Technology

until you decide the world shouldn't be defined by effort but instead utopia is defined by someone else applying thought control on anyone but you.

It’s always portrayed as “thought control” when it’s inconvenient for people to be protected from an onslaught of dangerous, vile hatred. But that’s absolutely, positively, so stupid and dead wrong.

Say your site becomes a haven for paid killers. Will you step in then? Or say it becomes a space for CP. Where does your “make it whatever you want!” schtick cross the line? Content moderation exists for a reason. And that reason is we live online these days. What happens online is happening to real people. And the online life of those people can very quickly turn physically dangerous. Are you pro-dangerous situations for people in the name of “do whatever you want?” I mean, your actions would suggest “yes.”

I get it. You’re a libertarian-leaning person and you believe in a free exchange of ideas. But that’s not all the internet is anymore. If this were a physical community you built and wanted to see flourish, would your beliefs of “everyone do whatever you want, no one here will stop you” still apply? Of course not. Because communities do have people that need to be looked out for. Your site is no different. Being hands off with hatred isn’t admirable, no matter how much the new e-right wingers want to shout it over and over. It creates danger for people and only serves to spread that hatred to larger audiences because it’s being platformed. So you’re not pro-“free speech.” You’re pro hate. And that’s a stance even most right wingers know to outwardly stay away from.

But here’s the kicker: those rich, powerful people promoting that type of unregulated speech are benefitting from that type of hatred spreading. But they can’t say that out loud. You’re doing the same thing without an ulterior motive which is…maybe even worse?