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by wlesieutre 1968 days ago
I'd think libertarians would love twitter, deplatforming is the free market at work and the government has no right to make them do business with anyone they choose not to
2 comments

Twitter should be judged by the way it governs its platform. And from libertarian perspective it's governed poorly. Sure, under current laws they can get away with deplatforming in the way they do now, but there is nothing commendable or desirable about it for libertarians specifically.
And one might think liberals, putting liberty above order, would be aghast at silencing opponents to maintain order, and yet here we are. Our political theater has gotten pretty weird. The whole thing is looking more and more like unprincipled tribes vying for power.
"silencing opponents"

Nobody here is silenced. You do not have a right to a twitter account. People can, and do, make accounts elsewhere.

Literally anything Trump does can and is covered by the media; this is exactly the opposite of being "silenced".

I was not talking about Twitter accounts. I do not care what Donald Trump does or does not do.
Silence is a strong word -- I'm certainly still able to hear news from Donald Trump, even if he was banned from Twitter.
As someone that doesn't try I still hear news about Trump but no longer from Trump. That's a big (welcome) change.
You're right about Trump. Most people don't have the platform he has.

Many dissenting voices have been removed from the conversation, and you wouldn't even know they are missing.

Except I keep hearing about it constantly, everywhere, including Twitter. And yet I haven't seen a single one being banned for discussing fiscal policy, less regulation, conservative views on social programs etc. "Conservative voices [being] silenced" are almost always some variation of spamming evidently real-world damaging conspiracy theories or clear ToS violations.
I didn't say conservative - I said dissenting. Although I imagine many conservatives have learned to self-censor so they can remain part of the conversation there.

How about asserting that men and women are different biologically? Is that a conspiracy theory?

Or is it simply a dissenting viewpoint from the group-think of Twitter that was silenced...

https://thefederalist.com/2018/11/25/twitter-permanently-ban...

> In late 2018, Twitter changed its policy on hateful conduct and harassment to officially prohibit intentionally calling a trans person by the wrong pronouns or using their pre-transition names.[62] Beginning in August 2018, Murphy stated that her Twitter account was locked more than once after she tweeted about issues involving trans women.[63] Twitter permanently suspended Murphy's account in late November 2018, after she referred to Jessica Yaniv, a trans woman, as "him".[64][65][66] On February 11, 2019, Murphy filed a lawsuit against Twitter in response to her banning.[67] The suit was dismissed in early June, but Murphy stated that she intended to file an appeal.[68][69]

Clear ToS violation. Which proves my point.

Sidenote: The Federalist itself got its account banned from twitter for spreading covid misinformation.