Free speech on social media
- Thread starter wolly.green
- Start date
I've been heavily criticized a few times because I expressed discomfort with the idea of social media censorship, and often criticized Islam.
Like, to clarify, I believe that groups on Facebook or forums run by private individuals should try to create a safe and welcoming environment for users, I'm not saying people's feelings shouldn't be considered. But what really concerns me is the demand that a single set of values be imposed from on high, such that no individual group or platform has the right to question or reject those values. I'm uncomfortable with anything along the lines of laws that demand the upholding of specific moral principles as something that everyone must adhere to and enforce at societal level, regardless of their actual stance on them as an individual.
I just happen to think people should be given the freedom to decide what sort of spaces they participate in... for instance, maybe some people dislike cursing, vulgarity, anything sexual, and that's the kind of content they don't want to see, and they have moderators that protect them from that. Conversely, you could also have people who find religion and traditional views offensive, but are perhaps fine with vulgarity and sexuality. Those two kinds of spaces would need different sorts of moderation, and the people in them would share different values. Trying to impose a single set of values on everyone sounds like a terrible idea, because at least half of them will be very angry and insist they are being oppressed... or worse, if you try to straddle the line and compromise, both sides will see the other as oppressing them.
I think that the thing not being considered about regulating free speech on social media... according to whose values do we regulate it? And what will people who oppose those values think about that regulation, especially if the country is divided and half of them disagree with the values assumed as given by regulators? I guess where I differ from people who are okay with social media censorship, is I'm not comfortable enshrining any set of values, no matter how self-evident they might seem, as beyond question and something that everyone must accept as the starting point of their thinking. Because I think the real threat to freedom lies not in any specific set of values, but rather in the very notion that there are ideas or values that no one is ever allowed to question or speak against.
Like, to clarify, I believe that groups on Facebook or forums run by private individuals should try to create a safe and welcoming environment for users, I'm not saying people's feelings shouldn't be considered. But what really concerns me is the demand that a single set of values be imposed from on high, such that no individual group or platform has the right to question or reject those values. I'm uncomfortable with anything along the lines of laws that demand the upholding of specific moral principles as something that everyone must adhere to and enforce at societal level, regardless of their actual stance on them as an individual.
I just happen to think people should be given the freedom to decide what sort of spaces they participate in... for instance, maybe some people dislike cursing, vulgarity, anything sexual, and that's the kind of content they don't want to see, and they have moderators that protect them from that. Conversely, you could also have people who find religion and traditional views offensive, but are perhaps fine with vulgarity and sexuality. Those two kinds of spaces would need different sorts of moderation, and the people in them would share different values. Trying to impose a single set of values on everyone sounds like a terrible idea, because at least half of them will be very angry and insist they are being oppressed... or worse, if you try to straddle the line and compromise, both sides will see the other as oppressing them.
I think that the thing not being considered about regulating free speech on social media... according to whose values do we regulate it? And what will people who oppose those values think about that regulation, especially if the country is divided and half of them disagree with the values assumed as given by regulators? I guess where I differ from people who are okay with social media censorship, is I'm not comfortable enshrining any set of values, no matter how self-evident they might seem, as beyond question and something that everyone must accept as the starting point of their thinking. Because I think the real threat to freedom lies not in any specific set of values, but rather in the very notion that there are ideas or values that no one is ever allowed to question or speak against.
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When authoritarianism is all the rage in western society particularly in education and cancel culture being the norm in recent years it doesn't bode well for free speech in general. Just look at the UK where there are now morality police going after people for just about anything that isn't woke while actual crime goes on without consequence.