Posted on 04/27/2022 11:58:42 AM PDT by Red Badger
The UK on Tuesday threatened to ban Twitter altogether and potentially jail Elon Musk if he violates their incoming "Online Safety Bill" by allowing free speech on his platform.
The move came just hours after the EU threatened to ban Twitter entirely if Musk allows free speech on the platform and the US threatened to "reform" Section 230 to hold social media companies "accountable" for the "harms they cause."
From CNBC: Britain's Online Safety Bill would make it mandatory for social media services to tackle both illegal posts as well as material that is "legal but harmful," a vague definition that has attracted criticism from some in the tech industry over concerns that it may stifle free speech.
"Twitter and all social media platforms must protect their users from harm on their sites," a U.K. government spokesperson told CNBC.
"We are introducing new online safety laws to safeguard children, prevent abusive behaviour and protect free speech," the spokesperson said. "All tech firms with users in the U.K. will need to comply with the new laws or face hefty fines and having their sites blocked."
The stakes for platforms like Twitter would be even higher under the Online Safety Bill, which threatens jail time for company executives for serious violations, as well as penalties of up to 10% of annual global sales.
The legislation, which is yet to be approved by U.K. lawmakers, is expected to become law later this year. Musk said earlier in the day after the EU's threats were issued that, "The extreme antibody reaction from those who fear free speech says it all."
"By 'free speech', I simply mean that which matches the law. I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law. If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect. Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people," Musk said.
It's truly remarkable how these Western regimes will condemn China and Russia for cracking down on dissent while they actively wage total war against free speech and free expression in their own countries against their own subjects.
Musk has already said Twitter will obey the laws in each country.
That said, the Yurps do not get to impose censorship in America.
Well...first, in the UK...you’d have to establish ‘free speech’ and that’s something that won’t be discussed....ever.
There is no such thing as “a little censorship” or benign censorship. No two people will ever agree on how much censorship or oppression is just right, or how much is necessary or reasonable. It must be resisted in the most absolute terms or opposition is pointless. Big tech has already proven its idea of disinformation that is harmful or dangerous means anything they are ideologically opposed to. If they censor at all that’s how it will be. The speech that is most important to protect is that which we find repugnant and odious. Only that which presents a clear and tangible, present danger should be censored.
Let’s burn some more Beatle recordings!
I can agree with blocking or banning based on violent or obscene content, but the problem is that who decides? Liberals have a tendency to call anything they don’t like violent or obscene, being so full of integrity and “inclusiveness”. The commie moderators would do that all the time on Yahoo when I used it many years ago. Then they would post their own fragrant, hateful comments.
Sounds like a challenge to me.
If you have any doubts remaining at all that half of the world has gone bat**** crazy, here’s one for you.
Is it time yet???
I had no inkling of those fascists’ “rules”...
“People don’t realize that other countries have a different definition of ‘Free Speech’ than we Americans do................”
Yes; for example, in the UK it is much easier to win a defamation case than in the US.
In any case, our First Amendment freedoms protect us from *government* censorship, not private censorship. If you doubt that, try trashing your (private, nonunion) employer in a very public way and see how long you have a job.
The UK, Canada, Australia may speak English, but it is not FREE like our meaning of the word free...................
Indeed it does
Screw the UK.
I hope Musk tell the Brits to kiss his ass.
I knew Australia had turned into a dictatorship over firearms and Covid, but hadn’t heard much about the UK or Canada.
Britain has become the Fascist nation they begged us to help them destroy.
Part of my work is information security and the foreign laws a company must obey. It is sick and saddening that so many countries ban free speech and have tyrannical laws that force companies to simply not do business in those countries.
They forget that the Internet is still a US owned entity.
We should have just let hitler take England. It’s not as if the brits have necessarily ever had any disagreement with fascism. They just didn’t like the idea that germans might be in charge of it.
The global communist movement is fast approaching domininance & control of 70-80 percent of the planet...
Dead and living Soviet leaders have to be outraged that they weren’t around to see this ridiculously easy endgame played out...
The entirety of North America and most of South America fell under total communist control as rapidly (a period of 60 years) & easily as a diarrhea bowel movement...
The EU has been under the total control of the communists and moslems for the past couple of decades...
For both the U.S. and Canada, the american & canadian communist parties remembered, and implemented, the lessons of the rise & fall of the western Roman Empire: Flooding the target nation with millions of barbarians being the final coup d’état...
Russia is now moving to rejoin the communist worldwide tsunami and, hopefully, reacquire some of its lost power and influence...
A couple of the former Soviet-block nations exhibit some degree of freedom & liberty. (Certainly a lot more than the communist-controlled United States of America...)
Here you go Semimojo. This is how "governments" are really in control of "private" company censorship.
Bitches of England, we cannot allow you to control American law. Go F*** yourself.
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