Trump's executive order on social media

[Mister Six]

Is this Trump just testing his base to see if they will support a further step towards dictatorship (which many seem to do, they're all for limited government unless it would mean they didn't get to own the libs) or is he serious about this?

He's serious about throwing a strop and getting revenge on anyone who slights him. His advisors might be up for testing the waters for an even more authoritarian style, but he lacks the vision for that. He's like a cat - they just react to things in front of them, with zero forward planning. So the concern is really about the people around him.

TBH I wouldn't mind him forcing social media companies to be responsible for the content that goes on their platforms. They're the bigger evil in a way, because they can outlast us all while warping human civilization horrendously. But they're rich as fuck and there's no way the rest of the GOP and (especially) the Democrats will let it slide. Trump will be gone in eight months or five-ish years; they want to keep the money rolling in well beyond that.

[Wonderful Butternut]

Let's be honest, who wouldn't like Twitter to fuck off entirely. If Trump can accomplish this before November, he's got my vote.

I see the quisling Germans have already gone tugging their forelocks to Twitter saying if big bad Trump bans them they can operate from Germany.

Scum.

Varadkar is probably sending Jack some love letters as we speak. "Look at us defend Apple's attempts to pay no tax to our own government! We can do that for you too!!"

TBH I wouldn't mind him forcing social media companies to be responsible for the content that goes on their platforms. They're the bigger evil in a way, because they can outlast us all while warping human civilization horrendously. But they're rich as fuck and there's no way the rest of the GOP and (especially) the Democrats will let it slide. Trump will be gone in eight months or five-ish years; they want to keep the money rolling in well beyond that.

Except if he does manage to generate an actual piece of legislation here, I doubt it'll be really about forcing social media companies to be responsible for their content. It's more likely to be an attempt to either force them to let absolutely anything be said without any censure (which isn't a million miles away from the current situation, the one which took more than 4 years to do anything about Trump telling blatant lies and allows Graham Linehan to bully trans people), or try to have them to moderate their platform according to guidelines laid down by the US Government, probably via some sort of bs advisory council or something, and become a propaganda platform.

[Zetetic]

Governments are, of course, already in the business of content moderation on social networks. It'd be a step forward if this occurred via some sort of accountable process, rather just getting to hear "well they're a private company, they can do what they like" over and over again.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I don't think the UK or American governments are in a good place to decide what is appropriate content right now.

Furthermore, I wouldn't really trust them not to abuse an invitation to do so as a stalking horse to de-anonymise people using the platforms.

[Zetetic]

Got some bad news on both of those points.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I don't think enabling them further is a good idea.

They can't be that good at content moderation, otherwise Trump wouldn't be having his massive benny. It's also possible to use these services anonymously at this point with basic technical measures.

[Ferris]

He's not wrong. We had a thread on here which I can't find now, but it was about the "smart city" Google was trying to setup in Toronto, where the only usable currency would be whatever the Android version of Apple Pay is, as just one of the many, many, many privacy concerns.

Beeb link about the same thing: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47815344

Yeah, in my neighbourhood too, the cunts.

They've pulled out now which I'm delighted about but major concerns abound - the City gave away, by some estimates, the most valuable piece of real estate in North America for $0 so some tech cunts could violate my privacy for... reasons.

Awful idea, we can thank COVID-19 for putting a stop to it.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Even if you ignore the privacy concerns that's shit. Basically nobody with a phone that doesn't support NFC (mine doesn't) can't buy anything.

"if you're poor we don't want your custom" applied to an entire area.

[Ferris]

Considering gentrification is already a major concern downtown, yeah it was one of the huge glaring issues the council waved through because they're illiterate dipshits. Not least you would be tracked by bluetooth ping wherever you go, and you facial data would be saved and stored for analysis, and myriad other issues.