Hyman Rosen 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (1141)

• On the post: As Twitter Goes Down Yet Again, Report Highlights How Fragile Its Infrastructure Has Become

  

  Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 07 Mar, 2023 @ 11:22pm

  So, after that enormous conversation, do you find yourself more edified? I doubt it. Having skimmed through a lot of it, I am not even a little tempted to change my mind. Censorship is the silencing of opinions based on viewpoint on platforms the censor controls. The ability of the silenced to speak elsewhere is irrelevant, because saying otherwise renders the same action as censorship or not depending on factors outside the censor's control. So censorship is the act of the censor, and does not depend on the milieu in which the censor operates. The legality or constitutionality of the silencing is irrelevant, because saying otherwise would render all silencing as not censorship, given that illegal or unconstitutional silencing tends to get quickly struck down. Any additional penalties other than silencing that the censor may cause to have applied to the silenced are irrelevant - arrest, deportation, cancelation, blacklisting, or nothing at all, none of that matters. The severity of the additional penalty might cause people to fear speaking, but it's the silencing that constitutes the censorship. Moderation is the silencing of speech based on form - the speech may be spam, or off-topic, or indecorous as defined by the moderator, or even just too big or too small or too frequent. The essential difference between moderation and censorship is that moderation focuses on the form of the speech and censorship on its content. A putative basket-weaving forum might moderate away both "transwomen are men" and "transwomen are women" as off-topic, but a trans-support forum would censor only the former. A putative bluenose group might moderate away both "Hyman Rosen is a fucking Nazi" and "Stephen T. Stone is a fucking idiot" as being indecorous, while Masnick might finally decide that TechDirt has had just about enough of me and censor only the latter. Censorship and moderation are not intrinsically good or bad. They are simply actions. However, in a society like the US where freedom of speech is a foundational value, censorship should be discouraged, especially on large generic speech platforms that are open to vast numbers of people speaking on vast numbers of topics. Censorship is more appropriate on smaller platforms or subgroups of larger ones that are dedicated to particular points of view. A group dedicated to religiously observant Muslims might choose to censor away images of Muhammad. A group dedicated to religiously observant Jews might ban Messianic Jews from membership entirely. None of this is meant to imply that the boundary between moderation and censorship is sharp. It is not, and people will inevitably argue whether a specific case of silencing was one or the other. The Babylon Bee awarding Dr. Rachel Levine its "Man of the Year" award - is that a vicious personal attack on Dr. Levine, which should be moderated as indecorous, or a comment on woke gender ideology, because Dr. Levine has stereotypically male facial features? And of course, people will make these arguments with motivated reasoning. People who believe in woke gender ideology will see it one way, people who don't, the other.

• On the post: As Twitter Goes Down Yet Again, Report Highlights How Fragile Its Infrastructure Has Become

  

  Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 07 Mar, 2023 @ 10:19pm

  Here is the classic case where a college professor offered to call a trans student by name only, and not use pronouns at all. Naturally, the woke student raised a fuss, and the school did not support the professor... https://www.kansascity.com/news/nation-world/national/article221585420.html ...to their regret, as the Alliance Defending Freedom sued on behalf of the professor and won: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/professor-nick-meriwether-400000-pronouns-transgender-student-shawnee-state-ohio/

• On the post: As Twitter Goes Down Yet Again, Report Highlights How Fragile Its Infrastructure Has Become

  

  Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 07 Mar, 2023 @ 09:59pm

  "Ugly laws" sound like a great idea to keep crazed, stinking, drug-addled, possibly dangerous bums off the streets and subways and libraries of our cities. Thank you. I had no idea such things existed. The wisdom of the ancients! I propose handling people with the trans delusion by not allowing them to force their way into single-sex spaces for which their bodies disqualify them, not teaching their false beliefs as true in public schools, having official government documents that list sex have only the sex of their bodies, having medical institutions that offer gender-denying mutilation and sterilization monitored and evaluated to make sure that they are following appropriate mental health procedures for their victims, requiring public schools to report the mental illness of children to their parents, and never forcing anyone to affirm trans beliefs. As always, I do not care which other people share or do not share my opinions. You keep insisting that trans people make me uncomfortable. That is the usual woke ideologue dodge. What makes me uncomfortable is having lies peddled as truth, having science and government and academia warped by Lysenkoist garbage, and forcing and intimidating people who know better into affirming those lies. Woke gender ideologues would have their lies become the new state religion, and those lies must be purged instead.

• On the post: Elon Musk’s Vision Of Trust & Safety: Neither Safe Nor Trustworthy

  

  Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 07 Mar, 2023 @ 05:44pm

  Even though I see tons of movies using AMC A*List, I'm going to try to avoid this one, and Scream VI as well. I don't like boxing movies, endless horror movie sequels, or gangster movies. (I have seen none of the Rocky or Godfather movies, for example.) Does anyone take the kids to their sister? The best movie I've seen so far this year was M3gan, with Infinity Pool a close second. Emily and Corsage were interesting fabricated history movies. Jesus Revolution was surprisingly well done for a Christian movie. Missing was a decent suspenser given its "everything through online views" conceit. Hannah Ha Ha is a very good small movie character study. Skinamarink you will either love or find totally baffling.

• On the post: Elon Musk’s Vision Of Trust & Safety: Neither Safe Nor Trustworthy

  

  Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 07 Mar, 2023 @ 05:32pm

  This is not even a little bit true. Even before the woke got around to doing their ESG investment stuff that might incentivize companies to act more in the public interest, there were plenty of companies who had pro-social agendas as part of their operations. For example, Bloomberg Philanthropies gives away billions of dollars in charity and charitable works. Freedom of speech is a foundational value of our society. There is nothing stopping a company that owns a large generic speech platform from honoring that foundational value by not censoring opinions based on viewpoint. Anyway Twitter wasn't making censorship decisions to make money, it was censoring as it did because its censorship department was staffed by woke ideologues from the top down.

• On the post: Telecom Monopolies Win Again: Gigi Sohn Forced To Withdraw From FCC Nomination

  

  Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 07 Mar, 2023 @ 05:14pm

  You cannot regulate an agency using someone who isn't there. If you nominate someone who will not be approved, it doesn't matter what good you think they can do, because they won't be there to do it. Seriously, is this what woke ideology does to the brain? Do woke ideologues live in alternate universes with respect to absolutely everything, not just race and gender? How do you leave a nomination hanging for years?

• On the post: Telecom Monopolies Win Again: Gigi Sohn Forced To Withdraw From FCC Nomination

  

  Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 07 Mar, 2023 @ 04:35pm

  You mean like refusing to vote for Clinton because she wasn't a proper socialist? If you don't pick a candidate who is generally aligned with what you want, even if not in every respect, you will get someone who mostly does not align with you.

• On the post: Another Day, Another Blatant Attack On The 1st Amendment From The Florida GOP

  

  Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 06 Mar, 2023 @ 10:17pm

  The things I do about censorship are to donate to organizations like the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and the Institute for Justice, and post on forums like this one. I'll probably also buy a copy of Hogwarts Legacy at some point, but I think I need a new gaming laptop first - mine is about six years old now. Moderating away off-topic posts is moderation and not censorship regardless of the contents of those posts, if they are indeed properly off-topic. Moderation is not censorship because it is viewpoint-neutral. That putative basket-weaving forum would moderate away philo-semitic posts as well, if it were being properly moderated. If a forum silences opinions based on their viewpoint, then it is committing censorship. The ability for the silenced to speak elsewhere is irrelevant. The penalties that the censor can impose beyond silencing (arrest, gulag, canceling) are irrelevant. Censorship is the act of the censor.

• On the post: Another Day, Another Blatant Attack On The 1st Amendment From The Florida GOP

  

  Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 06 Mar, 2023 @ 09:55pm

  Masnick has repeatedly written approvingly of how Twitter used to have a Trust & Safety committee, which, while not perfect, he says was miles better than what Twitter has now. Hence the biblical quote - the Israelites hated being enslaved in Egypt, but when they are in the desert and short of food and water, they start reminiscing that Egypt was not so bad after all, where at least they were fed. Woke ideologues might have complained, while the old management was in power, that Twitter was not censoring enough, but once Musk got involved, they realized what they were losing, and wished they had it back.

• On the post: Another Day, Another Blatant Attack On The 1st Amendment From The Florida GOP

  

  Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 06 Mar, 2023 @ 09:45pm

  It's up to the moderators to run the forum so that all viewpoints can be aired while decorum is maintained. If the moderators are not doing that, then the speakers do need to find a place that is run better. But if the moderators are doing their job properly, then it's too bad if the woke ideologues cannot stand to hear dissent. In general, this "safe space" argument is just an excuse by the woke to shut down dissent. The site owner and commenters here on TechDirt dislike what I say, and practically rip themselves in half in fits of Rumpelstiltskin rage shouting and cursing at me, and it does not bother me in the slightest. Note that this is different from having dedicated forums or groups where dissent is considered off-topic, and moderators do not permit it to appear. But large generic speech platforms should not have such a policy for the entire platform.

• On the post: Another Day, Another Blatant Attack On The 1st Amendment From The Florida GOP

  

  Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 05 Mar, 2023 @ 11:39pm

  I'm not sure what you're talking about. I'll just leave you with this biblical quote, Exodus 16:2,3, very reminiscent of the anti-Musk whining:

  In the wilderness, the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of God in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots, when we ate our fill of bread! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to starve this whole congregation to death.”

• On the post: Another Day, Another Blatant Attack On The 1st Amendment From The Florida GOP

  

  Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 05 Mar, 2023 @ 08:29pm

  Censorship is the act of the censor, silencing speech based on viewpoint on platforms the censor controls. The ability of the silenced to speak elsewhere is irrelevant. The fact that the censorship is legal and constitutional is irrelevant. For example, I can say here that Vajiralongkorn and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan are despotic morons. (I'm just saying that. I don't know whether it's really true.) That does not change the fact that expressing such sentiments are forbidden and thus legally censored in their native countries.

• On the post: Another Day, Another Blatant Attack On The 1st Amendment From The Florida GOP

  

  Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 05 Mar, 2023 @ 08:20pm

  Seems like a golden age for them in retrospect, doesn't it? As soon as Musk started talking about buying Twitter and making it safe for free speech (not that he's necessarily done that) you could see the "uh oh" going off in their heads. "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone." Imagine what Democrats will be like if Manchin and Sinema get replaced by Republicans. It's like that.

• On the post: Another Day, Another Blatant Attack On The 1st Amendment From The Florida GOP

  

  Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 05 Mar, 2023 @ 08:13pm

  I answered every one of your questions, because they're all the same question. A private entity may decide whether to carry a product using any criteria they like. No private company should be forced to carry anything they don't want to, or host any speech they don't want to. If they make a decision not to carry or host something because they disagree with its viewpoint, then they are censoring. That's what censorship is - the act of the censor, silencing opinions based on viewpoint on platforms the censor controls.

• On the post: Another Day, Another Blatant Attack On The 1st Amendment From The Florida GOP

  

  Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 05 Mar, 2023 @ 06:17pm

  "voted"

• On the post: Another Day, Another Blatant Attack On The 1st Amendment From The Florida GOP

  

  Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 05 Mar, 2023 @ 06:17pm

  It will either not be viewed into law or the courts will strike it down.

• On the post: Another Day, Another Blatant Attack On The 1st Amendment From The Florida GOP

  

  Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 05 Mar, 2023 @ 06:16pm

  Nothing about the right being fascist censors precludes the left from being fascist censors. Free speech doesn't have many friends.

• On the post: Another Day, Another Blatant Attack On The 1st Amendment From The Florida GOP

  

  Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 05 Mar, 2023 @ 10:16am

  Of course not. Amazon should be pressured, encouraged, or shamed, by public opinion, into behaving correctly. It is unconstitutional for the government to force a bookstore to carry books it doesn't want to sell or to force a TV or radio station to air opinions its owners do not believe.

• On the post: Another Day, Another Blatant Attack On The 1st Amendment From The Florida GOP

  

  Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 04 Mar, 2023 @ 11:16pm

  Private entities are allowed to censor as they like. That's why the former management of Twitter was so beloved by woke ideologues - they censored opinions based on viewpoint in ways the woke approved of. Censorship is the act of the censor, silencing opinions based on viewpoint on platforms the censor controls. If companies make carriage decisions based on sales data or popularity or topic, they are not censoring. If they make decisions based on the viewpoint of the material, they are censoring. The fact that they may do so legally is irrelevant.

• On the post: Another Day, Another Blatant Attack On The 1st Amendment From The Florida GOP

  

  Hyman Rosen ( profile ), 04 Mar, 2023 @ 09:31pm

  Censorship is the act of the censor, silencing opinions based on viewpoint on platforms the censor controls. The legality of the censorship is irrelevant. The ability of the silenced to speak elsewhere is irrelevant. When Amazon chooses not to sell a book because of the viewpoints it espouses, it is censoring that book. I did not say that Florida removing books from school libraries is unconstitutional, only that it is censorship. In fact, courts have divided on this issue and we do not have a definitive opinion yet: https://reason.com/volokh/2023/02/27/does-the-first-amendment-bar-public-schools-from-removing-school-library-books-based-on-their-viewpoints/

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