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asteroidbelt | 3 years ago

This is not exactly free speech issue, because Twitter does not ban based on political preferences/opinions.

This is dishonest competition (all other major companies do the same but not as blunt: Facebook, Google, Amazon for example). Twitter could be an exception. But it won't.

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dawnbreez|3 years ago

> because Twitter does not ban based on political preferences/opinions.

Because the journalists Musk banned were definitely not banned for their opinions on Musk?

I'm going to preempt the 'harassment' argument--the photo Musk posted, when he was claiming that the journalists caused him to be stalked, was found to have been taken an hour after Musk's jet took off and nowhere near any airport.

asteroidbelt|3 years ago

> were definitely not banned for their opinions on Musk?

They banned because they shared his jet location.

> he was claiming that the journalists caused him to be stalked

Did he claim that specifically? I'm not sure. But if he did, these claims are probably incorrect.

But that does not cancel the fact that journalists were posting jet location after he asked (via twitter policies) not to.

timeon|3 years ago

> all other major companies do the same but not as blunt: Facebook, Google, Amazon for example

I do not think this is true. At least not in this scale. You can post on FB about Twitter or Mastodon. You can search on Google about DuckDuckGo[0] or OpenStreetMap and so on.

[0] Even first suggestion for me when I enter the 'd' char.

asteroidbelt|3 years ago

> You can post on FB about Twitter or Mastodon

Because people do not threaten FB to leave to Mastodon. But you can't link (maybe you can now, but some time ago you couldn't) to Telegram inside Whatsapp, because Facebook considered Telegram a competitor.

> You can search on Google about DuckDuckGo

Again, because Google does not consider DDG a competitor.

But a while ago (long before the war when everybody were at peace), Russia was the only country where Google Chrome did not offer the choice of search engine. Because Russia was the only country where Google was not the leading search engine. There's famous commit in Chromium repository which explicitly excludes Russia.

berniedurfee|3 years ago

I believe I’ve seen DDG ads on Google as well.

yellowapple|3 years ago

> This is not exactly free speech issue, because Twitter does not ban based on political preferences/opinions.

Freedom of speech encompasses far more than just "political preferences/opinions".

> This is dishonest competition (all other major companies do the same but not as blunt: Facebook, Google, Amazon for example).

1. I know of exactly zero other social media platforms that ban the mere mention of other social media platforms.

2. Precisely none of those companies are owned entirely by individuals claiming to be "free speech absolutists".

3. Mastodon is not a company, major or otherwise. It's a "competitor" to Twitter in the same sense that me raising chickens in my backyard makes me a "competitor" to Tyson or Foster Farms.

asteroidbelt|3 years ago

> I know of exactly zero other social media platforms that ban the mere mention of other social media platforms

WhatsApp banned links to Telegram.

Facebook ranks links to Twitter/YouTube lower than content without such links.

> Precisely none of those companies are owned entirely by individuals claiming to be "free speech absolutists"

Either Elon Musk is no longer "free speech absolutist" or does not consider Twitter policy must match his personal preferences.

> Mastodon is not a company, major or otherwise

Competition may be not only for money, but also competition for users. It is quite possible that critical number of users will leave Twitter for Mastodon.

cristoperb|3 years ago

> This is not exactly free speech issue, because Twitter does not ban based on political preferences/opinions.

Maybe not as much before Musk, but it does now:

https://theintercept.com/2022/11/29/elon-musk-twitter-andy-n...

asteroidbelt|3 years ago

The article is propaganda junk.

Did not read every accusation from it, but it mention for example, Andy Ngo and VPS_Report.

Here is the tweet about both of them:

https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1594550575383072770

I must say, VPS_Report is an evil person. I don't know if he deserves his right to speech after he posted his threats, but I won't miss him on Twitter.

Andy Ngo is fine. You may disagree with him, but he only does journalist work.

rocket_surgeron|3 years ago

You are correct in that this is not a free speech issue. Private organizations can control what is said on their platform.

You are 100% incorrect in that free speech is not, has never been, and will never be limited to political preferences/opinions.

Commercial, frivolous, inconsequential, satirical, and all other forms of free and independent thought are "speech".

"Drink more Ovaltine" is speech the same way "slavery is bad" is speech. These two disparate utterances are equally important and protected as "speech".

"I like big butts and I cannot lie" is speech as important as a treatise on political theory.

The comment you replied to lampoons Musk's "free speech absolutist" schtick. A nuance you have failed to appreciate.

What hasn't been noted here, yet, as far as I can tell, is that the EU prohibits this type of behavior (banning mentions of competitors) and it will be interesting to see how they respond. But that's an antitrust matter, not free speech.

easygenes|3 years ago

Well, in the context of Musk's entire public premise for buying Twitter being to provide an at-scale safe haven for online free speech, it absolutely is a free speech issue.

mind-blight|3 years ago

It's very likely an antitrust issue. This is a significant policy shift meant to stifle a competitor through market dominance rather than competition. I'd be surprised if the consumer protection bureau doesn't start an investigation

Spooky23|3 years ago

This guy sold “full self driving, someday” for $10,000 for years with no delivery. He doesn’t give a shit about consumer protection agencies.

jesboat|3 years ago

> This is dishonest competition (all other major companies do the same but not as blunt: Facebook, Google, Amazon for example). Twitter could be an exception. But it won't.

During the #deletefacebook movement, Facebook didn't ban links to or discussion of competitors.

asteroidbelt|3 years ago

Perhaps because not a lot of people posted links to their new profiles on Facebook and Facebook did not consider that a threat.

But Facebook bans links to Telegram in WhatsApp.

Also Facebook ranks posts with links to Twitter (or YouTube) lower than other posts.