Things are going great, Linda
Also can news outlets please stop referring to Twitter as X? X is the stupidest name I’ve ever heard.
Free speech is good and must be protected, that’s clear. But it should not be virtually limitless. The US played a major role sorting out the negative consequences of the Weimar republic, which did not contain fascist ideology, which then (edit: among other things ofc) lead to WW2.
It still baffles my mind how the US cannot see that tolerating the intolerant must inevitably lead to an intolerant and possibly facist society.
I have thought about it for a while but the US is basically in a cold civil war, with a significant chance of it becoming hot. And it looks very similar to their previous one. Neither side seem to have a charismatic enough leader.
It’s easy to look over the pond and think it’s none of our problem. But if the US falls to chaos a lot of other countries will follow suit. We can already see this influence in the UK and I’d argue many other EU countries. Russia probably saw this weakness, bet on it worsening much quicker than it did, but lost that bet (so far).
With that said, addressing the US as a whole no longer makes sense. I’m sure plenty, plenty of Americans see what is happening.
It’s unfortunate that one of the wealthiest people on this planet has taken the anti-democratic side, but it’s not the first or the last time in history a powerful man, rich beyond measure has done so.
It’s safe to say Russia and China have actually helped contribute to a lot of the issues in the last decade by holding a lot of soft power online. The US government can’t stop an enemy that blends in with their sovereign users, advertisers, and content creators.
Very much so, the Bavarian Conservative Party literally has gone to have talks with republicans to use their election strategies, the German-wide AgD has ramped up their Anti-LGBT campaigning and started to use similar messaging to far-right propaganda networks, e.g. “protect our children”, “pedophiles”, photoshopped images of CSAM at pride events, etc.
My country (Australia) has tied itself to you guys so if you go down we definitely go down with you. I’m 100% hoping the US doesn’t fall into chaos. We also birthed Rupert Murdoch and he’s played a huge part in heating up this civil war.
Free speech is good and must be protected
I agree, but Twitter has nothing to do with free speech. Period. It’s not like the government is going around throwing people in prison for being racist fucks on Twitter. Twitter can moderate content if they want to. If they don’t want to moderate content they don’t have to as long as the material isn’t illegal.
I don’t know why people keep thinking this has anything to do with the first amendment at all. Twitter is not public, not even close.
I agree, but Twitter has nothing to do with free speech.
Twitter positions itself as the Internet’s public square, and free speech certainly does apply in an old-fashioned offline public square, so yeah, Twitter kinda does have something to do with free speech. Don’t seek power if you don’t want the responsibility it comes with.
There’s no such thing as “the internet’s public square”. It is the “X-owned public square”. In an offline public square, the government owns the square, so free speech protections apply. But this “square” is privately owned. There’s an incredibly fundamental difference here.
That’s not how it works, what you are talking about is often called freeze peach.
Until Twitter can fine you or lock you up for saying the wrong thing or exercise prior restraint over all your expression, it’s not a free speech issue.
By positioning itself as the Internet’s public square, Twitter seeks a monopoly over public discourse. If it is successful, then yes, it can exercise prior restraint over virtually all of your expression.
It can succeed in that endeavor the moment I become unemployable. I’m not making an account there, never will, and I will die on this hill.
Any proof ?
I go regularly on Twitter/X, I still have to see suggested hate/nazi/whitethingy in my timeline. How people get exposed to this shit ?
Yeah proof or this didn’t happen. I haven’t seen pro-Nazi content anywhere in existence other than a museum, let alone on twitter.
Behold, the Media Matters report that was attributed as the source in the CNN article.
I understand wanting to know what evidence someone has for an argument, but when the source is attributed in the posted article then demands for proof come across as sealioning which is very much discouraged on Beehaw.
For those that don’t feel like reading that Media Matters report, the account in question was openly and explicitly neo-nazi, and Media Matters has screenshots of a number of posts with memes praising Hitler, Holocaust denial, and “great replacement” memes. There’s also a meme that just says “It’s okay to be a national socialist” which seems about as pro-Nazi as something could possibly get.
What did they expect when doing business with a #fascist symp?
Spokespeople for NCTA and pharmaceutical company Gilead said that they immediately paused their ad spending on X after CNN flagged their ads on the pro-Nazi account.
Alt-speak: we only care if the media report that our ad placements were next to questionable contents.
Isn’t that while platform pro Nazi?
Why do people assume that brands explicitly endorse everything their ads run next to? Do they think companies are purposely seeking out these bad people to run their ads next to? I never got the whole not wanting your ads next to questionable content thing.
I’m no expert but I think it’s the same reason ads are full of hot people: association. If you see an ad for a Baconator enough times next to a neo-Nazi spewing hate speech you’re going to start to link the two in your mind.
I know I associate Neo-Nazis with Pigs… I wonder why.
Is there a link to the picture of this ad next to nazi content. I couldnt find it in the article.
Edit: I found the sources of the tweets thanks to a comment below. Here is the tweets the ads appeared next to.
Also, was it fascist or nazi?
Both terms have been watered down to mean nothing.
Nazis are just German fascists, so that distinction isn’t particularly meaningful.
A day ago I was talking to a friend about Microsoft and they equated Microsoft to Nazis, I said let’s be realistic, they aren’t Nazis, they said fine the KKK. Watering down these terms to mean someone you don’t like is super dangerous and let’s actual Nazis and KKK just play off the accusations as someone not liking them.
So I agree, it’s been watered down and it’s really a bad thing.
Those who claim that terms like “Nazi” or “fascist” are being watered down are usually Nazis/fascists themselves, and they’re trying to cover it up by convincing everyone that Nazis/fascists don’t exist.
I know a lot of pretty normal people that dont have terminally online views and I think almost all of them would agree with the statement that “nazi” and “fascist” have been watered down. Obviously nazi’s and fascists will say they’re watered down but to lump random people in with them is not doing you any favors.
I know a lot of pretty normal people that dont have terminally online views and I think almost all of them would agree with the statement that “nazi” and “fascist” have been watered down.
Then I question their normalcy.
Well, that or it’s now considered normal to be a fascist. I certainly hope that’s not the case, although sometimes I have to wonder.
Obviously nazi’s and fascists will say they’re watered down but to lump random people in with them is not doing you any favors.
Obviously. I’m not denying that. I’m denying that that’s actually happening to any significant extent.
I always say if you don’t like the idea of corporations having too much power over you, you’ll hate a government that has too much power over you.
Corporations deplatform people and shut off their electricity. Governments drag people into the street and shoot them, and firebomb cities. There’s no comparison.
I hate corporations having power over me, but I don’t mind governments.
Why? Because I get to vote on who is in those governments. I don’t have any input in those corporations.
And corporations only care about profit, with government you can at least sometimes have one that cares about the population.
If we let corporations do their thing, they would bring back slavery since that is much more profitable than paying someone even minimum wage.
Corporations would sell their own mother if they saw it as profitable.
Does the distinction even matter in this context? Neither is good and neither should be permitted.
Whether it was fascist or not matter because the word has lost its meaning. Could be something fairly innocuous really.
neither should be permitted.
lol yeah sounds totally righteous to dictate which opinions others should have
Whether it was fascist or not matter because the word has lost its meaning. Could be something fairly innocuous really.
CNN sources a Media Matters report which goes into detail as to the content of the twitter account. Tl;dr, it’s an explicitly neo-nazi account which regularly posted memes and content praising Hitler and the Nazi party and pushing neo-nazi talking points.
I’m not sure what it accomplishes playing semantic games about whether something fits the technical definition of fascism (Nazi Germany absolutely does, btw) when the commonly understood definition of far-right, ultra-nationalist, authoritarianism is abundantly clear.
lol yeah sounds totally righteous to dictate which opinions others should have
I don’t think anyone is proposing that we dictate others’ opinions. But companies, advertisers, and platforms are under no obligation to be associated with the expression of those opinions, and I have no issue stating that Nazis, Fascists, and their ideological descendants are very unwelcome on Beehaw.
