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A Word About Twitter
Dec. 8th, 2022 09:34 pmTwo things can simultaneously be true about Twitter.
1) It's a private company and no law compels or prevents it filtering or censoring its information however it likes. Likewise, banning whoever it wants or denying them a voice on their platform.
2) Throttling engagement and censoring its users while denying any such actions is really crappy behavior. Not just because of the gaslighting, which is bad enough, but because a culture of free speech depends on much more then just what is legal.
Free speech works to the benefit of minorities. The majority does not need to concern itself with making itself heard- it can't be muted. It's the underdogs that need free speech. And keeping a culture alive that gives space to those minorities means putting up with some people who are awful into the bargain. But free speech is valuable in itself.
Two additional points- when people interact almost entirely in a censored space, especially if they are told it is not censored, they will develop an inaccurate idea of what people think and believe. Acting on that idea may lead them to grief.
When you censor and gaslight a large group of people and somebody comes along and tells them that the world is against them and it's too late for half-measures because all the levers of power are being turned against them, that argument is given force by the censoring and gaslighting. Not that conspiracy theories and populist mania won't exist without it, but they are made powerful because they are built upon a truth that people can see for themselves.
Twitter became a furnace fueling the culture wars, turning up the heat by its actions. Will any of that change under new management? That remains to be seen.
1) It's a private company and no law compels or prevents it filtering or censoring its information however it likes. Likewise, banning whoever it wants or denying them a voice on their platform.
2) Throttling engagement and censoring its users while denying any such actions is really crappy behavior. Not just because of the gaslighting, which is bad enough, but because a culture of free speech depends on much more then just what is legal.
Free speech works to the benefit of minorities. The majority does not need to concern itself with making itself heard- it can't be muted. It's the underdogs that need free speech. And keeping a culture alive that gives space to those minorities means putting up with some people who are awful into the bargain. But free speech is valuable in itself.
Two additional points- when people interact almost entirely in a censored space, especially if they are told it is not censored, they will develop an inaccurate idea of what people think and believe. Acting on that idea may lead them to grief.
When you censor and gaslight a large group of people and somebody comes along and tells them that the world is against them and it's too late for half-measures because all the levers of power are being turned against them, that argument is given force by the censoring and gaslighting. Not that conspiracy theories and populist mania won't exist without it, but they are made powerful because they are built upon a truth that people can see for themselves.
Twitter became a furnace fueling the culture wars, turning up the heat by its actions. Will any of that change under new management? That remains to be seen.
