[flavius29663]

There was a ban hammer for breaking out the news that Hunter Biden lost a laptop , containing sensitive emails and compromising photos. Twitter even blocked NYPost for this. 1 year later both NYTimes and WAPO both reported the laptop as real (and at least some damaging emails as real too) - that kind of news story. This kind of ban does not belong in a democratic society, it's a banana republic move.

[TameAntelope]

It's undemocratic to allow Twitter to decide for itself what content it wants to allow on its own private website?

Wouldn't it be undemocratic for the government to force Twitter to publish content it doesn't want to publish, content that would, in Twitter's estimation, harm its ability to make money?

[flavius29663]

> Twitter to publish content

Well, you said it. If Twitter publishes content, then it should be responsible for that content. But Twitter does not want to do that, they want to have protections like they are a public square, but also heavily alter the discourse. It's like the phone company can disconnect you if you swear on the line - it should not be possible. I would be supportive with Twitter and Facebook taking on a full editorial role, and be responsible for everything on their platforms.

And let's be honest about it. It was never about Twitter making money, for example Trump was making money for Twitter hand over fist. And NYPost publishing about a potential viral news story was not going to make Twitter less money...

It was about shifting the political discourse, which is what it's making this an undemocratic bad move. And I was wrong, it's not really a banana republic move, it's more of a communist regime style move. It was the same back then: if you said the wrong things, the censorship will come in full swing and "cancel" you. It didn't have to be the state censorship, oh no, you were censored way before that: by your boss, by the company, by the public opinion etc. Communist Romania in the 1980s and what I see here today are eerily similar: you wouldn't go to jail for your opinions, but you would be "cancelled" from any good career and public voice.

[imilk]

You're missing the part where Twitter is not part of the federal government. And for the federal government to step in and order what a private company must publish is an actual banana republic move.