Elon Musk buys Twitter to bring back Free Speech

[Rowan Amore]

If Twitter shut the doors tomorrow, would it affect your life in any way?  Anyone's life?   Facebook?  These forums?  

[Finite]

If you walk into a library and are told to be quiet are you being censored? 
 

 

[CaithLynnSayes]

Just now, Finite said:

If you walk into a library and are told to be quiet are you being censored? 
 

 

Strawman Argument.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

1 minute ago, Rowan Amore said:

If Twitter shut the doors tomorrow, would it affect your life in any way?  Anyone's life?   Facebook?  These forums?  

I think it would, albeit probably mostly indirectly.

Twitter is the primary engine that has fueled scores of controversies, conspiracy theories, and even actual information campaigns. It has been a force for both good and ill in all our lives. 

[Arduenn Schwartzman]

6 minutes ago, CaithLynnSayes said:

Elon doesn't like censorship.

Hey you. Yeah you. c'mere.

Wanna buy a nice, big, shiny bridge?

https://www.businessinsider.com/free-speech-absolutist-elon-musk-censors-employees-critics-2022-3

[Sid Nagy]

22 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

If Twitter shut the doors tomorrow, would it affect your life in any way?  Anyone's life?   Facebook?  These forums?  

I would miss these forums the first couple of days and some of the forum members even a bit longer. I have no Facebook and I can do totally without Twitter.
Twitter is handy to follow a lot of news sites in one glance, but all three are not essential for life.
I could even easily do without SL for that matter.

Edited April 26, 2022 by Sid Nagy
Non natives find always reasons to edit.

[Rowan Amore]

3 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

I think it would, albeit probably mostly indirectly.

Twitter is the primary engine that has fueled scores of controversies, conspiracy theories, and even actual information campaigns. It has been a force for both good and ill in all our lives. 

Then perhaps things would go back to the way they were before all of that social media shenanigans.  News being presented as facts and not opinions.  I remember back in the day, whenever an opinion was broadcast on tv, it was stated that it was an opinion.  Now it seems so many ' News' shows are nothing BUT opinions masquerading as facts.  I'd like to think people knew the difference but far too many do not.  Personally, as far as social media is concerned, It's done far more harm than good.

[Silent Mistwalker]

13 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

If Twitter shut the doors tomorrow, would it affect your life in any way?  Anyone's life?   Facebook?  These forums?  

Twitter? Nope.

Facebook? Nope.

These forums? I'd have that many fewer people to talk to and there aren't any news ones anywhere in sight. My world would shrink even smaller than it is now. It's already pretty small, consisting of only one other person. Oh well.

[Rowan Amore]

1 minute ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

Twitter? Nope.

Facebook? Nope.

These forums? I'd have that many fewer people to talk to and there aren't any news ones anywhere in sight. My world would shrink even smaller than it is now. It's already pretty small, consisting of only one other person. Oh well.

I'd miss you!  🤗

[Sid Nagy]

@Rowan AmoreI second that.
@Silent Mistwalker I would miss you too.

 

Sorry that I didn't quote properly, but there was a wall of text falling out of the sky out of the blue. 

 

Edited April 26, 2022 by Sid Nagy

[Silent Mistwalker]

6 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

I'd miss you!  🤗

Aww. I'd miss you, too! 🤗

[Silent Mistwalker]

3 minutes ago, Sid Nagy said:

@Rowan AmoreI second that.
@Silent Mistwalker I would miss you too.

 

Sorry that I didn't quote properly, but there was a wall of text falling out of the sky out of the blue. 

 

Thank you. I'd miss the teddy bear, too! 🤗

[Lindal Kidd]

“Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are wiser than one man. How’s that again? I missed something.

"Monarchy is based on the assumption that one man is wiser than a million men. Maybe we'd better replay that one too."

-Robert A. Heinlein

[Sid Nagy]

I borrowed the group hug emo from VVO.
The forums can better stay online I guess.

Edited April 26, 2022 by Sid Nagy

[Silent Mistwalker]

1 minute ago, Lindal Kidd said:

“Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are wiser than one man. How’s that again? I missed something.

"Monarchy is based on the assumption that one man is wiser than a million men. Maybe we'd better replay that one too."

-Robert A. Heinlein

That's why the US is supposed to be a democratic republic.

[Lindal Kidd]

19 minutes ago, Luna Bliss said:

We know that when the right to be racist, misogynist or homophobic is given precedence over the right of people not to be attacked or abused, social media becomes a dangerous and toxic space

Being a jerk on social media is words. A balanced response would be words in return. When the "right of people not to be attacked" (with words, mind you) is enforced by censorship, or worse, by "cancellation" (the process of attacking a jerk's income), it's no longer balanced.

I would also suggest that social media will ALWAYS be a dangerous and toxic space. Its rise over the last ten years goes hand in hand with the polarization of our country. Might be better to just ignore it and let it die, in the words of a famous thread.

I hold no love for the right wing jerks out there. I hold none for the people who think they have a right never to be offended or upset by anything at all, either. I have no idea whether Musk's new toy is a good thing or a bad thing, but I do have a deep love for freedom of speech. We'll see if this promotes or degrades that.

[Rat Luv]

39 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

If Twitter shut the doors tomorrow, would it affect your life in any way?  Anyone's life?   Facebook?  These forums?  

I’m not really a FB fan but most of my family and friends use it, so it would be a shame for me if it just shut down, especially as one friend is always losing their phone  And it was useful when the local Covid support groups started up. But otherwise, I'd just keep in touch with them another way...

But I'd be gutted if Twitter went! I follow language tutorials, recipes, news updates, interesting music chat and get all the latest jokes and memes...I can't actually imagine life without Twitter, to be honest. I just avoid all the political fights.

But I survived the end of MySpace so can probably survive anything ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Sid Nagy]

Keep in mind that there is no law that guaranties freedom of speech on social media.
We only have Musk's blue eyes that say he will guaranty it.
Not the most trustworthy person in the world when I see that he isn't faithful to his own principles in the past.
And as Innula already pointed out before, Europe has its own views on what is legal and what not on social media.

Edited April 26, 2022 by Sid Nagy

[Ayashe Ninetails]

9 minutes ago, Lindal Kidd said:

Being a jerk on social media is words.

In the majority of instances, yeah. I have seen a few cases where more malicious trolls will try and trigger epileptic seizures in someone with flashing images, or try to dox people via photos/videos. It gets pretty ugly out there. Twitter recently-ish (last year) updated their safety policies to include sharing private media/video without the target's consent.

[Theresa Tennyson]

4 hours ago, Arielle Popstar said:

 

If he takes it private he becomes the board doesn't he? And when someone buys and becomes the owner of a company, then why should they be accountable to anyone in regards to what they do in or with that business to the limit and extent of the applicable laws? This isn't China...yet. 

Were you saying that about Twitter before Elon Musk bought it?

[Coffee Pancake]

PANIC OVER 

It's not really going to be about free speech.

And as Twitter exists in the US and EU, they are either going to have to limit who can see who's tweets based on geography (ha!) or just ban certain things everywhere.

 

[Paul Hexem]

1 hour ago, Finite said:

If you walk into a library and are told to be quiet are you being censored? 

Depends. Can I still say whatever I want quietly?

49 minutes ago, Lindal Kidd said:

“Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are wiser than one man. How’s that again? I missed something.

"Monarchy is based on the assumption that one man is wiser than a million men. Maybe we'd better replay that one too."

-Robert A. Heinlein

I can never remember if the other one is about democracy or capitalism where it says it's the worst option, except for all the others. 

[Paul Hexem]

4 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

PANIC OVER 

It's not really going to be about free speech.

And as Twitter exists in the US and EU, they are either going to have to limit who can see who's tweets based on geography (ha!) or just ban certain things everywhere.

Well. Regional access to specific posts could be possible.

[Coffee Pancake]

7 minutes ago, Paul Hexem said:

Well. Regional access to specific posts could be possible.

in a world or retweets and screen capped tweets, not a chance.

[Paul Hexem]

2 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

in a world or retweets and screen capped tweets, not a chance.

Yeah, but then that's the users violating the law and circumventing the system, Twitter itself is still complying.

Same way LL isn't liable for all the stolen content they profit from on the MP.