The essential point, and stated generally, knowledge is fundamentally social, and a society based on “likes” as opposed to esteem is bankrupt.
There we are.
d fb
That is why I am not transactional here.
That is why it took you time to get used to me.
That is why I am direct with people.
People who are honest do better. People who know what they are transacting in are worth more if they know their worth. A like button is not self worth.
A worthy ambition. Do you also check your own airplane before boarding it for a flight? Make sure the airbag in your car won’t explode and kill you with shrapnel? Watch your carrots be plucked from the ground to insure that they don’t contain pesticide residues?
We live in a complex society. We don’t maintain our own horse and buggy, grow our own food, or trade news down at the barbershop. Fact checking, when done appropriately, is the informational equivalent of honest labeling on products or appropriate regulation of industries too complex for the consumer to monitor at every stage.
Yes, Virginia, there are “facts” which are immutable. That fact-checkers occasionally make mistakes is no more reason to ignore them than to disregard the safety warnings of speed limit signs or stop lights.
People who complain about fact-checkers, in my experience, have very little use for “facts”, they would rather live in their own aggrieved reality, baying at the moon and complaining about how badly life has treated them.
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Well, I do avoid newer Boeing airplanes.
Which is basically my point. It is reasonable to question things you see or read, especially on the internet. It’s not reasonable to be a prolific poster of all sorts of links and simultaneously claim not to trust fact checkers. It’s an admission that you are a spreader of propaganda.
—Peter
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This is the problem. Legacy media has violated the trust. They have not been honest. They resorted to censorship and tilt towards salaciousness, negativity and sensationalism.
People are stopping watching cable news.
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Probably need to be a bit more specific, here. When I see “legacy media” related to news, I think of ABC, NBC, and CBS. And newspapers printed on actual paper once a day. That’s likely because I’m old.
—Peter
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It should be noted that yesterday the President of the United States used X to tell everyone that he was exiting from the race. Even White House aides found out by tweet. Twitter/X remains one of the most important information sources in the world.
DB2
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That is not what is happening.
People have stopped having cable. Big difference. They are not dumping the news but the physical source of it entering their homes.
People are dumping cable.
One of my sisters no longer has cable TV. She has in her living room a theater set up with a larger HDTV and a service. My Dad this weekend in Boston wanted to see MSNBC. She had to tell him she no longer has cable. Dad could not comprehend there was no news on TV in the house.
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It may be an unpopular take. However, I think Musk’s greatest achievement might end up as his single handed effort to preserve free speech, in a time when it is absolutely paramount and when every other social media outlet is willing to bend to public or authoritarian pressure. He is not applying the rules of free speech to X as close to 1A as I would like but we’re getting there.
X is to some degree becoming a real time fact check and it’s a threat to the viability of any news organization that wants to be anything other than an objective source of information.
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So much wrong with that statement. so called “Free Speech” is censorship protection from the government, not from a private company, which X is. Nothing done on X, whether it be restrictions or utter free reign in ANY WAY (excluding official Federal Government X accounts) reflects on free speech rights.
I won’t even get into his frequent removal of people/entities on X that he simply doesn’t like (which is not a violation of Free Speech). Nah, changed my mind.
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You’re joking, right? Like he never censors people himself, like those critical of him or Tesla or his favorite deranged politicians. Give me a break.
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Typical JC behavior: you can say anything you want, as long as it is what the JC wants to hear. JCs, by their nature, tend to be dictators.
Steve
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You have to keep in mind the reason why Twitter was moderated in the first place: The Internet is a cess pool, and if there is no moderation the loudest, most extreme voices take over. That forces all the normal people out, and advertisers along with them.
Since Elon took over, Twitter usage is down 22%. I’ve heard different reports about how much advertising is down. I don’t think anyone knows for sure, but several companies have announced they are suspending or ending advertising on Twitter because their ads were being placed next to offensive content (Apple, Disney), or simply because Twitter ads were no longer effectively reaching the target audience (Wal-Mart).
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Once Musk took over, I just deleted my account, no need for it, only a couple old friends were aboard, and I connect with them elsewhere… One old HS classmate kept sending links to X postings, I just deleted, moved along, but at some point let them know why, all is quiet, so be it… So many other, reasonable venues, even controllable by the user… No need for X…
weco
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We have free speech all the time. The issue is news services have editorial obligations.
The bottom line SM have a responsibility to gauge comments as election interference or outright lies.
Outright lies are not free speech. Gibberish is all I see. Like, go sit in the corner and talk to yourself but keep the psycho stuff to yourself. Don’t put Putin on some sort of pedestal.
There is freedom to reject speech. That is a form not just of editorializing but free speech. If you say something stupid I get to slam it well.
It happens that way because people buy into stupidity. We do hear it.
republic and democracy are the same word almost entirely. One is Latin the other is Greek. People rule v people power. When a total dingbat says we are a republic s/he is an $jit. In Athens, the entire idea of people’s rule was to shoot the dumbie down.
My advice do not make a fool of ones self in public.
It does not matter how big a crazy liar you love. It makes the person spreading lies very wrong.
Popularity has nothing to do with it. It’s just factually wrong.
–Peter
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Several others have already pointed this out - a private company can regulate content on its platform - this is not an attack on our First Amendment rights. That’s a fact - maybe you can check X…
Giving a megaphone to the most vile among us in the name of free speech is irresponsible. It’s like giving an agitated chimpanzee an AR-15. It’s clearly doing more harm than good.
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Free speech is messy. Poor speech and bad speech, even hate speech needs to be countered by more and louder truth and facts.
Moderation is simply censorship and prior to Musk Twitter bent itself to every govt pressure exerted against it. To the others claiming X is a private company and can censor and moderate content, it is and can and become like the rest. However, Musk has made a commitment to making it the digital version of the public forum. Whether he follows through on that promise has yet to be fully answered and my hope is the guidelines follow 1A.
Public trust in news media is at the lowest point in history and the lowest of any 1st world nation. X, for all its flaws, is becoming through users a counter voice and a way for the public to fact check and share information directly.
Are Musk’s motivations that altruistic? It’s hard to say. All I know is history has shown suppression of speech is usually the start of authoritarian societies not the end of them. In the absence of any other digital forum stepping up as the public square, X serves albeit imperfectly an important role.
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It isn’t a question of whether private companies can regulate content, they can. It is a whole other matter when govt instructs those private businesses to restrict lawful speech of private citizens. Musk has chosen not to bend the knee, that’s a good thing for open and public debate.
Speech, even the worst of it is not violence.
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