#free speech absolutists

[odinsblog]

Wait, don’t tell me the “free speech,” “fuck your feelings” tough guys are upset about this? Hypocrites. They can dish it out, but they sure cannot take it. Delicate ass snowflakes ❄️

LMAO. It’s part of the official Congressional records, now and forevermore.

[kineticpenguin]

On March 25, Judge Charles Breyer granted CCDH’s motions and threw out the case. His decision leaves no doubt as to his views on X’s lawsuit: “Sometimes it is unclear what is driving a litigation, and only by reading between the lines of a complaint can one attempt to surmise a plaintiff's true purpose. Other times, a complaint is so unabashedly and vociferously about one thing that there can be no mistaking that purpose. This case represents the latter circumstance. This case is about punishing the Defendants for their speech.”

[tanadrin]

For some reason I get a lot of asks imagining I'm sitting over here in Europe, watching the U.S. political system set itself on fire and cackling with glee, rubbing my hands from the safe and totally unperturbed perch of glorious European social democracy.

I'm not! I want the U.S. to do well, both out of self-interest (what happens in the U.S. affects the whole world; I have many friends and family there), and because I like it when countries do well in general. And there are things that even for all the shitshow that it is the U.S. does not consistently fuck up like Germany fucks up--for instance, you do not have the police arresting people at protests in the U.S. right now simply for holding up signs criticizing Israel, because it turns out that when you make technical carve-outs for "hate speech" in your free expression laws, a lot of shit that the government doesn't like gets reclassified as hate speech.

German politics is deeply fucked, it's just fucked differently from American politics.

[astoriachef]

[jenovacomplete]

mum's starting to scold me for taking the lord's name in vain :)

[trump666traitor]

[churchcamp420]

[coconut-window]

today is philosophy day oh boy

[missbaphomet]

What’s a “free speech absolutist”? Never heard the term before.

Free speech absolutism is the belief that the right of free speech should not be infringed upon in any case, even if it means that people say things that are distasteful. It is the belief that you have the right to say whatever you want without legal repercussions.

Yes, this includes racists and homophobes and other bigots, but this also includes political dissidents and activists. No one should have the right to prosecute you for your thoughts. (Besides, no one is immune to the court of public opinion).

If you would like a good example, feel free to look into the Markus Meechan/Nazi Pug incident.

For a crash course, he jokingly taught his pet pug Buddah the trick "shake" with the verbal command "seig heil" or "gas the jews" because he knew his girlfriend (now wife) would hate that. In the beginning of the video he blatantly states the following:

"My girlfriend is always ranting and raving about how cute and adorable her wee dog is so I thought I would turn him into the least cute thing I could think of, which is a Nazi."

He posted a video of this to YouTube in 2016 and was arrested for suspicion of breaking the 2003 communications act and was convicted in 2018. He was given a fine of £800, which he (rightfully IMO) refused to pay, which sparked a massive conversion about free speech in the UK.

This is important because the moment it becomes ok to prosecute people for what they say, no one is safe. Even the most milquetoast centrist with no strong political opinions could be arrested and charged.

[odinsblog]

On July 10, 2023, the Specialized Criminal Court, Saudi Arabia’s counterterrorism tribunal, convicted Muhammad al-Ghamdi, 54, a retired Saudi teacher, of several criminal offenses related solely to his peaceful expression online. The court sentenced him to death, using his tweets, retweets, and YouTube activity as the evidence against him.

Repression in Saudi Arabia has reached a terrifying new stage when a court can hand down the death penalty for nothing more than peaceful tweets,” said Joey Shea, Saudi Arabia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Saudi authorities have escalated their campaign against all dissent to mind-boggling levels and should reject this travesty of justice.”

👉🏿 https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/08/29/saudi-arabia-man-sentenced-death-tweets

[hellyeahheroes]

Has Britain Become Less Tolerant (BBC Big Questions) by Rowan Ellis

This is a bit different entry in thought provoking series as I share it less due to what Rowan is saying and more to demonstrate how supposedly “objective” mainstream media blatantly favors right-wing opinion - loaded questions from the host, biased audience, talking over Rowan and other people on her side, etc. And second is because I want you to keep that video and all these “free speech absolutists” in mind tomorrow, when you’ll be watching different, more recent video from her.

-Admin

[tomorrowusa]

Social media barons once again kowtow to authoritarians.

Ethno-nationalist authoritarian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India has been the subject of a series of critical documentaries on the BBC. The rightwing control freak contacted numerous platforms to suppress the docs. He got a favorable reception from them.

Elon Musk Caves to Pressure From India to Remove BBC Doc Critical of Modi

Twitter and YouTube censored a report critical of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in coordination with the government of India, according to a top Indian official. Officials called for the Big Tech companies to take action against a BBC documentary exploring Modi’s role in a genocidal 2002 massacre in the Indian state of Gujarat, which the officials deemed a “propaganda piece.”

In a series of posts, Kanchan Gupta, senior adviser at the Indian government’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, denounced the BBC documentary as “hostile propaganda and anti-India garbage.” He said that both Twitter and YouTube had been ordered to block links to the film, before adding that the platforms “have complied with the directions.”

[ ... ]

This act of censorship — wiping away allegations of crimes against humanity committed by a foreign leader — sets a worrying tone for Twitter, especially in light of its new management.

Elon Musk’s self-identification as a “free-speech absolutist” has been a primary talking point for the billionaire as he has sought to explain why he took ownership of the platform last year.

It looks like Elon is willing to put aside his “free-speech absolutist” approach if it might threaten Tesla sales in India.

And a familiar (ugly) face is returning to Facebook/Instagram.

Meta allows Donald Trump back on Facebook and Instagram

Former President Donald Trump will be allowed to return to Facebook and Instagram more than two years after he was banned for inciting violence when his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Trump's accounts will be reinstated "in the coming weeks" with new guardrails "to deter repeat offenses," Nick Clegg, president of global affairs at Facebook's parent company Meta, said on Wednesday.

[ ... ]

Meta's announcement drew immediate blowback from civil rights and advocacy groups.

"[Meta CEO] Mark Zuckerberg's decision to reinstate Trump's accounts is a prime example of putting profits above people's safety," said NAACP President Derrick Johnson. "It's quite astonishing that one can spew hatred, fuel conspiracies, and incite a violent insurrection at our nation's Capitol building, and Mark Zuckerberg still believes that is not enough to remove someone from his platforms."

On Fb it’s fine to spew hate speech, encourage a coup, and spread pandemic disinformation as long as you’re a billionaire with lots of brainwashed followers.

I’d add that Nick Clegg, the Meta mouthpiece, is a former UK deputy prime minister. As leader of the Lib Dems in 2010 he got into an ill-fated coalition with Conservative David Cameron which proved disastrous for his party. He is an idiot whose only true skill is making it look like he’s more talented than he actually is. He is a hood ornament for Facebook the way Gerhard Schröder was for Gazprom.

Moth Meta and Twitter have been hurting financially with massive layoffs of workers. The decisions to censor on behalf of Modi and curry favor with Trump’s MAGA zombies have more to do with authoritarian money than anything else.

[timeisacephalopod]

You're a free speech absolutist? Oh yeah? Defend 5 neogenders.

[izzythefatcat]

Sometimes I do wish you could quote retweet Tumblr posts but I guess we gotta do it the old fashion way and screenshot it while also copying everything they said into the text box anyways because text readers.

[astrologista]

disney movie idea:

fairy tale kingdom with king, queen and princess. the love interest for the princess is a guy who comes up with a new thing called the printing press to make newspapers for the kingdom. he sets up an official newspaper with editors and journalists to report the news and everyone agrees it's great. then evil guy shows up and creates printing press that allows anybody to make their own newspaper and pass it off as an official one. people that pay (him) more get a more official looking newspaper and can put anything they want in it and send it out. this causes people to lie, and pass off their opinions as fact. like one guy just publishes straight up conspiracy theories which is played for laughs, another lady is obsessed with aliens and claims ufos are found every day. people start arguing over what the news actually is. the first, official newspaper loses subscribers and has to shut down. it's up to the princess and the journalist love interest to help people realize the value of the news and what are facts vs what are opinions. the solution ends up being creating a modern "forum" where people can meet and debate and talk about their opinions and actually compromise for once. that way everyone is clear on what are facts and what are opinions and you don't have to censor peoples opinions, actually, just distribute them through the appropriate forum and stop passing off peoples opinions as facts please. it goes over really well and the evil guy gets sucked down a sewer pipe. the end roll credits.

i feel this is a message kids (and adults) should really hear. im imagining a song where like it's raining and we're like ok it's raining and that's a fact. saying that it's not raining wouldn't be true, and we can all see the consequences (person with a picnic basket leaves their house and gets rained on)

yea, i'm sick of the status quo, can you tell? by the way internet journalism needs help and the people who are yelling that it's "censorship" to have editorial standards don't realize that social media has made journalists out of everyone. but the people who are favored by the algorithm are paid. to. lie. and pass it off as news and nobody ever stops them or corrects the record or fines them anything for it because "oh but you're censoring them" they are paid to tell you vaccines cause autism, gladys. they are paid.

i'm sick of the status quo or couldn't you tell.

[socialjusticefail]

This article is talking about all of the things that shows Musk is not a free speech absolutist.