Still, here I am because of the censorship and anti-competitive practices of big tech. Since Democrats gained control they have been on a roll banning all kinds of groups they disagree with politically.
So your argument is that tech companies conspired to remove Parler, etc. because they don't like right-wingers? What evidence do you have to support this?
Parler in particular had a huge problem with people posting stuff of a threatening and seditious nature and were given a chance to clean it up. They refused, so they were removed. Apple, Google, Amazon, etc. don't want to deal with the legal issues invited by companies that are severely lacking in community moderation standards. The first amendment gives them a right to dissociate with those groups.
So there's that. Also, Parler has a track record of banning left-wingers, which is interesting seeing as they are supposedly a safe haven for free speech. Could it be that Parler has the kind of political motivations behind it that you accuse big tech of?
I have always said the worst instances of abuse always happen when one party is in control. Overreach in the war on terror, pushing through affordable care with not a single republican vote, and tons of spending, although neither party seems to care about that any more.
Agreed. It will be interesting and probably a little scary to see what happens with Democrats completely in charge. As you said and have said years ago, the pendulum swings when political parties push too hard. The democrat majority is a product of the republicans overplaying their hand the last few years, and as predicted, they lost it all quickly as a consequence.
There isn%u2019t much to be done when the government extends its power. Limiting the power of big tech is something where we do have some control. Apple and Google own 99% of the smartphone market. When Parler started to become competition, within a few days Parler was kicked off both app stores. To finish them off Amazon kicked them off their cloud service.
I agree that Facebook, Apple, Google, and Amazon have too much control over the market and something should be done. It's one of the few things even democrats and republicans will agree with. Whether that's breaking the companies up physically or legislating them, etc. is where the disagreements usually start. I don't think Parler was targeted because they were "competition" as you suggest; Parler is not a competitor to Apple, Google, etc. as neither company has a social media platform and Parler is not in the smartphone hardware business. If anything, Apple, Google, and Amazon are losing money doing this. Parler got banned because they happily ignored problematic speech that they were warned about wouldn't fly on their hosts' services. This has been pretty well documented.
What do you believe is the remedy? Should these companies be forced to host any and all apps on their stores? Should they no longer be allowed to moderate their own content? Should they be forced to put themselves in legal and financial danger? What should the government do about it?
The reasons given were weak.
Here's Apple's reasoning:
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/apple-threatens-ban-parlerAs someone who has dealt with publishing apps on the App Store (and has incurred their wrath several times for pushing boundaries), this appears to be unusually nice behavior for Apple. They showed examples of the kinds of stuff they objected to and why it was objectionable, and gave them time to clean it up. Parler refused to even scrub the examples they were given, even though they violated their own TOS. Considering what happened on the 6th and what is being planned for the future, I don't see this reasoning as weak but I welcome your opinion.
They had been in existence for a few years, but when they moved to number 1 in the app store, and big tech didn%u2019t have to worry about government repercussions, they exhibited classic monopolistic/anti-competitive behavior and colluded to shut them down.
Again, to me this doesn't seem like a move made because of the dems taking over. The dems don't like tech companies either and you'd think they wouldn't want to attract any unwarranted attention from either side, especially considering how narrow of a majority the dems currently have. The bans happened directly in the aftermath of the Jan. 6th attacks, and seems much more likely the catalyst than perceived lightened political pressure, let alone a big tech conspiracy to "get away with censorship."
We can%u2019t easily divest ourselves from the government, but we can from big tech.
Huge respect for you putting your money where your mouth is. I too have stopped buying from Amazon. I've used Opera as a browser since forever, and I only use my Gmail through Thunderbird etc., so it's not like they're making ad revenue off me at least. I've moved more and more searches to DuckDuckGo, but Google search is miles ahead of all competitors unfortunately. Smartphones, you're kinda stuck with the big two.
I would say to those here who value freedom of speech, stop supporting the groups who don%u2019t. Stop giving away your money and data to people who support censorship.
I value freedom of speech obviously, but I respectfully disagree that big tech inherently doesn't value free speech. I just find it far-fetched to imagine decision makers for these companies sitting in an office on the top floor raging about right-wingers and their cursed free speech. I think their motivations are more or less strictly legal and financial. The first amendment doesn't protect you from the consequences of said speech, and this, to me, is the lesson Parler is learning the hard way. Similarly, Google, Amazon, etc. are facing their own consequences for their actions from people like you and me to varying degrees.
One question to ponder, and I'd like to hear your feedback. Do you think there could be unintended consequences if government were to step in and force big tech or social media to operate a certain way? Could there be trickle-down effects that make their way to this forum for instance? What makes social media companies inherently different as a private enterprise than The Village, and what makes tech retail different than Walmart?
I%u2019ve avoided the politics tab for a while because there is little point. I don%u2019t think a single person on here has ever changed their views, and barely even ever conceded a point.
It's all about who you argue with on here. As radicalized as this place has gotten over the last few years, I've had people tell me I've changed their views on here, and you've changed my views a time or two. Mostly it's a game of planting seeds and then being able to say "see, I told you I was right" years later. That's how you win the internets.
