Social Media Regulations -

[Pontiff Sulyvahn]

Have we reached a point where social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and (Reddit?) need to be regulated in order to stop censorship against users? Does the old argument, ‘it’s a private company they can do what they want just don’t use it if you don’t like it’, apply now that these forms of communication are enormous entities? I’m not talking about being banned for calling people nigger faggots, but actual censorship because someone has a different opinion than the technocratic rulers of social media. I don’t have a solution, but I’ve been mostly against government intervention in free markets; however with recent events I’m starting to change my mind. Fuck the entire United States government and the corrupt politicians that work for it, but also fuck tech conglomerates that are hell bent on ruling the world.

 

[IN 041]

You can't polish a turd, nuke social media from orbit and ban smartphones having internet access.

 

[Exorbital Columnations]

Stop using sites you disagree with.
Or
Stop crying when the inevitable happens.

 

[ES 195]

No, all social media is trash but they're allowed to self censor if they want to.

The only actual issue is people being able to shut sites down by complaining to ISPs and hosts, those companies should be regulated. They shouldn't be dropping customers just over some complaints from randos, it should be over actual ToS issues and American hosts should honor the 1st amendment.
Monopolies shouldn't exist even if the mindless masses scream, yell, and threaten for it.

 

[Never Scored]

Just get off social media. In ten years we're going to be talking about how it's cigarettes for your brain and makes you go mental. If anyone throws a party and doesn't invite you because you're not on Facebook, fuck 'em they're not your friend.

Give me net neutrality so I can build my own shit if I want and fuck off with regulation.

 

[Dutch Courage]

Social media at large is not unlike message forum culture of the late 1990's-early 2000's.

In those days, someone would set up a board on some topic. The halcyon days would follow, and everybody had fun. A board culture of sorts would emerge. The popularity of the forum, however, meant that it would inevitably by overrun by newfags who were ignorant of the board's culture and would start saying rude or off-topic things. The boards would then be forced to add moderators, who could be counted on to misunderstand, misinterpret, or misread posts on a regular basis, and make illogical deletions or bans. Some were outright corrupt, others were just stupid. This would then be followed by a war of sorts, where various cliques would do battle over the direction of the forum. Eventually, a bunch of people would quit in a huff, or start their own boards that were supposedly true to the ideals of the original forum but somehow never really were. Everything would turn into a mess.

We've seen analogues for these throughout the Social Media Age (which began around the mid-00's; Ages are very short these days), only writ tremendously large. Nobody outside a forum cared what wars and intrigue happened on the forum. With Twitter, we have the equivalent of forum shitposts making international news.

Regulation isn't the answer to this, although leaving things up to Silicon Valley means accepting surveillance and servitude, as well as a batty, wacked-out worldview that even makes some liberals blush. Damned if I know what to do. But it all seems very familiar.

 

[Pontiff Sulyvahn]

Regulation isn't the answer to this, although leaving things up to Silicon Valley means accepting surveillance and servitude, as well as a batty, wacked-out worldview that even makes some liberals blush. Damned if I know what to do. But it all seems very familiar.

I agree. Besides regulation or flat out removing I don’t know how to solve the Silicon Valley question. I have never been banned or silenced from any major social media site (and I don’t use them at all) but I won’t stand by and do nothing and allow it get worse. “Just don’t use it lol” isn’t a solution. They should not have power to artificially influence people who use the platform into fulfilling their worldviews. I feel the same way about special interest groups and nonprofits that control every aspect of America’s government from local to federal.

 

[Webby's Boyfriend]

Social media at large is not unlike message forum culture of the late 1990's-early 2000's.

In those days, someone would set up a board on some topic. The halcyon days would follow, and everybody had fun. A board culture of sorts would emerge. The popularity of the forum, however, meant that it would inevitably by overrun by newfags who were ignorant of the board's culture and would start saying rude or off-topic things. The boards would then be forced to add moderators, who could be counted on to misunderstand, misinterpret, or misread posts on a regular basis, and make illogical deletions or bans. Some were outright corrupt, others were just stupid. This would then be followed by a war of sorts, where various cliques would do battle over the direction of the forum. Eventually, a bunch of people would quit in a huff, or start their own boards that were supposedly true to the ideals of the original forum but somehow never really were. Everything would turn into a mess.

We've seen analogues for these throughout the Social Media Age (which began around the mid-00's; Ages are very short these days), only writ tremendously large. Nobody outside a forum cared what wars and intrigue happened on the forum. With Twitter, we have the equivalent of forum shitposts making international news.

That's so true. But message boards held on much longer, way into the 2010s too. "Only" since 2013-'15 did I start to see nearly all boards that I use or have used to loose members fast. When it comes to topics like entertainment, sports, academia and hobbies, message boards still were the state of the art just 10 years ago but are virtually dead now.

The Farms are something else though, it would be hard to archive anything in a Facebook group where old postings get lost in the timeline quick until the whole thing is deleted for obvious reasons after three weeks anyways...

 

[Never Scored]

We've seen analogues for these throughout the Social Media Age (which began around the mid-00's; Ages are very short these days), only writ tremendously large. Nobody outside a forum cared what wars and intrigue happened on the forum. With Twitter, we have the equivalent of forum shitposts making international news.

Imagine if you were posting on a message board in the early 2000s and someone got banned, and then people were on the news saying that the mods ruined his business, protesting to get him back. Mother fucker don't base your business on someone else's message board.