Originally published at: Musk's Twitter sued for allowing anti-semitic hate speech in Germany | Boing Boing
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There’s substantial evidence that allowing hate speech on social media directly leads to real-world violence, so I hope they fucking drag Elno and force some changes. His whole “free speech absolutist” stance has been shown to be a complete lie as he’s completely willing to censor stuff on both personal whim and when the right people ask, so he really can’t hide behind it.
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This was inevitable the moment that this idiot started down this path. Hope they fuck him up real good!
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Considering all the work he does to cater to and promote neo-Nazis, anti-Semites, racists, TERFs, Proud Boys, and domestic terrorists, Elon should be considered a fully mask-off Nazi.
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argues that Musk-owned Twitter is failing to enforce its own rules against antisemitic content, including holocaust denial.
This is the key. Musk might have had a slim case if he’d said at the beginning “I’m wiping all rules against bigoted content – free speech!” But he didn’t, probably because the platform would have been immediately banned in Germany in a way that would have impacted ad revenue. He’s screwed here.
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Musk probably has no idea was a “free speech absolutist” really is other than code for allowing things he wants to say, and of course getting rid of things he doesn’t like for example the private jet tracker. I’m a lawyer and also pretty much a free speech absolutist in real life - which means I don’t think governments in general should restrict speech (including via the kinds of hate speech laws Germany has - even if I understand the history and rationale I ultimately think more speech is better, but German lawyers I know and respect disagree on this point).
Private companies on the other hand absolutely can and should restrict speech. Including hate speech of the kind that has really appeared to proliferate on Twitter this year. Of course if you own the house you get to set the rules for what is said in your living room, but if those things happen to be racist, sexist, homophobic, antisemitic, or just plain assholery, I’m not going to come visit you and you might wonder why you have no friends (or, to make the analogy plain, why advertisers have abandoned you and you are now $44Bn poorer).
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So pointing out that Modi is a genocidaire… BAD.
Holocaust advertisements… FINE.
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Two ruinous continent wide wars, multiple genocides, and the first to be turned to glass in a not hypothetical global thermonuclear war.
Europe — and Germany — have zero fucks to give to Elongated Muskrat’s “free speech absolutism.”
I hope the fine is so high he’ll have to live 1000 years to pay it off.
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I think, more fundamentally, he also shares a certain right-wing notion of what “free speech” is, which is “I get to force you to listen to what I want to say.” But yeah, it’s one-sided to the point of being solipsistic, as it’s about everyone else listening to him (although he’s willing to extend that out slight to people like him) and thus he’s also perfectly happy to ban the things that upset him personally, or ban things on behalf of governments which can impact his businesses (e.g. China, India).
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I moderate a tiny little part of the internet.
Let me tell you…
…you do not want the anonymous masses to say the first thing that comes into their heads when they know there are no personal consequences for doing so. That way lies the absolute worst of humanity.
It is the civility of common culture and our shared struggles, and the consequences for being evil that hold our precarious way of life together. Even in my small part of the internet I know what the other side looks like. You do not want it.
“At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.”
– Aristotle
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A well moderated society is a polite society
Thank you, as always
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