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by api 2067 days ago
Deplatforming from the big services helps create a moat around them by creating a huge population of obnoxious trolls, crackpots, and hate mongers who will descend upon any newer or smaller challenger like those clouds of moose killing black flies up North.

Look at BitChute and other small video sites now that YouTube has been deplatforming trolls and crazies. They are full of toxic waste. BitChute now gets called “poopchute.”
2 comments
arkh 2067 days ago
> They are full of toxic waste.

4chan is considered toxic waste. Old Youtube was full of toxic. Old Tumblr was toxic waste.

Those are / were home to the most creative communities.

Now? New centralized media is starting to look a lot like old media: standardized, no spice, boring. Perfect for a protestant society.

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api 2067 days ago
Old 4chan, YouTube, and Tumblr were not full of neo-Nazi propaganda unless you count ironic jokes that were obviously jokes, so no. Then the great Basement Blitzkreig of the 20-teens happened.
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shadowgovt 2067 days ago
Were they obviously jokes? Because in hindsight, a lot of that behavior looks like it was really clandestine signaling allowing neo-Nazis to find each other
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krapp 2066 days ago
>in hindsight, a lot of that behavior looks like it was really clandestine signaling allowing neo-Nazis to find each other.

Of course it was. The premise that racists wouldn't take advantage of communities which let them communicate openly and gave them the plausible deniability of "irony" while doing so is absurd. Why wouldn't they, when the community "mocks" them by acting just like them, reinforcing their beliefs, spreading their gospel and making them feel as at home as possible?

I mean, it's not exactly a scathing rebuke, is it?

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krapp 2067 days ago
>Deplatforming from the big services helps create a moat around them by creating a huge population of obnoxious trolls, crackpots, and hate mongers who will descend upon any newer or smaller challenger like those clouds of moose killing black flies up North.

In many cases these smaller sites were created specifically to cater to those "obnoxious trolls, crackpots, and hate mongers" as a "free speech/censorship resistant" alternative to the mainstream. BitChute's selling point is serving content which would be banned on YouTube - obviously that's what they get. If they or similar sites are victims of anything, it's their own success.

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BobbyJo 2067 days ago
That doesn't invalidate the point though. You can be entirely ethical in the goals of your platform, as well as have a legitimately ethical audience you hope to cater to and still run into the problem pointed out.

The only argument you need to make for a competitor to make sense is "<Platform X> isn't perfect." That's accurate for all of them. A good competitor will have all the same challenges a 'bad' competitor would.

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