Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by exabrial 2897 days ago
Some people will say stupid things with their freedom of expression. They're still entitled to their freedoms, lest we become like them. This breaks my heart that we have to have these conversations.
1 comments

What makes you think that freedom of expression means more than you can say what you want without going to jail?

It doesn't mean people have to give you a platform to spread propaganda, and it never has. Want to start a social network for holocaust deniers? Go right ahead.

Because... that's literally what it means.

The internet is not a crowded theater. It's just text on a screen.

No. That's not what it means.

Facebook is a private enterprise. It's not the Internet. You want to spout hate on the internet, fine. Get a server and host your pages. Does Facebook have to let you do it on their site? No.

You may have to shout fire in a crowded theater to get arrested, but you can and probably will get kicked out for standing up and screaming about niggers and kikes. That's how civilization works.

Literally a straw man attack. Facebook is a private platform and they can do whatever they want with their business. I was speaking specifically about freedom of expression.