Should Tech Giants Police “Hate Speech” Online? - Comments Page 1

I fully agree with all of your comments about the unconstitutional reach that has taken place in our own government and that we should never seek to look like Europe. Agreements with EU countries have nothing to do with the U.S.A.

That being said, Facebook has on its own already been policing what its members post. It has very liberal policies in place that allow certain speech but not other speech. This is the rule of tolerance that we must all practice but intolerance to any view that does not match the liberal point of view.

Am I surprised that social media has capitulated to the demands of EU? No!

Do I worry that feelings might be hurt if someone posts an opinion that I don't agree with or if I post an opinion they don't agree with? No! How about having civil discourse over the disparity in our world views?

Marginalizing free speech and open dialogue never brings the desired results. It creates a false sense of safety and narrow-mindedness that prevents healthy spiritual, psychological and physical development in society.

This article reminds me of the song from the 60's by Malvina Reynolds, "Little Boxes on the Hillside". Sadly, the very counterculture who grasped the concept of fearing everyone looking, feeling and thinking all the same, didn't recognize the source of their of their liberal/socialistic ideals as being the eventual vehicle that would usher it in.

I agree completely with your position on this subject. We have a 1st and 4th ammendment thanks to the prescient nature of our founding fathers AND their experience with governments where they came from.

Most of the American public has no idea where they came from or why they are important. But as you suggest, they will find out in a hurry when they are taken away or nullified.

F the government!

So who is going to POLICE the POLICE? Who gets to be arbiter of what is hate speech? Free speech has to be free or you do not have free speech. Being offensive is being free. I say no to any censorship.

So if I send some "inappropriate" material to someone in the EU, what happens? Do they simply not receive what I sent? Does somebody come after me? Cancel my ISP? Haul me to the station? Make me write "I shall not ..." 100 times on the blackboard?

The sheer dominance of liberals from K1 to Grad school in academia has slowly over the years eroded numerous patterns of thought, morphing schools into incremental brainwashing centers.

The current president has put this process on steroids, and may indeed be nefarious.

If you don't think George Orwell was ahead of his time with Animal Farm and 1984, then you must not have read the books or didn't understand them.

Most Americans are turning into weak, coddled, spoiled, cowardly, sheeple, willing to be herded.

America is approaching circling the drain, and our own govt is progressively turning on us.

As awful as hate speech is, I believe in freedom of speech. It is not up to organizations to limit speech, but the people who read it. As long as there is not slander or libel involved, everyone has the right to express their opinion no matter what it is. I would rather have it out in the open than festering unseen until some terrible event happens. Forewarned is forearmed.

I do not now nor never will want to see America become like Europe! That is a goal of the Americsn Liberal Agenda! We fought England to have Freedom and won that right! Millions of our Military Service folks have died for Europe & other nations in this world to have a similar Freedom - but they say no in many ways.

I believe that our Ameticsn Companies should tell EU to stick it and start to pull out of their countries until those Nations can no longer surperess the riots by their folks anf Europe cave into our ways of Freedom and Liberty!

I have always said that Facebook is dangerous & it is, although I don't trust any company where you cannot reach the boss or CEO and send them a letter, many companies like Facebook are unaccountable and not to be trusted, its just that most folks haven't figured it out yet.
Deep text and rubbish like that can & will eventually take away our rights, it will be forced upon us and we will have to adhere to its set standards.
Be careful of what you sign up to with the EU, it is an insidious creeping cancer & its tentacles reach into all parts of daily life but you need to be about 70 years old to understand how dangerous it is, its a new form of communism being run by unelected faceless politicos in Brussels, with the strings pulled from Germany.
40 years ago England was conned into a trade partnership with 9 nations which morphed without our consent into a federation which makes our laws and has opened our borders, you also state that you don't want European standards of free speech well unfortunately Bob the EU has done away with the free speech in England which we have enjoyed for hundreds of years.
So do not sit back and let it happen as we did, start protecting your rights now, or it will be imposed on you by treacherous politicians.

Scary stuff Bob. When are you going to write an article on disabling GPS on our phones? Disabling as in which wire's to snip or which chip to insert an ice pick into 😭

Bob, I'm with you 100%. Thanks for bringing up this crisis, which is being implemented via digital technology, which reaches into every brain and now turns it on and off like a faucet: "These words you can say, these words you can't say." When your cashless card is blocked at the grocery store because you've moved away from the party line, you'll modify your expressions in order to eat and function.

SamIamHis, very good: "'Little Boxes on the Hillside'. ... liberal/socialistic ideals as being the eventual vehicle that would usher it in." I see that the Russian bear of communism has long been riding into the United States on the Democratic donkey. (There was a Japanese World War II bear-on-donkey wind-up toy.) The fact that Bernie Sanders has young people in his thrall and has done so well in his bid to be president should signal "Imminent danger!"

Robert, I agree: "the EU, ... you need to be about 70 years old to understand how dangerous it is, its a new form of communism..." See the May 2005 memo by the Council on Foreign Relations on the North American Union, which explains our "illegal immigration" problem: the floodgates were intentionally opened in order to mix the populations of Mexico and the United States so as to erase the southern border. Canada's also in the NAU plan. The one man almost singlehandedly responsible for shepherding the Democratic flock to the present state of affairs in the U.S. is Robert Pastor. Read this *excellent* article about him and see quotes from the May 2005 CFR memo:

http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=13740

I have no problem with limited regulating of what is posted. Freedom comes with responsibility, if you are bullying, threatening, inciting to violence, lying, then you should have your rights to freedom of speech curtailed. Vulgar and vitriolic speech isn't meant to encourage and stimulate free speech, it is meant to stop it. Proudly a Liberal, proudly anti Trump who is a perfect example of one who uses vulgar, vitriolic speech and lying to try to stop freedom of speech from others.

Thank you! A well written, insightful article on the spreading threat to free speech. Several law enforcement actions in the UK and then the German government's approval of possible prosecution of a German citizen for allegedly insulting a foreign head of state have shown how cowed the EU has become. A few years ago I was stunned to discover that the Organization for Islamic Cooperation had office space in the U.S. Department of State on C Street NW in Washington, DC. That organization definitely opposes free speech, and the U.S. Government provides it office space!

All the shouting, and unsteadiness, lack of knowledge expressed here, leaves me wondering. First, members of the UE have a right to set their own policies regarding what can and cannot be said on social media, etc. That's their business, and if you don't want to play in their ball park, then don't pick up a ball and bat. Our Constituti0n, I would think, is based on civility, a belief that the terms of the document apply to those, all those, who can be civil in the exercise of their guaranteed rights. For example: I can't see media bullying to the point where the receiver of that verbal bullying, thinks that death is better than the struggle to go on living. That's happened, as we know. It's also not at all appropriate when the foulest of language is used on social media. And, here is more, but suffice it to say, the guarantees of those sacred documents we call Bill of Right, etc., were not meant to be abused, and nowadays, they certainly are, and in spades!

Frankly, though I'm a great believer in freedom of expression, I am also a believer in obeying the law of the land unless there is a very good reason for civil disobedience. The laws of the United States do not automatically apply to other nations: citizens of EU member states (which are democracies) get to have their laws respected, too.
In Canada where I live, there are laws against uttering threats, incitement to riot, and defamation --which I believe are also illegal in most if not all US states ... which are routinely violated by some people on social media and elsewhere.
I dare say it's "unAmerican" of me to think that providers of online platforms should be concerned and take action when, for example, an ISIS operative tells followers to go out and kill as many people as possible, or rabid racists harass Jews or Blacks with threats of the "death to all of you" variety, or sick individuals advocate raping a female reporter for doing her job. I'm no fan of algorithms designed to remove anything that might be vaguely offensive to somebody but I do believe Twitter is right to delete identified ISIS accounts and suspend or delete postings that cross from offensive to threatening.
Obviously, it is up to EU member states to decide where the legal line is drawn, at which point technology companies should decide whether or not they wish to do business with those countries. They already make those decisions when dealing with non-democratic countries; why should democracies be respected less?

European standards of “free speech” are not creeping into the United States: it's a full-on gallop!! If your opinion differs from someone else, they take "offense", complain and your opinion becomes "hate".

Coming to an America near you, Digital Facism. Europe is just the canary in the mineshaft.

Bottom line?...Social media, and specifically Facebook, is an enemy of the U.S. Constitution.
Any content-ie-photos, video, and intellectual property becomes theirs the second it is posted.
Read their Terms.
Furthermore, this AI prog Facebook is running will build intelligence and, no doubt, eventually be able to essentially read one's mind via predictive algorithms.

Rules like these are part of every organization on the Internet that allows you to post on their site. And despite waving the First Amendment around like a Salvation Army banner the bare bones is that this has no more to do with the First Amendment than the flapping of seagull wings has to do with the rise of ocean tides. Cherry picking a sentence or a few words out of context from the First Amendment and claiming that y'all got yer free speech is downright silly.
The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prohibits the making of any law (by Congress) respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble, or prohibiting ...
But 'Free Speech does not come with the freedom of consequences to what was spoken. I may personally dislike Klingons. I may even hate Klingons. But I certainly cannot post to Facebook that this weekend I am arranging for a gang of my fellow Klingon haters to to meet outside their social club and beat them all with bats as the come out of it.
You don't own your Facebook page. Facebook owns it. They let you use it to post stuff on. Their page. Their rules. (See code of conduct.) Even Bob here has rules:

YES... spelling, punctuation, grammar and proper use of UPPER/lower case are important! And please limit your remarks to 3-4 paragraphs. If you want to see your comment posted, pay attention to these items.

All comments are previewed, and may be edited before posting.

These rules are infringing upon so-called free speech? If I don't follow these rules my speech may not be seen on Bob's comment section.

The ability to spew hatred and threats in social media helps to normalize this behavior, which is not really in our interest. There are numerous examples of this behavior causing harm.

Restricting the ability to write something in social media is not the same as punishing someone for writing it. Social media is not government owned or operated. The companies make the rules. If you don't like it, don't use it. You can still express yourself by talking, putting up posters, giving out pamphlets etc.