EU country's start to question social media after trump ban and parler ban

[Kenpachii]

In netherlands and germany officials start to question social media and start to compare it to the great firewall of china after the ban of trump and parler. It's clear big tech company's are abusing there power positions and this could very well be the end of big tech company's in the EU sooner rather then later.

https://www.reuters.com/article/usa...itter-ban-merkel-spokesman-says-idUSL8N2JM4ES

BERLIN, Jan 11 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel has reservations about the way President Donald Trump’s Twitter account was suspended, her spokesman said, adding that legislators, not private companies, should decide on any necessary curbs to free expression.

The intervention by Steffen Seibert, her chief spokesman, reflects concern in Berlin and much of Europe at the power giant social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook have to shape public discourse.

Merkel’s relations with Trump have been frosty during the his four years in office, making her apparent decision to side with him in his objections to being removed from the platform all the more striking.


Twitter permanently banned Trump after his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in Washington, unleashing hours of chaos in which five people died. The platform said his tweets could cause more violence.

“The right to freedom of opinion is of fundamental importance,” Seibert told reporters at a regular government news conference in Berlin on Monday.

“Given that, the chancellor considers it problematic that the president’s accounts have been permanently suspended.”


He added that Twitter’s practice of adding notes to Trump’s inaccurate tweets had been appropriate, since the platform bore a responsibility for ensuring public discourse was not poisoned by hate, lies or incitement.

While Facebook followed Twitter in banning Trump, it was the short messaging service that he made his own, leveraging a vast online following to rout his challengers in the Republican primaries and then capture the presidency in 2016.

Germans are wary of infringements of free speech, partly thanks to memories of the Communists and of Adolf Hitler’s Nazis, totalitarian regimes that ruled on German soil during the 20th century, both of which used violence and censorship to seize and hold power. (Reporting by Markus Wacket, writing by Thomas Escritt, editing by Douglas Busvine and Giles Elgood)

https://www.ft.com/content/6146b352-6b40-48ef-b10b-a34ad585b91a

Angela Merkel, German chancellor, has sharply criticised Twitter’s decision to ban US president Donald Trump, calling it a “problematic” breach of the “fundamental right to free speech”.

While company's can do whatever they want on there platform they are bound by rules in that country where they operate in, which means if freedom of speech needs to be deployed it should be deployed even on twitters platform. I would not be shocked if the end of social media juggernaut company's is in sight as we know it.

 

[infinitys_7th]

When free speech restrictions get Germany thinking they went too far, there is a problem.

TBH, Twitter has a right to ban Trump. However, the banning appears to be part of a planned retaliatory act by all major social media colluding together at the detriment of a customer. This is potentially an anti-trust situation.

 

[O-N-E]

The Ayatollah Khamenei is on Twitter.

 

[eyesabitdull]

 

[Slings and Arrows]

This is Europe, rightfully wondering why an American problem has a knock-on effect to European citizens. It's the right question to ask and should have been asked immediately after George Floyd.

Why should a citizen of one country be punished, or silenced, or have to walk on eggshells on social media (Not Gaf!) because some fella in another country was killed by a cop, who are internationally known to be heavy handed? The same way as in, why do political views in my country get frowned upon (on social media) because of how a foreign election went down?

You can point your fingers at Trump and Jan 6th as the problem, but the rest of the world looks at the summer riots as well and sees the whole picture. We see that your country is a mess at the moment. The in-fighting, double-standards and MSM circus does not make you guys look good.

I hope for your sake that Biden sorts it out.

 

[Arkam]

I mean it was very transparent what happened. They coordinated to silence a group of people for "fear of violence" (yet left alone 99% of all those who preach hate) and did so swiftly and in conjunction. Twitter, FB, Insta all ban Trump. Trump moves to Parler. Parler is platformed by AWS. Parler is hacked. And just for good measure Stripe bans the Trump campaign leaving them without a pay portal.

Totally no collusion or conspiring at all.

I mean unless they are all just run by soft dicked plebs who get spooked by the slightest trend they dont like.... I would believe this.

 

[FreedomOfSpeech]

The entire world has been thrust on to the internet in about a generation.
Nobody understood the pitfalls, nobody knew how to educate their kids for it.

Internet is a bigger thing than the bookpress was. It's a total wild west, and hardly anyone understands it. It's as if it can only go wrong.

 

[Aurelius]

Merkel grew up in the DDR, she is probably seeing too many similarities for comfort.

 

[Raven117]

There is no question that this has to be addressed by the US and the EU. Social media has grown to the point that it must be addressed, one way or another.

 

[Kenpachii]

Merkel grew up in the DDR, she is probably seeing too many similarities for comfort.

US is playing with fire atm. they can either move into a communist state or they can resist and keep free speech alive. Look the capital attack was absolute deplorable don't get me wrong but what u see right now is the Kristallnacht but with big tech company's and 1 party rule being pushed massively forwards because they use this momentum to steamrol anything that's a danger towards there 1 party rule state.

While people are attacking trump and the right, they fail to see what is really going on. And the EU see's it clear as day and absolutely does not agree with any of it. not even the left because they know where this ends. Freedom of speech is the first thing to go out of the window and that's exactly what is happening right now in the US. they will go after there wrong think population and cull them on every possible solution until eventually death camps are pushed up like what happened with the jews a decade or two later. U already see the hate being pushed forwards and promoted daily in US society's which will result in nothing but more hate.

Hate should never be allowed, and that's why a ban on hate speech should be a thing which isn't in the US and it costs them there head eventually because of it. The insane radicalization i see in news from the US is just absolutely mind boggling its nothing i ever saw in my own country even remotely.

Arnold was right on this and he knows this but he can't say anything about it because they will already be coming for him the next day with all possible solutions to make his life miserable. And that's why specifically EU citizens that sit on this website heavily critize the hypocritical bullshit the left is spouting even while the US simple isn't seeing it right now because they are blinded by the recent attack.

What the left is currently doing and what big tech company's are doing is something the EU wants nothing to do with, so twitter will probably and other tech company's get sooner rather then later a message from the EU where they can either have to start operating in EU boarders under EU laws or be banned as result and frankly i am all for it.

It's disgusting i have to stream on twitch and can't even deploy a picture of me dressing up like black pete because they tell me i am racist and get banned. Even while its tradition in my country that is shared by 99% of its population. This should not ever happen. but it is being done right now.

Now with parler that suddently gets removed and banned from EU view the same for trump because the US decides they don't like things and pushes that censorship all over the world because they rule your discussion is something that won't fly in the EU.

I think twitter / facebook and amazon overplayed and overstayed there powers and frankly with most of there servers already operating within EU boarders it won't be hard to simple make a alternative towards it the next day or split them up like i mentioned earlier.

 

[tillbot8]

Man when Merkel has to defend free speech you know the Left have gone off a fucking cliff!

 

[TheUsual]

Serious question: if net neutrality was still around, could have Big Tech gotten away with this?

 

[Majukun]

wouldn't deprive twitter of the power to deny service basically spell the end of any kind of message board in the US?

I mean the only way they would be able to keep moderating is by taking legal responsability to the content that is posted in the message board itself, something that no owner in their right mind would do.

if they don't thety are considered a platform and not a publisher thus they can't deny service or censor content.

either everyost would need to pass through moderation first before getting into the website, which is completely unpractical, or no moderation at all, unless i'm missing something of how the whole thing works in the us, or would work since as of now it's all on paper

 

[Zefah]

It really just boils down to Twitter becoming the de facto place for official news and announcements. As a private company, they should be able to handle their platform as they please, but they got too big and there are no alternatives for the non-China Internet. Centralized global discussion in which a small group of people in America have absolute moderator powers is just not going to fly with most governments, I think.

 

[NickFire]

For years we have stood by Europe when fascists and communists threatened them, but you cannot be more of a fascist in America than someone who supports free speech for only those they agree with. Europe should be terrified of what big tech is doing in the US with the full support of (or possibly at the behest of) the now/about to be ruling political power. The freedom of the entire world is now being threatened by corporate monopolies who believe it is their duty to define the parameters of what can be discussed.

 

[dlauv]

Germany Raids Homes of 36 People Accused of Hateful Postings Over Social Media (Published 2017)

The raids were part of a coordinated campaign across 14 states. Most cases concerned politically motivated right-wing incitement, police said.

www.nytimes.com

Twitter blocks German satirical magazine Titanic (cnn.com)

They're more restrictive than the UK, which is more restrictive than the US. Germany twitter is more restrictive than US twitter, in compliance with German law. Seems like a bizarre place to critique 1A from but alright. You can go to jail for saying things that won't even get you kicked off the US platform.

Edit: Oh, I understand what she's saying now. That there should be more hate speech laws so the onus isn't tech companies.

 

[INCUBASE]

Twitter is a shit hole anyway

Hope it goes down the toilet

I'll stick to gaf, at least you'll call me out and call me a cunt.

 

[Amiga]

Social media platforms could face fines in Poland for censoring free speech

In December, the Polish government announced an initiative that may compel social media companies to uphold free speech or recieve fines of roughly two million dollars, if they remove content or block an account that does not break the law in Poland.

thepostmillennial.com

 

[ResilientBanana]

I needs to be monitored and filtered. Things that are not true should be deleted and / or removed, but in a way that presents factual information. Right now it's just a giant hate capacitor.

 

[Red Rackham's Revenge]

Hubris.

The rest of the world doesn't have to put up with the techtards' power trip. And I don't think they will.

Short-sightedness will eventually lead to these companies becoming much more local and less global.

 

[tfur]

Serious question: if net neutrality was still around, could have Big Tech gotten away with this?

Yes.

It was more about service and transport speed controls, and who has access to control those.

 

[Forsythia]

Merkel is right and politicians in both Europe and the US should question this. Hate speech is definitely wrong and should be removed, but that's it. The tech companies should not be the ones deciding what are the right politics.

 

[dolabla]

 

[Alx]

Eh, it's my "I told you so" moment. From the beginning it was obvious it was stupid for politicians to use private social media as a platform, since they give control of their communication to a third party that can single-handedly filter/change/block their communication. Guess what, sooner or later it will happen, and that's now.

 

[mashoutposse]

Some people silently enjoy America smashing itself to pieces.

 

[The Hamburglar]

The Ayatollah Khamenei is on Twitter.

And?

 

[Cravis]

When Europe, who has quite an extensive history dealing with Fascism and Communism, looks at you and says “Damn, what you doing son?” You know you dun fucked up.

 

[O-N-E]

And?

 

[lock2k]

Despite being very differently politically speaking, I have massive respect for Glenn Greenwald.

 

[The Hamburglar]

You’re obviously trying to imply
How can an ‘evil’ man like that still have a Twitter account and not trump.

his tweets can be Summed up as ‘America bad’
Just realised it’s you. I forgot you
Love whataboutism.

 

[HE1NZ]

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny (who was poisoned by Putin this summer) condemded action of Big Tech too:



He would know. Putin went after Internet in similar fashion after 2010-2011 protests. Forced most independent companies out of country and installed a limited firewall to block websites he doesn't like. They took away VK from Pavel Durov and tried prosecuting him causing him to escape. Durov then made Telegram and Russian government tried blocking it unsuccessfully. Which is why I suggest Trump to move there now (it's unblockable and Apple would have a hard time removing the app with 500 million users)

Democrats are effectively repeating what Putin did step by step but on a global scale. This is creepy as fuck.

 

[McHuj]

Serious question: if net neutrality was still around, could have Big Tech gotten away with this?

I don't think this really is not applicable to net neutrality. Net neutrality is/was about ISP's prioritizing traffic and offering paid tiers for faster access to certain traffic.

 

[O-N-E]

You’re obviously trying to imply
How can an ‘evil’ man like that still have a Twitter account and not trump.

his tweets can be Summed up as ‘America bad’
Just realised it’s you. I forgot you
Love whataboutism.

The fuck you just said to my face?

That man has and does incite others openly on fucking twitter to shed the blood of my people to annihilation.

Fuck off to oblivion.

#OrangeManMean

#TwitterHalp

 

[whyreggielie]

These so called "free" countries in the EU always have strangely strict speech laws which is the fundamental difference between them and the US. Countries like Germany can fine and jail for basic insults or anything they consider hate speech, not the path anyone should want the US to go down.

As for private companies, they can make any rules and regulations they so wish in regards to speech and the government can do nothing about it. Twitter has a right to censor whomever they want, same goes for any non-government owned company in the US. Lets not go down the CCP route of government regulation on companies and the internet as some of you seem to be so keen on lately.

 

[The Hamburglar]

The fuck you just said to my face?

That man has and does incite others openly on fucking twitter to shed the blood of my people to annihilation.

Fuck off to oblivion.

#OrangeManMean

#TwitterHalp

Iran has every reason to hate USA if you even know a shred of history.

a tweet from 6 years ago cool. Israel has been begging the USA to invade Iran since 2002, openly calling for it to be bombed. Pressuring US politicians to attack. How many Iranians has Israel assassinated? Of course Iran doesn’t like Israel.

you can drop the hard man routine.

 

[O-N-E]

Iran has every reason to hate USA if you even know a shred of history.

a tweet from 6 years ago cool. Israel has been begging the USA to invade Iran since 2002, openly calling for it to be bombed. Pressuring US politicians to attack. How many Iranians has Israel assassinated? Of course Iran doesn’t like Israel.

you can drop the hard man routine.

Tactical assassinations of terrorists is not the same as the annihilation of a nation.

Doubt you can drop the retard act if you tried.

#CRUFICYoRaNgEmAn

Edit: And the tweet is still up if you didn't notice. It ain't no archive.

 

[Amiga]

Iran has every reason to hate USA if you even know a shred of history.

a tweet from 6 years ago cool. Israel has been begging the USA to invade Iran since 2002, openly calling for it to be bombed. Pressuring US politicians to attack. How many Iranians has Israel assassinated? Of course Iran doesn’t like Israel.

you can drop the hard man routine.

dose Iran have reason to hate it's own population, or the population of Iraq, or Syria, or Lebanon...

 

[TGO]

I can't even speak to my brother about this, no matter what.
Trump is responsible

 

[Poop!]

Trump can have a press conference at any time and his words would be heard around the world instantly. He's not censored.

 

[The Hamburglar]

Tactical assassinations of terrorists is not the same as the annihilation of a nation.

Doubt you can drop the retard act if you tried.

#CRUFICYoRaNgEmAn

Edit: And the tweet is still up if you didn't notice. It ain't no archive.

Just because YOU call them terrorists doesn’t make it fact. Since you said ‘my people’ an Israeli is hardly an unbiased source on the subject.
Ah yes all those bombs and IEDs those scientists planted in their own country, mastermind terrorists

You focus on your made up facts while conveniently ignoring that Israel has tried for nearly 20 years to have Iran destroyed.
Still haven’t got back to me about your screeching about nazis because your beloved fringe politics got banned.

 

[O-N-E]

Ah yes all those bombs and IEDs those scientists planted in their own country, mastermind terrorists

You focus on your made up facts while conveniently ignoring that Israel has tried for nearly 20 years to have Iran destroyed.
Still haven’t got back to me about your screeching about nazis because your beloved fringe politics got banned.

Your moral compass is not intact.

Destroy Iran? What in the world are you going on about?

Iran's leaders are the guiltiest parties involved in that endeavor.

Edit: BTW being biased doesn't magically make someone wrong.

 

[The Hamburglar]

dose Iran have reason to hate it's own population, or the population of Iraq, or Syria, or Lebanon...

Oh I’m sorry was I promoting Iran as some
Beacon of human rights that needed to be schooled? I’m not defending Iran’s domestic record, so your point in irrelevant. If the CIA didn’t install the brutal dictator that overthrew the democratically elected government, then the hardline Islamic revolution mostly like wouldn’t have happened.

 

[O-N-E]

The Hamburglar How would you classify Hamas and Hezbollah?

 

[kuncol02]

Meanwhile in Poland:

Justice minister announces online freedom of speech bill

Poland's justice minister announced a legal initiative on Thursday aimed at enabling internet users to file complaints against the removal of online posts as well as the creation of a special court for freedom of speech.

www.thefirstnews.com

 

[The Hamburglar]

The Hamburglar How would you classify Hamas and Hezbollah?

Hold on . You couldn’t answer in the other thread; you’ve failed to use your whataboutism here; now you’re doing it again and moving the goal posts at the same time.

my moral compass is fine. Israel lobbied America to invade Iraq and bush and co promised Iran would be next. Iran was lucky Iraq was such a cluster fuck. Israel has been for the last 20 years threatening to bomb Iran and pressuring the USA to invade. Of course they’re going to react? You blame Iran’s leaders, when it’s the neo cons and Israel making the threats.

 

[O-N-E]

Hold on . You couldn’t answer in the other thread; you’ve failed to use your whataboutism here; now you’re doing it again and moving the goal posts at the same time.

The fuck are you bringing up the other thread for? Go shit up the other thread some more if you want and maybe I'll say something there.

How do you feel about Hamas and Hezbollah? How do you feel about Iran funding them and other bloody regimes?

 

[ZippyTheOtter]

These so called "free" countries in the EU always have strangely strict speech laws which is the fundamental difference between them and the US. Countries like Germany can fine and jail for basic insults or anything they consider hate speech, not the path anyone should want the US to go down.

As for private companies, they can make any rules and regulations they so wish in regards to speech and the government can do nothing about it. Twitter has a right to censor whomever they want, same goes for any non-government owned company in the US. Lets not go down the CCP route of government regulation on companies and the internet as some of you seem to be so keen on lately.

I think this is a point are a lot of people are missing. She thinks the US should codify hate speech into US laws, so it's legislative bodies selecting what and who is allowed on internet platforms rather than private companies. My understanding is this can't happen in the US because of how the first amendment has been interpreted by the court system.

Some in this thread are cheering this statement on at face value and not actually reading they're cheering on big government controlling speech.

 

[dolabla]

Mexico too:

 

[UnNamed]

Hate speech on social media, governments: socials have the responsibility over the contents users put online.
Social media remove hate messages, governments: social have no rights to remove contents.

 

[DeeDogg_]

You’re obviously trying to imply
How can an ‘evil’ man like that still have a Twitter account and not trump.

his tweets can be Summed up as ‘America bad’
Just realised it’s you. I forgot you
Love whataboutism.

What about Susan Rosenberg?