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Trending Posts
- Elon's Commitment To Free Speech Rapidly Replaced By His Commitment To Blatant Hypocrisy: Bans The JoinMastodon Account
- Thursday Night Purge: Elon Musk's Twitter Bans Tons Of High Profile Journalists
- Patients Are Being Left High And Dry When Medical Implant Makers Implode
1 LEGAL ISSUES
County Benchslapped For Illegally Detaining All Foreign-Born People For Pickup By ICE, Even If They’re American Citizens
from the don't-be-evil dept
This is some kind of ugly. When law enforcement starts talking about
being “proactive,” it’s time to start worrying about your rights. Here’s
what happened to Myriam Parada after a routine traffic stop... READ MORE
2 FREE SPEECH
Congress Is About To Make This Post Telling You When To Celebrate SCOTUS Justice Birthdays Illegal
from the the-JSPA-is-really-that-terrible dept
The US Supreme Court has a big year ahead with lots of weighty
matters to consider in 2023. But the seriousness of their job doesn’t
mean we can’t celebrate each justice’s special day! If you would like to
know when to fill your heart with warm birthday wishes for your
favorite justice, here are all their birthdays in this handy convenient form... READ MORE
3 POLITICS
Despite Warnock Win, Gigi Sohn’s Path To The FCC Remains Mired In Dumb, Corrupt Bullshit
from the dysfunction-junction dept
We’ve noted several times how telecom and media giants are running a sleazy year-long smear campaign against
Biden FCC nominee Gigi Sohn, in the hopes of blocking her confirmation
vote and miring the agency in perpetual consumer protection gridlock.
The attacks have been carefully seeded across the US press through
various think tanks and nonprofits, and accuse Sohn of everything from hating police to being an enemy of rural America... READ MORE
4 CONTENT MODERATION
Thursday Night Purge: Elon Musk’s Twitter Bans Tons Of High Profile Journalists
from the today-i-settled-all-family-business dept
Well. Just after finishing that last post about Twitter banning the official Mastodon account
on Twitter for tweeting about the ElonJet tracking account existing on
Mastodon, it seems that whatever brakes or controls were in place at the
new “free speech absolutist” Twitter have really come off. In quick
succession, a whole bunch of high profile reporter accounts were
suspended, including Aaron Rupar (who famously covers and quotes videos
of high profile politicians), Drew Harwell from the Washington Post,
Ryan Mac from the NY Times, Donie Sullivan from CNN, and Matt Binder
from Mashable... READ MORE
5 CONTENT MODERATION
Elon’s Commitment To Free Speech Rapidly Replaced By His Commitment To Blatant Hypocrisy: Bans The JoinMastodon Account
from the a-hypocrite-is-hypocriting dept
Oh, Elon. Following on yesterday’s nonsense in banning the ElonJet account that robotically posted the public information regarding Elon’s private plane flights, and then trying to justify it later (after initially promising to keep the account alive to demonstrate his “commitment to free speech”), it appears that Elon’s commitment to free speech continues to dwindle.
This afternoon it showed itself in the form of banning the @JoinMastodon account, which is the official account of the Mastodon federated, open source, social media network that has been growing by leaps and bounds, mostly from people exiting Twitter.
Its crime? From the Internet Archive, it appears that its last tweet was… to let people know that the @ElonJet account exists on Mastodon:
Just earlier this week, in a Twitter spaces, Elon mocked Mastodon by claiming that people weren’t going there because “no one’s listening,” implying that the audience is too small. I’ll just note that, personally, I’ve found the opposite to be true. The engagement on Mastodon has been a lot more interesting and valuable than on Twitter of late.
Either way, it does seem like Musk is doing the classic content moderation learning curve in quite incredible speed — and still without actually learning anything.
Now, we’re the first to admit that content moderation at scale is impossible to do well, and that it’s important to give the benefit of the doubt to mistakes. But, seriously, how does one explain this?
The Mastodon account did not violate even the new policy. I guess, if you did a really, really strained reading of the new policy, by linking to the ElonJet account on Mastodon, it was, in some twisted way, linking to travel routes, and that’s banned? That’s the best explanation for this. But… it’s still not a good one.
And it definitely does not show a commitment to free speech.
Then, of course, there are the worst explanations for this, which is that Musk actually is nervous about how much Mastodon is growing. As impulsive as Musk appears to be, I actually doubt that’s why this happened at all. But it still looks pretty, pretty bad.
But, yeah. Every social media network needs some form of content moderation. It’s not about “censorship,” as some people keep claiming. But how that moderation plays out is very much dependent on who is in control over the site. And sometimes it may be a hypocritical billionaire surrounded by sycophants with no real commitment to anything other than himself.
Anyway, I’ve been hanging out at Mastodon myself, and it’s been great. Come follow me there. I’m hoping to have some more posts soon about some of what I’ve learned while there.
Filed Under: content moderation, elon musk, elonjet, hypocrisy, mastodon
Companies: twitter
6 PRIVACY
Greek Government Responds To Domestic Surveillance Controversy By Making Things Worse
from the those-who-can't,-govern dept
Malware and exploit developers are generating a seemingly endless number of headlines, thanks to misuse of their products by government entities. Israel’s NSO Group has made the most headlines, but other Israel-located malware purveyors have made the news as well. Candiru, another Israeli exploit developer, was hit with the same sanctions the US Commerce Department leveled against NSO Group... READ MORE
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