[gardenhedge]

I am saying it "seems like americans are MORE free to speak their minds now than before in terms of being banned/silenced by dominating online platforms".

Previously you could not post about certain subjects around covid, ivermectin, anything not in line with woke ideology, political scandals. Accounts would be banned. Communities were shut down on Reddit. High profile figures were banned from Twitter. Now you can post whatever you like on most of these platforms. That's not just me who thinks that by the way, it's a widely discussed thing. Zuckerberg even cited government pressure around content suppression and censorship. Do you disagree?

[giwook]

Got it. I'm now picking up on your point given the implied political bias that your comment hints at. I don't want to resurrect this long-dead debate as I take it you are not pro-science.

[gardenhedge]

It sounds like you've brought baggage to the conversation. HN is not the place for that.

[ceejayoz]

> High profile figures were banned from Twitter.

One of Musk's first acts as owner was to do that. https://x.com/elonjet (and the journalists reporting on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_2022_Twitter_suspensi...)

(After previously explicitly promising not to, citing… freedom of speech! https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1589414958508691456)

Bunch more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspensions_on_X#2023

> anything not in line with woke ideology

How did so many Republican politicians survive on there?!

> Now you can post whatever you like on most of these platforms.

As long as it isn't the word "cisgender". https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/06/elon-musk-free-speec...

Or a link to Mastodon. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63999452

> Zuckerberg even cited government pressure around content suppression and censorship.

To curry favor with the new admin, sure.

> Accounts would be banned. Communities were shut down on Reddit.

This happens regularly, today. https://www.reddit.com/r/BannedSubs/

[gardenhedge]

Even with these examples, my comment still stands. I guess it could show how bad it was before!