• EmperorHenry@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    “It’s a private company and they can do what they want!”

    Is what people say to me when I advocate for the free speech rights of everyone. Now that you don’t like what the private company is doing it’s suddenly bad. All censorship and all throttling is bad.

    • HeavyDogFeet@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I mean, it is a private company and they can do what they want. It’s a shitty and childish thing that Musk is choosing to do but it’s his $44B dumpster fire to fuel as he pleases.

      Advocating for free speech rights for a private American company to be beholden to is stupid because it misunderstands everything about free speech laws work and how companies and content moderation work.

      The people who think Elon brought free speech to Twitter tend to also be the people who think free speech starts and ends at your right to use slurs without social consequences.

      • EmperorHenry@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Advocating for free speech rights for a private American company to be beholden to is stupid because it misunderstands everything about free speech laws work and how companies and content moderation work.

        Social media platforms have a liability shield. If they get to be completely faultless for everything that happens on their platform, why do they also get to control what happens on their platforms?

        • HeavyDogFeet@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Because they built the platform. It’s not a public good (or a town square) — the company foots the bill so they get to decide what they do and don’t want people to use it for.

    • Bongles@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      It’s a private company and they can do what they want… And people who use the service can complain about it getting worse.