It bothers me
Sep. 12th, 2025 07:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lonelyisletIt bothers me how some online "institutions" are (so easily?) captured. Youtube maybe less so (which grew to censor all covid "misinformation" and demonetize videos they don't like) because in the early days there was copyright overreach (which they weren't, as far as I know, forced to do, maybe they were in danger of losing safe harbor status, I don't know) and they even kowtowed to Scientology in their war against Anonymous (of course I believe the latter to have been clearly on the right side of history). But Reddit was a good idea. You could have subreddits on just about anything. And you might have argued about when censorship becomes ok, when clear instances of hate were demonstrated (I think the Ellen Pao controversy in part included subreddits like r/fatpeoplehate). Or if you don't want to call it censorship, then call it moderation
But Reddit I think most everyone recognizes now is completely captured and that's because it isn't organic. If the congregation of power among the mods wasn't enough, the site itself has become clearly malicious. You can literally just be banned for having the wrong opinion. And I don't mean "wRoNg oPiNiOn" like "I'm a white supremacist, let me have my views, it's censorship otherwise". I mean things like covid or for even being mildly a different part of the political spectrum. They'd ban the conservative subreddit if they thought they could get away with it. And more I could mention but you get the point
How does it happen? How does a takeover happen? I don't think we should be in the business of designing a bulletproof (packet proof?) system where absolutely no content should ever be removed ever (everyone can think of some clear examples of when it's ok to do that) but the basic conduit and process, how does that happen? What right does Youtube have to label something misinformation, a lot of which later turns out to not to be that, to be correct, to demonetize people and affect their livelihoods? John Perry Barlow was known to say that the internet detects censorship as damage and routes around it. Again I wouldn't be quite so extreme, I do think on the extreme margins there has to be some policing, but "too much" is clearly the line we've crossed even if it's not easy to define
Maybe the way you get to it is gradually convincing the younger generations who take over these platforms that actually, expressing an opinion really isn't ok, and that censorship is. Maybe it's that simple. I just do know that there's a certain amount of things you can get away with over the wires and packets in a way you wouldn't, telling people to their face "IRL" that they're not welcome and you're going to remove their content. I don't have to justify myself to you as a content hoster, your video will get removed or censored and you are going to like it. (Hey, when is the EFF going to buy up Youtube? I will pitch in the funds required, I swear)
Or maybe it all comes down to safe harbor and section 230 and this and that
(Facebook isn't necessarily better. Zuckerberg plays all sides on all issues and he already doesn't have the best reputation from university)
But Reddit I think most everyone recognizes now is completely captured and that's because it isn't organic. If the congregation of power among the mods wasn't enough, the site itself has become clearly malicious. You can literally just be banned for having the wrong opinion. And I don't mean "wRoNg oPiNiOn" like "I'm a white supremacist, let me have my views, it's censorship otherwise". I mean things like covid or for even being mildly a different part of the political spectrum. They'd ban the conservative subreddit if they thought they could get away with it. And more I could mention but you get the point
How does it happen? How does a takeover happen? I don't think we should be in the business of designing a bulletproof (packet proof?) system where absolutely no content should ever be removed ever (everyone can think of some clear examples of when it's ok to do that) but the basic conduit and process, how does that happen? What right does Youtube have to label something misinformation, a lot of which later turns out to not to be that, to be correct, to demonetize people and affect their livelihoods? John Perry Barlow was known to say that the internet detects censorship as damage and routes around it. Again I wouldn't be quite so extreme, I do think on the extreme margins there has to be some policing, but "too much" is clearly the line we've crossed even if it's not easy to define
Maybe the way you get to it is gradually convincing the younger generations who take over these platforms that actually, expressing an opinion really isn't ok, and that censorship is. Maybe it's that simple. I just do know that there's a certain amount of things you can get away with over the wires and packets in a way you wouldn't, telling people to their face "IRL" that they're not welcome and you're going to remove their content. I don't have to justify myself to you as a content hoster, your video will get removed or censored and you are going to like it. (Hey, when is the EFF going to buy up Youtube? I will pitch in the funds required, I swear)
Or maybe it all comes down to safe harbor and section 230 and this and that
(Facebook isn't necessarily better. Zuckerberg plays all sides on all issues and he already doesn't have the best reputation from university)
