The War on Free Speech Is Really a War on the Right to Criticize the Government | By John & Nisha Whitehead

submitted by zyxzevn from rutherford.org

all 5 comments
sorted by:
top
newinsightfulfun

[–]HibikiBlack 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

I don't think absolute free speech is a very good thing but it is much better than having corrupt groups control the values of society...

There's a lot of records about the government seeking to manipulate the media:

How an army of shills protected Guatemala’s corrupt elite. (The Intercept 2018)

The US army spy operations that seek to manipulate social media. (The Guardian 2011)

The Ministry of Defence develops a secret, multimillion-pound research programme into the future of cyberwarfare, including how emerging technologies such as social media and psychological techniques can be harnessed by the military to influence people's beliefs. (The Guardian 2014)

The US military studied how to influence users on online media sites in Darpa funded research. (The Guardian 2014)

Make sure to visit s/ConspiracyTrace and s/ConspiracyRecord to see my research and share awesome content yourself!

[–]zyxzevn[S] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

The opposite of censorship is not absolute free speech.
Instead of "censorship" there can be some information management and friendly moderation.

In the real world you can close the door on people who say the world is going to end. Unless you follow their cult (Jehova / Climate).
And on the internet we usually want something similar. But that doesn't get people deleted from the world.

[–]JasonCarswell 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

Have you any interest in co-developing and/or constructively criticizing a new bottom-up platform that is self-regulated to be more civilized than SaidIt?

[–]zyxzevn[S] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

Good plan. I have a lot of ideas. I have some more time now the government does not want to poison me.

We can start discussing some algorithms that can be self-regulating.
It will be a bit like decentralized (soft) moderation. With different "trust levels".
This can combine with decentralized servers to go past censorship.

What language are you thinking of?
Want to use javascript/typescript for frontend?
Want a fast backend with C or Nim? Can run on background on most PCs and serve 1000s of people.

I also think of having end-to-end encryption for personal messages, but only if you allow them
so you don't get spammed.
No chat, but maybe local update of discussion.
A forum based on keywords and categories.

I am thinking of adding images to as additional "service" to circumvent censorship.
Avoid censorship by making it too popular, like imgur. And the possibility to embed messages inside images and sounds.

Not for illegal stuff, but users can link to their own protocols and servers for more hidden information, without direct linking.
So the server can act like a (slow) VPN service (for trusted users?).

The latter could also give a possibility for a subscription, micro-transactions and such.
But that should be tested first for hacking reasons and legal reasons.

[–]JasonCarswell 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

All fantastic ideas. This is a tangent I wasn't expecting. I wasn't very verbose or clear. I've been thinking about the potential next evolutions of community resources and self-management (/s/Cassy), what I was referring to, as well as dreaming up what would make for better social media platforms (/s/PhoenixForum), what you surprised me with.

I'm extremely keen to get deep into both of these with you. At the moment I'm busy making furniture and re-arranging my home, setting up a podcast studio, developing content, lining up some TV shows, and making some art to avoid starving this month.

I've got so much in my head to dump out and organize onto https://Projex.Wiki where it can be further modified and collaborated on. I'd be happy to make you an account if you want the "zyxzevn" or another alias of your choosing, then I'll send you the simple password for you to change.