I think that a lot of awfulness that causes measurable harm [1] can easily spread through social networks and I think that YouTube or Twitter should be allowed to delete or block it if they think it's harmful. I'm fully ok with the people promoting this stuff make their own website, or move to a website that's more accommodating to their harmful beliefs.
Obviously YouTube and Twitter can be a bit overzealous with who they ban, I think there's been some overcorrection for the fairly "laissez-faire" mentality that they had towards neo Nazis from ~2014-2017, and I've seen plenty of people get banned from these platforms for bad reasons as a result.
But I feel like we're arguing two different points; I think the issue isn't that the companies are allowed to ban whomever they'd like, I think the issue is that these companies shouldn't be so big as to where a ban from theme is so devastating.
As it stands, I'll fully admit that my default response of "you're free to build your own platform" is a bit silly; building something that has the potential to distribute a message as well as Twitter or YouTube would be almost impossible for anyone without a lot of funding behind them to do. ActivityPub-esque systems have a nice potential to change this, and as stated, I'd be on-board with making these companies use open protocols so as to increase competition.
[1] fake COVID Cures, "alternative" medicine like drinking bleach or injecting yourself with ozone, HIV denialism, etc...
I think that a lot of awfulness that causes measurable harm [1] can easily spread through social networks and I think that YouTube or Twitter should be allowed to delete or block it if they think it's harmful. I'm fully ok with the people promoting this stuff make their own website, or move to a website that's more accommodating to their harmful beliefs.
Obviously YouTube and Twitter can be a bit overzealous with who they ban, I think there's been some overcorrection for the fairly "laissez-faire" mentality that they had towards neo Nazis from ~2014-2017, and I've seen plenty of people get banned from these platforms for bad reasons as a result.
But I feel like we're arguing two different points; I think the issue isn't that the companies are allowed to ban whomever they'd like, I think the issue is that these companies shouldn't be so big as to where a ban from theme is so devastating.
As it stands, I'll fully admit that my default response of "you're free to build your own platform" is a bit silly; building something that has the potential to distribute a message as well as Twitter or YouTube would be almost impossible for anyone without a lot of funding behind them to do. ActivityPub-esque systems have a nice potential to change this, and as stated, I'd be on-board with making these companies use open protocols so as to increase competition.
[1] fake COVID Cures, "alternative" medicine like drinking bleach or injecting yourself with ozone, HIV denialism, etc...