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What is your view on people or groups who use social media to air extremist views, hate speech, incite violence or libel others? Where should the line be drawn, if at all, with regards to freedom of speech?

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Unless one explicitly write "kill", using expletives and unacceptable descriptions, expressing mere opinion even beliefs is just part of freedom of speech. Just sometimes some people's view of being leftist/rightist/extremist is too rigid that if one isn't in alignment with the other one's beliefs, then you'll end up being branded as such. At times I'm at a loss whenever I'm banned from posting a comment when all I do is just write I believe.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Calling for Hitler to be assassinated and the Nazis to be wiped out technically qualifies as hate speech, but I'm OK with it.

Believing that the Earth orbited the Sun was once seen as an extreme view.

As an atheist, I would once have been tortured or executed for my beliefs.

Don't censor people. It is self-defeating. It gives credibility to those who are silenced, simply by the act of silencing them.

Allow people freedom of speech. They are adults and so are the people who read what they write. If you are worried about the children, give them their own, heavily censored internet services.

Nobody owns the truth. When someone claims to, and censors others, they become an oppressor and dictator, and should be condemned as such.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Same as a town square or news ad. You show up, give address and phone number and have your say subject to libel and slander laws.

I don’t see your name, address, and phone number here. On-line sites, including this one, are not “town squares” where the speaker can be identified.

So says Anonymous without any irony.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

It will always be the most intolerant who will air extremist views, spread hatred and incite violence. (And, yes, to any rightists who might feel victimised and imagine I might be singling them out, this applies to lefties too.) Tolerance must be central to any good society. Nobody, without thereby recognising themselves as intolerant, would surely disagree.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

what should the tolerant do about the intolerant?

A good question with probably no easy answer. Should they apply logic or humor? Which makes me think of this Monty Python sketch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf71YotfykQ

2 ( +3 / -1 )

No real discussion is even possible until people can agree on a reasonable definition and then work from there.

Why don't you start then?

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

One problem with this question is the definition of "extremist views." It's so subjective, and many people from the left and right, but mostly the left, especially here on JT and including the moderation, denounce or censor anything they disagree with as "extremist views."

No real discussion is even possible until people can agree on a reasonable definition and then work from there. In the current climate, I don't think that's possible.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

It’s called ‘ free ‘ for some reason; let them talk; a) make sure that your family members, friends, students (if you’re a teacher) and colleagues (basically, the people around you) do not fall for their bs; nowadays we can’t be naive; we must be smart and mentally and psychologically strong if we don’t wanna be affected/influenced by other people s ignorance (racism), lies and negativity; b) the answer to hate? Love… and unity; yes, it takes time, but we’ll get there.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

that is for me, the limits of freedom of speech and expression. in my take, expressing your views and sentiments are okay but it will not be okay when you're calling for the death or destruction of someone or something.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

No lines to be drawn, what for? Freedom of speech is a too high value and shouldn’t be restricted anywhere, of course also not in that only virtual internet. In addition it’s already very clever to divert them all from the violent real streets and battlegrounds into that completely virtual space where there in fact isn’t any violence and hate, but only electronic bits and bytes flowing through some cables or stored on servers’ memory chips. And of course it’s anyway free to choose for everyone to ignore or not to read something from there. Do you really think or feel that violence and hate come out of the computer monitor into your eyes, ears and face? Then you might have quite a bigger problem than those extremists views.

-1 ( +6 / -7 )

Most of them are pathetic (a few psychopaths), but I don't give them my sympathy.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

What is your view on people or groups who use social media to air extremist views, hate speech, incite violence or libel others? 

They are the scum of the earth. and that includes the net uyoku that post here and on other media platforms

-7 ( +3 / -10 )

In principle, freedom of speech should be freedom to expose your lunacy or hatred too. The problem is that the consumers of this extremism and hate are often unable to see it for what it is or have some personal investment in it. Too many people have been sucked in by carefully crafted hate and are damaged by their circumstances and upbringing, including lack of education. Only a truly mature and tolerant society can have freedom of speech without problems but this exposes the essential dilemma at the heart of liberal democracies: what should the tolerant do about the intolerant?

5 ( +8 / -3 )

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