Elon Musk buys and ruins Twitter

I'm With Stupid said:
I think the issue isn't control, it's accountability. The problem is that the people who run these platforms like the argue that they are nothing but a tool and bear absolutely no responsibility for the content that appears on them. This allows, for example, Pornhub to literally host child porn and the owners of the website to have no legal consequences for doing so because they argue that they're just a tool and took it down when notified. Nevermind that they also had no way of stopping the exact same videos being uploaded again and again almost immediately after they were removed.

The reality is that these platforms are not publishers in the traditional sense because they don't choose and edit the content that goes on their platform. However, they are absolutely not just some tool, because they are publishing the content and disseminating it to a wide audience. They are also making editorial decisions about who gets to see what content. It's immaterial that a lot of that process is automated. And given those facts, it is absolutely a valid discussion to consider making them legally responsible for harm caused by things appearing on their platform, especially when they have demonstrably done little-to-nothing to stop it.
Click to expand...
I disagree. Website owners can be held accountable for aspects of their content if it's illegal. This has been tested many times for example by copyright owners with movie/tv show torrents, pirating and that kind of thing. They all argued the same thing which is they offered a tool for sharing files legally or illegally... And they were jailed.

The question really is what appetite do political leaders have to prosecute social media company owners or hold them accountable? The real answer is none because political parties and leaders directly benefit from it themselves. The former leader of the Lib Dems who campaigned against Brexit now has a major job at Facebook of all places! Social media has become the biggest political weapon in history.
 
Last edited:
inbetween said:
I disagree. Website owners can be held accountable for aspects of their content if it's illegal. This has been tested many times for example by copyright owners with movie/tv show torrents, pirating and that kind of thing. They all argued the same thing which is they offered a tool for sharing files legally or illegally... And they were jailed.
Click to expand...
They do up until a point. And that point usually correlates with how big the website is. If I started a forum like this that allowed people (through negligence) to upload copyrighted content or illegal content, I would most likely end up in prison. But when it comes to Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, etc, the worst that can happen is that the company gets fined. There is absolutely no consequence for the people making the decisions. Hell, when it comes to pornographic websites, they were almost entirely built on stealing other people's content and sharing it, but they had the backing of huge venture capitalists, so they got away with it and basically destroyed the industry for a lot of people. Twitter (and all social media) publishes illegal content every day. Its algorithms recommend illegal content to its users every day. And yet we have created a system where as long as they pay enough lip service to removing it when it's reported, there are basically no consequences to publishing such material.

If a newspaper published an untrue story that led to someone's suicide, I suspect the consequences would be pretty severe. But social media can do the same and only the people spreading the story, if anyone, are even likely to get into trouble.
 
neel said:
Click to expand...

More drivel.

If you said some of the things that are put on X in the real world you'd be put in prison.

In fact people were in the recent riots, Musk wasn't adhering to the law then, he was encouraging and facilitating people to break it.

It's not censorship to remove racism, abuse, rape and death threats. Freedom of speech doesn't mean freedom from consequences.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top
✖
  AdBlock Detected
Bluemoon relies on advertising to pay our hosting fees. Please support the site by disabling your ad blocking software to help keep the forum sustainable. Thanks.