eugyppius: The Ominous New Mood of the American Social Media Censors

submitted by penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable from eugyppius.com

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[–]kingsmegLiberté, égalité, fraternité 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I have to think they know their heavy-handed censorship during '20 and Covid was visible to much of the population, which endangers the 'freedumb and democracy' schtick they use to control us. There may be factions wanting to dial that back, like those supporting Musk, except they can't bring themselves to do so. Like everything else, Musk's 'free speech twitter' is fake and just as censored as everything else.

I for one am not predicting which way they're going to go. I think it just as likely they'll drop the whole 'democracy' thing and go with Frank Zappa's take:

The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.

[–]CNicholsonArt 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Zappa was right on the money.

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

A few days ago, former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey admitted that Twitter under his leadership had “made a bunch of mistakes” with respect to moderation decisions relating to the 2020 election, “especially around the New York Post and the Hunter Biden laptop story.” This was just weeks after YouTube announced “an update” to their “approach to US election misinformation,” declaring they will “stop removing content that advances false claims that widespread fraud, errors or glitches occurred in the 2020 and other past US Presidential elections.” Doing so, they explained, “could … have the unintended effect of curtailing political speech without meaningfully reducing the risk of violence or other real-world harm.”

This pullback by American social media censors obviously shouldn’t be exaggerated; we’re not embarking upon a new era of expressive freedom. Yet it corresponds with related developments elsewhere, for example in the repeated leadership shake-ups at the American news broadcaster CNN, which arise from efforts to moderate overtly partisan coverage there; and in this vague essay in which New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger calls for more “journalistic independence” and less reporting “guided by political objectives.” (In a follow-up interview with The New Yorker, he explained that “what I’m pushing back against is certitude … journalists going into stories knowing the story they want to tell and knowing the outcome they want to drive toward.”)

Although I prefer to leave commentary on American politics to my American friends, I want to venture some general observations on what this likely means.

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

All Western countries have a twofold political discourse, bifurcated into what I’d call formal and informal spheres. The formal sphere consists of the major press and broadcast media, where content is heavily influenced by corporate advertising; and of the establishment political parties and their politicians... Before 2016, the American informal sphere was largely unmoderated, apparently because the establishment considered it politically unimportant. After the populist backlash of that crucial year, social media became the object of unusual fear and scrutiny, while steps were taken behind the scenes to neuter its political influence.