Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by JohnCohorn 1986 days ago
< I don't believe any party should be compelled to repeat your speech

Freedom of speech shouldn’t necessarily be compelled by law to be allowed by online platforms. But freedom of speech is not just a legal principle and individual right, but considered by many of us to be a core American cultural value. It seems reasonable for there to be public outcry and negative response to a company suppressing free speech. Free speech doesn’t include provable lies or inciting imminent violence which unfortunately I believe occurred this week.

2 comments

> but considered by many of us to be a core American cultural value

Free speech includes being able to -not- utter things of your choice, too. No one will join me in decrying that my local paper will not publish my 30 page treatise on Flat Earth.

Yes-- power concentrating with a few gatekeepers of speech in tech is troublesome. That's what makes their moderation decisions so worrisome: that they're so empowered.

> Free speech doesn’t include provable lies

I think most provable lies are included in free speech, actually.

> or inciting imminent violence

Yup. But we kicked all the people off the mainstream platforms for things that were less than this, so now those platforms have less power to suppress the cries for violence.

where's is the line drawn between incitement of violence and thought crime? If i write a short story calling for the murder of my neighbors but claimed it as a work of fiction is that ok?