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© (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2018.Trump says it is 'dangerous' for Twitter, Facebook to ban accounts
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PTownsend
Trump seems to be admitting that proto-fascism and kook conspiracy theorists fall under the umbrella of 'Republican/Conservative'.
That's rich. This from the demagogue using his bully pulpit to decry any reporting that's even slightly critical of him and his bund, crying 'fake news', while trying to undermine the free, for-profit press.
Jimizo
Trump should have been suspended for retweeting dodgy videos from racists and asking his supporters to check a sex tape that doesn’t exist during a Twitter cat fight.
That isn’t freedom of speech - that’s spreading misinformation and lies.
You have to teach idiots who spread misinformation and fake news a lesson. If they’d disciplined Trump early, a spanking, he may have cleaned up his lavatorial account.
Silvafan
Dump knows that he will be next at some point. He and his cronies won't be able to spread "Fake New" to obfuscate his failings and criminal activities.
commanteer
He's absolutely right, and people will look back in shock in 20 years that so many "enlightened" people were in favor of silencing dissent. Even silencing a democratically elected president.
But what goes around comes around. You can take comfort in the complete illusion that only fascist or nutter voices are being silenced, but it won't be too long before the pendulum swings, and your own voice will be the "fascist or nutter" voice being silenced.
Never seen people so eager to dig their own graves.
theFritzX
@commanteer,
I completely agree.
Laguna
So now Mr. Fake News is concerned about having his platform yanked (and those of his bot supporters) - just as he's in the process of yanking security clearances from career civil servants as simple retribution (for what depends on the target; in some cases the main reason seems simply to warn off other defectors).
I agree with First Amendment issues. It would be nice if the President were consistent.
PTownsend
Domino-theory redux. The only slope is the slippery one with no possibility for changing it. It's too late, we're doooomed. We're living in end times. /s
No wonder the 'fascist and nutter' voices get so many to follow (and pay their salaries) when there are so many who can only say the horror, the horror which can only be rid of by a 'strong leader'..
I have faith in participatory democracies and the general public's ability to right problems brought about by authoritarian regimes. I don't think, or maybe don't want to think, that the majority of Americans want to live under an authoritarian's thumb and will resist those who do.
Pendulum's do swing, and hopefully this era of Trumpism will swing out.
kurisupisu
History has seen too many purges where people were silenced.
’Silenced’ means just that.....
Wolfpack
How is Trump inconsistent? Revoking the security clearance of a former official who has no relationship with the government and who the Trump administration will not consult with anyway given Brennan’s constant political attacks, in no way prevents Brennan from getting paid a six figure salary from CNN to attack Trump.
If Brennan is actually censored by Trump, by some as yet unknown method, he is free to pursue legal action to secure his first amendment rights as an American citizen.
What the Left is actually complaining about is Trump’s exercise of his own first amendment right to free speech. It’s why the Leftist’s on campus use militants to stop conservatives from speaking and they use their ownership of social media corporations to control speech. Numerous conservatives have complained about having their speech obstructed yet none of the freaks on the Left are having the same problem. Interesting.
Toasted Heretic
The leader is correct. He would never seek to silence a voice. He would not pay money to silence a voice, nor would he call on an investigation to be shut down.
He would not seek to silence a voice of criticism.
The leader speaks only the truth.
Strangerland
Did you not read the post you were replying to? It laid it out pretty clearly.
Laguna
Wolf, a former official has no more right to continued security clearance than anyone - president or not - to a privately-held SMS. Trump may just as willy-nilly cancel security clearances as Twitter can to accounts. As Trump himself said, it is chilling to free speech - but so are his actions.
That's what I mean about "inconsistent." (Though, frankly, Brennan would likely trade his security clearance for Trump's Twitter account. Try to imagine a Twitterless Trump.)
CrazyJoe
So, I just want to be sure I have it right:
Silencing Alex Jones and his despicable ilk is wrong, but trying to silence John Brennan and his patriotic ilk is right.
Got it.
taj
"The more the left try to silence people the stronger and more resonating their voices become."
Do you consider Twitter to be "the left"?
SuperLib
I think it would be better to let the people stay, but have some classification system. Jones himself has said he’s just an entertainer, so he should be limited to entertainment/fiction areas and kept off of the news area.
PTownsend
I agree. I think restrictions of any sort on free speech are dangerous.
I'm sure you'd agree that when Trump uses Twitterer to attack 'the media', that is the outlets that question him, and when Trump won't allow reporters from outlets that had previously questioned him into the White House, that he's - using your word - 'silenced' critics, that he's gone too far.
Hopefully Trump supporters will see how dangerous Trump's attempts are to 'silence' voices that oppose him, and will call on him and his GOP supporters to stop undermining the 1st Amendment.
katsu78
"The left" has not silenced anyone.
But it's hilarious to watch right-wingers who insist the government punishing former-employees for the opinions they express in their private lives is not censorship, but that private companies banning private users from their private publishing service who violate their TOS somehow is censorship.
It's starting to make me think the right doesn't support the free market. Or at least, only supports it when it is politically advantageous for them to.
Laguna
Katsu - That's because of who is banned. Calling for affordable healthcare for all is not particularly controversial on either side of the aisle; the question is how to achieve it. Calling immigrants various disparaging names is.
A point is that, if such name-disparagers are banned from one platform, they'll simply go to another. It might be better to keep them in sight.
katsu78
Exactly. If you support the Trump Cult, they demand your voice be protected no matter what idiotic, hateful, or harmful thing you say. If you oppose the Trump Cult, then you must be punished in any way the state can get away with devising.
A content publishing service wants to adopt the policy that they will publish any user, regardless of what they say, that's their business and I won't complain about it. I may not take my business to them, but I'll let them do with their servers and bandwidth they pay for as they wish. But when they establish rules that are supposed to apply to every user but refuse to apply them to users of a particular political bend, I will always call them out for their cowardice.
Laguna
Katsu, I agree. Best to keep the RATS in the open where they're subject to scrutiny rather than driving them to the darker corners. I say, let'em crash!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESzxGYDkwG8
commanteer
Funny how people claim Trump is silencing the media, when the worst he has done is criticize it - the way Obama criticized Fox news. Obama went much further, engaging the Justice Dept. to investigate and possibly arrest critical journalists, hunted Julian Assange (one of the world'd most important journalists) into hiding, and used the IRS to go after other critics. Trump is piker, by comparison.
Funny how people mix up actually silencing people with simply withdrawing security clearances.
As poor PT above pontificates, "ho-hum, the end of the world slippery slope.... don't worry your pretty little head." The slippery slope is long gone, the tools of oppression have been put into place, and those who call themselves "the resistance" are not only not resisting, they are cheering it on. It's a sad spectacle, and a sorry world we are leaving our children.
Matt Hartwell
He is right
Fortunately I think there will be a coalition among conservatives and traditional liberals, people like Bill Maher, that believe in free speech to put an end to leftist authoritarians shutting people down and deplatforming.
It should never be tolerated in a democracy.
Agree. Its ridiculous.
Laguna
commanteer, show me any president who liked the media. But let's not confluence the media as being a rival to be dealt with and as an enemy to be destroyed.
commanteer
More than any coalition, I think decentralized (blockchain) solutions will offer social networks that no one group can control or censor (like peer-to-peer file sharing). Facebook, Twitter and Google dominate now, but the more people they marginalize, the greater the demand will be for decentralized alternatives. In a sense, these networks are defeating themselves by giving people a reason to find other platforms.
The open exchange of ideas is critical to any democracy. So is education, but that's another problem...
Strangerland
Another false equivalency. Post Obama's quotes on the matter here, and I'll post the much, much worse extreme opinions voiced by Trump. They aren't even remotely equivalent.
And let's remember, you have stated you think Trump is a good thing because he's going to crush the hegemony - your goal isn't to make sure things work, it's to make sure Trump breaks things. So your comments should be taken with that in mind.
Laguna
There exist multiple opportunities already. You can set up a dedicated site on a server which doesn't care about criticism; you can install your own server - hell, Hillary did that, and she's older than I; you can go on the dark web if what you're peddling is particularly nefarious. My point is that there is no stopping these people. Brennan will get his info in regardless of ridiculous Trump sanctions, and Trump will have his voice heard regardless of what sanctions companies throw against him The same is true for all. What is key is not the provider but te consumer. Just don't be stupid.
commanteer
Sure. Let me know when Trump uses the justice dept to investigate journalists, and actually tries to jail them.
A free media should be a nuisance to political leaders, not a friend. They should also try to present an impartial view of the facts, and try to present the truth. Or at least be open about their partiality.
Meanwhile, I am enjoying the Trump show. He is not an ideal president by any means - he is vulgar, petty and has no real political philosophy to ground him. But he is exposing the clown show for what it is - whether he means to or not. It's a beautiful sight.
Laguna
In more ways than one. Obama Tweeted, but if challenged with the threat of perjury, he would likely have stood behind every word. Trump?
commanteer
My goal is actually to make things work. But I don't think that's going to happen without breaking things. People in the USA are too far gone to see objctively and corruption is too well entrenched.
Strangerland
My apologies, that's a better statement of what you had previously said.
Laguna
commanteer, I totally understand your mindset, but I hope it does not have to come to that. Both financially and politically, chaos (usually war) has historically been the way to shake up the system and start anew, in whichever continent you discuss. Clearly, such method comes with enormous cost.
There's revolution, and then there's evolution. I hope for the latter.
Jonorth
Well yeah, if you break the rules on that forum. It's really quite simple. When you sign up to use Social Media, there are rules to follow. If you break them, you're out.
Not that Twitter will ever actually ban Alex Jones, tho. That company cares waaay to much about all the sweet money he brings in for them.
Strangerland
I agree. I get Comanteer's feelings on the matter - there is no doubt the current system has major problems. But breaking it to fix it will hurt us all for decades.
Serrano
"Dump knows that he will be next at some point."
No worries, he'll just open a youtube account, and I'll be providing links to his videos, haha!
This is interesting:
Trump Opposes Corporate Censorship, Gets Criticized by So-Called Left
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jy_eQgOZGoU
And this
Gutfeld on Twitter CEO's liberal bias
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ociInyCXjo
Serrano
@Northern Thanks, dude!
Jimizo
Duke/Gutfeld 2020
Serrano
"Yes, he said the N-word"
Where's the tape?
"Duke/Gutfeld 2020"
Dude/Gutfeld 2020!
commanteer
Me, too. But at the very least, I would expect some kind of financial collapse. I talk to friends who have lived through them (in Russia, Romania, etc.). They have a whole different mindset after that.
I think the damage is already done, and some sort of "breakage" will happen no matter what the politicians do. I just hope it doesn't bring wars or civil violence. Americans are at each other's throats now - when things are still going fairly well. If they would just realize that they are on the same side...
nishikat
Even when the tape comes out his supporters won't care. Look what he said about an American/Hispanic person ("...he speaks perfect English...") He is racist all around. The wall (which is a failure of him being racist) and his Muslim ban (another grand failure and another point of him being racist).
Trump employed Darren Beattie because Trump is racist.
Good to stay in Japan with a calm society and cheaper healthcare. Also, no guns.
But there is proof the wall is not a smart idea, it won't work- fact. No side to take here.
bass4funk
No, just an old fool that used to work for the intelligence agency that has access to classified information that doesn’t need to have it AND if he STILL can criticize as much as he wants, so all is good.
Yes, Brennan having his security clearance revoked is the hardcore truth. Pretty straightforward.
nishikat
He did it for political reasons.
Serrano
nishikat: "Even when the tape comes out his supporters won't care."
Sorry to disappoint you, but it's not gonna come out because it don't exist.
"his Muslim ban"
At this point, nishikat, you really should admit that it's not a Muslim ban being as how the most populous Muslim country in the world, Indonesia, is NOT affected by this travel restriction on countries where there is a documented high risk of terrorism.
nishikat
WRONG
Proof
Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on
(Trump quote)
Proof it's a Muslim ban. He just failed at it.
Even when it does it won't matter. We know Trump is racist (his Muslim ban and wall). We know he likes hookers. We know he cheats on his wife regularly. We know he wants to incestral relations with Ivanka. Trump quote:
TRUMP AWKWARDLY TOUCHED IVANKA'S HIPS AT THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION IN 2016.
(news quote)
What a gross old orange man.
With that it won't matter that he has said the N-word and it's on tape.