- The buzz around recent revelations by Twitter CEO Elon Musk, and his merry band of misfit journalists, regarding the social media giant’s bias against conservative users, has caused many to speculate on whether these communications platforms can ever be fair.
- The answer to this question undoubtedly lies in how the companies choose to moderate. When Twitter began taking orders from the government on whom to ban and why, it formed many various moderation departments. These departments grew and grew, into a many-headed monster of censorship and corruption.
- Facebook, or “Meta”, upon answering the same call, went so far as to establish a seemingly independent “Oversight Board”.
These measures have been complete disasters. - Why? Well there is a simple answer, human error. Social media giants use a “community standards” model that leaves the decision to moderate to the “eye of the beholder”… and well, not everyone is beautiful.
- Many excitedly welcomed Twitter CEO Elon Musk when he came onboard with grandiose promises of transparency, fairness and preservation of free speech. Much of which has been little more than smoke and mirrors. Sure, we got some confirmation on what we already knew. Sure, some big name conservative accounts were restored. The vast majority of wrongfully banned accounts have not been. That seems to be the end of it for Musk. He has promised to remain a steadfast supporter of the “community standards” model. A model that is heavily weaponized against conservative and right leaning users, still.
- Without a major shift in policy or direct regulation from the federal government, to set real hard limits on censorship, things will never change. The limits on your free speech remain open to interpretation and that’s a major problem.
- What a scandal it would have been if not only had Nixon been freely able to waltz into the Watergate hotel rooms but the Watergate shutdown the DNC for him. Maybe kicked all of the Democrats out into the street and gave him whatever information he wanted. So why do people defend Twitter doing basically the same thing in the digital world?
- What if private companies simply refused service the BLM protest members and trespassed them from their stores? Maybe a private shipping company brought their semi-trucks to block them in the streets or sit outside their personal homes blaring horns. What if AT&T canceled their cellphone contracts and refused to service them again? What if the tables turned? Do they have no rights to communicate? No right to voice an opinion?
- My mind could think of a thousand ways to abuse the “private company” status to silence my political enemies. The doctrine that private companies are free to violate whatever rights they wish is a dangerous one we see playing out in countries like China, where social credit scores can literally destroy lives.
- Where else in society are we protected from hearing things that hurt our feelings, from things we find offensive? About seven years ago I was walking in front of the Massachusetts State House in downtown Boston. Standing mere feet outside the entryway were a group of Black Hebrew Israelite members. With their bullhorn and their video camera recording they preached loudly about their ideology. If you’ve never heard of them, now is your time to utilize Google, or some other search engine. Their beliefs are fraught with antisemitism and anti-white hatred.
- Were these individuals arrested? No. Were they forced to leave? No. Why? As much as I despise what they stand for, they have an absolute right to free speech. What they can’t do is attack me physically. Their ability to demonstrate their beliefs end where the law begins.
- That is what clear boundaries look like. Social media companies already have a system in place to protect feelings, it’s called the “block” button.
- If Musk is truly committed to free speech, he will set clear boundaries that do not rely on personal perspective or AI interpretation, without context, to moderate his platform. He will set clear boundaries that cannot be weaponized against one group of people.
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