KiigelHeart said:
Imo doxxing can be done by sharing public information. It might not be illegal but social media platforms should monitor such behaviour. Identifying information like names, phone numbers, home address etc are publicly available in many countries. If this information is shared in a way it's likely to lead to harrasment and threats then it's not ok. Twitter might have had more understandable reasons to block NYP but in my opinion it was still a bigger deal to block such news. And I read they consider they made a mistake blocking it and it wasn't a clear-cut violation of their policy against hacked materials. Anyway, I do not think it was a good decision and this laptop became a holy grail of conspiracy theories and far-right propaganda. And I don't agree with you Musk can or should be allowed to create all the rules he wants :P Imo these huge social media platforms should be considered kind a like 'public squares' when it comes to freedom to express your opinion or share news. Free speech doesn't cover fake news, doxxing, threats and other illegal stuff of course. But he shouldn't ban people for their opinions. A right-wing echo chamber isn't what conservatives (maybe outside of the most extreme ones) want either, so Twitter will certainly die if Musk starts banning left-leaning opinions. It's not looking good so far. |
The thing about Twitter blocking the NYT info is that they did discuss it and err on the side of caution. My thing is that any particular group can make a mistake and go from that mistake. No big deal to be honest. This is how you tighten your moderation. Whichever media site gets the right balance will probably get the lionshare of users because really, everyone doesn't want to hear every opinion from every person
As for Musk being able to do whatever he wants since he bought Twitter, I am actually in favor of it. Its his product, he paid the money to be the boss and he get to set whatever rules he want with the product. As long as he does not trip on any particular laws then all is good. If Musk want to turn Twitter into Gab go right ahead but that will eat big time into how twitter will be able to make money and limit its reach outside of the US. Musk can put everything behind the blue check mark if he so desires, if its successful then he reaps the rewards if not it will be a pretty big dent into his mystique.
I do not agree that every big social media site needs to be a public square. The thing is there isn't such a thing as free speech on someone else product. Just like you cannot go into your job and say whatever you want, you cannot go into any business and say whatever you want etc. If you want a public square then lobby your local, state or federal government to create one which does not suppress speech based but even still their will always be limits. Case in point is a site like GAB. You can pretty much say whatever you want doesn't matter how racist, homophobic, you name it. The question is why isn't that site more popular. The reason probably is that most people actually do not want to be bombarded with it.
I feel what will define most of these social media site which has defined most of anything when its used by a large group of people is money and users. The users go where they feel comfortable and the money will go to the place where the users are at. Why did a lot of company's suspend advertising on twitter. It was because Musk in the beginning was threaten to make twitter like GAB and none of those corporations want their ads associated with all that Free speech. Now Musk had to pull back big time on his plans as I am sure a number of people told him twitter operate in multiple countries and his ideal of free speech doesn't work on an international stage.