BBSs is: the sysop can do whatever they want with their system, and you are owed nothing. If people do not like how they operate, then they migrate somewhere else. Sure it sucks when you get on the wrong side of a sysop and get banned from a popular board, but that’s just the game.

The era of mobile phones / internet is truly the eternal September. :)

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"I don't understand why people are upset when they get banned from the 40% of all roads, parks, and sidewalks that are owned by GloboCorp. In the old days of private homes, sure it sucked when you got thrown out of a houseparty, but that's just the game. It's both private property, there is no difference."

Oh no, you got banned from those places for wearing a nazi armband, but there's multiple other roads, parks, and sidewalks, that allow that (e.g. 4chan), just as easily accessible.

Alternatively, oh no you got banned for spreading factual information like there is insufficient evidence to rule out the possibility of a lab leak, so now you'll be relegated to places where you can have no impact on the public discourse.

4chan is also available for that

Yesterday several of my friends were timed out on Facebook for criticizing Kanye because they linked to a rumble snippet/clip/whatever.

That's about as ham fisted a censorship policy as you can have.

Please don't be dismissive of valid free speech concerns. The open Internet is a critical feature of the kind of society I'd like to live in.

> The open Internet is a critical feature of the kind of society I'd like to live in

You don't get to dictate the kind of society other people want though.

And given the objective data we have people like moderated platforms.

I don’t know that Twitter or Facebook are like public roads anymore than any other board / social app / site.

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