Mike Masnick 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Enough With The Myth That Big Tech Is 'Censoring' Conservatives AND That The Law Requires Them To Be Neutral

    Mike Masnick ( profile ), 09 Feb, 2023 @ 09:03am

    I mean, the article has held up. Yesterday's hearing proved that the companies bent over backwards to allow conservatives to break the rules, and did not unduly suppress conservative voices. So, if anything the only thing that was "wrong" about this article was that it underestimated how much tech companies HELPED conservatives.

  • On the post: Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s TikTok Ban Is A Dumb Performance That Ignores The Real Problem

    Mike Masnick ( profile ), 08 Feb, 2023 @ 10:51am

    As such, limiting tiktok’s influence is beneficial. Don’t cede ubiquity to a foreign controlled app that has already been known to violate data privacy. You’ll only encourage more violations, while being able to exert less control in the future.
    So you don't believe in the free market, and don't think American companies have the innovative power to compete, and need the gov't to come in and protect them?

  • On the post: Pretty Much Every Expert Agrees That Elon Has Made Twitter’s Child Sexual Abuse Problem Worse

    Mike Masnick ( profile ), 07 Feb, 2023 @ 11:17am

    Yep the intellectual level of Glass Onion is perfect for you. Identical twin trope, secret journal trope, faked death to help the detective trope, the killer is an idiot trope. The entire movie was worn out bad detective tropes that excuse bad writing and an audience of morons love, because they are too stupid to be real mystery fans.
    I mean, I agree it was a bad movie. I didn't say I liked it. I watched it because the comparison to Miles Bron kept coming up in conversation and I wanted to see what it was all about, and I had a spare hour this weekend (watched at 2x speed). But, since you seem to have put a lot of thought into everything wrong with the movie, it seems to have taken up a lot more space in your head than it did in mind, where I watched it, said "oh, I see" and moved on.

  • On the post: Pretty Much Every Expert Agrees That Elon Has Made Twitter’s Child Sexual Abuse Problem Worse

    Mike Masnick ( profile ), 07 Feb, 2023 @ 09:50am

    Heh. I literally watched Glass Onion this weekend, and it's pretty striking how much Bron's "success" seems to be modeled on Musk.

  • On the post: Elon Promises A Free API For ‘Good Bot Content,’ Again, Demonstrating He Has No Idea How Any Of This Works

    Mike Masnick ( profile ), 06 Feb, 2023 @ 06:12pm

    Seriously there’s no sense to your criticism. Whatever he does you’re gonna pretend that it was the dumbest thing ever….
    No. I liked his idea of encrypting DMs. Which he hasn't done yet. That was a good idea. I'm still waiting for another good one.

  • On the post: Dwarf Fortress: How Freeware Turned Into Millions

    Mike Masnick ( profile ), 06 Feb, 2023 @ 04:54pm

    And it still doesn’t work. If they’d never put out a paid version, they wouldn’t make any money.
    You're repeating the myth that when people talk about "free" they mean "no business model at all." But that's wrong. https://www.techdirt.com/2009/05/08/free-does-not-mean-no-business-model/ When we talk about free, we're talking about how to use free as part of a business model. Here, the game would not have made nearly as much money if they didn't have the free version.
    You don’t make money if you don’t charge for the item. When they started charging for the game, they made money.
    No, you make money when you figure out which part to charge for, and which part should be free. These guys have. They leveraged the free part to make the paid part much more valuable, which is what we've been advocating for decades. https://www.techdirt.com/2007/05/03/grand-unified-theory-economics-free/

  • On the post: Elon Promises A Free API For ‘Good Bot Content,’ Again, Demonstrating He Has No Idea How Any Of This Works

    Mike Masnick ( profile ), 06 Feb, 2023 @ 02:53pm

    I'm not sure I buy that. There may be many reasons, but as I noted last week, he kicked one such service off the API entirely unrelated to this, so he could just do that if he wanted to. I'm sure it's a side benefit to him, but his main rationale seems to be "people will pay me for the API and I need revenue."

  • On the post: It’s Time To Codify The ‘NY Times v. Sullivan’ Standard Into Law

    Mike Masnick ( profile ), 06 Feb, 2023 @ 10:31am

    Defamation is a concept under the common law, which is why it is accepted as a limitation to First Amendment protections. But the greater protection offered to non-public figures wasn’t recognized under the common law-such was purely the invention of the Supreme Court in Sullivan.
    It is an explanation for how common law defamation can be recognized under the 1st Amendment, so it is very much a constitutional explanation. The Sullivan court was making it clear that in order to make the 1st Amendment compatible with defamation, it had to protect most speech, especially those about public figures, which the 1st Amendment was put in place to specifically enable the criticism of those public figures.
    Thinking that it’s a good idea to codify those standards is not the same as a constitutional argument. This failure is one common to many partisans.
    Except this argument is not even remotely "partisan."
    Why is it a key protection of free speech to invent conditions under which a public figure would not have been defamed when an ordinary citizen would have been? Why should public figures be less protected under the First Amendment (that is, why are some citizens unequal as a matter of law)?
    Your framing of the question is extremely misleading and biased. What the court recognizes, as have many others since, is that public figures are ALREADY much more privileged than the ordinary citizen, in that if people criticize them, they have the means and ability to respond and correct the record. So, they don't need defamation law to get their response heard. And, more frequently, they will use defamation law to stifle the speech of the less powerful. So, yes, as the Sullivan Court recognized, you need a standard like that in Sullivan to protect everyone's rights, and not allow the powerful to stifle speech through things like SLAPP suits. Your entire claim that "citizens unequal as a matter of law" is just bullshit framing, and you must know that.

  • On the post: It’s Time To Codify The ‘NY Times v. Sullivan’ Standard Into Law

    Mike Masnick ( profile ), 06 Feb, 2023 @ 10:25am

    You’re basically for codifying the right to “misinformation” into law.
    Yes, because as we've said for ages, the government should not be in the business of determining what is truth and what is not. Misinformation is lawful in most cases, and it should remain that way.
    I don’t even necessarily disagree, it’s just super ironic.
    There's no irony. My position is entirely consistent. Government should not be in the business of censoring speech, or determining what is misinformation. But private actors are able to do so, and have every right to do so as part of their own free speech rights. Our position is wholly consistent.
    And yeah, free speech is definitely under attack in social media.
    No, it's not. That there are competing private actors deciding what to platform and what not to is an example of the marketplace of ideas and true freedom of speech. Your demand that everything should be platformed is an attack on the free speech rights of private actors.
    Not least of which cuz dumbshits like you insist on censorship and provide cover for government direction of same.
    I have never insisted on "censorship." I have fought against it constantly. I do believe that companies have their own rights as well, though. One day, perhaps, you'll understand.

  • On the post: No Immunity For Cops Who Shot Man Multiple Times, Then Searched His House For Evidence Of ‘Assaulting An Officer’

    Mike Masnick ( profile ), 05 Feb, 2023 @ 09:45pm

    Without law enforcement you have no laws. Without laws you have no civilization.
    This is not just ahistorical, but laughably wrong. You can enforce laws without arming cops like they're the fucking military, and you can enforce the law without cops. And, there are tons of civilizations that have done just fine without cops.

  • On the post: Elon Musk Is Running Scared From Mastodon; Cuts Off The Best Tool For Finding Your Twitter Followers There

    Mike Masnick ( profile ), 04 Feb, 2023 @ 09:11pm

    You can continue to say stupid stuff all you want. As you can see from the responses, no one thinks you're making sense. My Twitter usage has greatly diminished. It makes no sense to me to delete my accounts there, so I have not. I have greatly decreased my posting there, and mainly just use it to remind people of what they're missing elsewhere, which is a way more effective thing to do than whatever it is you laughably think you're trying to bully me into. But, go on, keep making a fool of yourself here. It's better than what's on Netflix.

  • On the post: Elon Musk Is Running Scared From Mastodon; Cuts Off The Best Tool For Finding Your Twitter Followers There

    Mike Masnick ( profile ), 04 Feb, 2023 @ 04:28pm

    So while you’re shilling for Mastodon you admit that Twitter still provides such exceptional value to you that not only do you not delete your personal and business accounts, but you continue to actively use them!
    Everyone here can read what I said, which shows that your summary is literally the opposite of what I said.

  • On the post: Elon Musk Is Running Scared From Mastodon; Cuts Off The Best Tool For Finding Your Twitter Followers There

    Mike Masnick ( profile ), 04 Feb, 2023 @ 01:05am

    Mike, if Mastodon is so great, why don’t you delete your Twitter account, and Techdirt’s as well?
    Because I choose not to. But, let me tell you a little story. For the past decade or so, I would spend literally hours a day on Twitter. Tweeting stuff. Retweeting stuff. Reading. It was may main source of news and conversation. These days, I stop by once or twice a day, and never on weekends. And when I do tweet, it's to remind people that the tweets I used to make I now make on Mastodon, to remind people of what's happening there. And, every time I do that, more people mention that they, too, are moving to Mastodon. So, I do what I want to do, and there is no reason to get rid of my Twitter account. Perhaps, some day, Musk will realize what he's done wrong and stop fucking it up. Or perhaps he'll get bored and sell it to someone who fixes it. Or, who knows, perhaps people will keep reminding others that there is a better way, not owned by a guy who has no fucking clue what he's doing, and they move to those other options.

  • On the post: Elon Musk Is Running Scared From Mastodon; Cuts Off The Best Tool For Finding Your Twitter Followers There

    Mike Masnick ( profile ), 03 Feb, 2023 @ 04:14pm

    Least of all Musk. Its initial “rush” was a pittance, and its lost active users over the last two months, not gained them. That kinda momentum once lost rarely if ever comes back.
    Mastodon continues to grow day by day. Yes, some of the big burst of people from December didn't stick around, but actual usage and activity continues to grow, and new users keep coming. More importantly, new developers are building better and better tools, which would lead to more people coming over, especially as Musk makes Twitter impossible to develop for.
    The reality is Musk shut off all the APIs because he thought that should be monetized (perhaps rightly). He almost certainly doesn’t give a shit about this migration tool in particular except that, were he aware of it, what benefit is there to allowing it?
    This would make sense IF he just shut off Movetodon next week when he kills free API access for everyone. He didn't. He killed it last night, just as Mastodon got a new surge. He's terrified, Matthew. And you know it.
    Stop trying to make Mastodon happen, it’s never going to happen. (And your pitiful reach would be unlikely to affect it anyway)
    I'm not "trying to make it happen." I'm observing that it's happening. Already seeing how stories can go viral on Mastodon and drive as much traffic as Twitter ever did. And that will grow. Meanwhile, if we're talking about "pitiful reach" I saw your Twitter account after you tried to tweet at me the other day (thankfully, even Musk considered your account too pitiful to show me in my regular notifications, but because someone else responded to you, I saw their reply which lead to yours). So, yeah, just know that Musk "shadowbanned" you according to your own definition. Much freedom. Very speech.

  • On the post: Moving Company That Threatened People With $1,000 A Day Fees For Negative Reviews To Pay $125,000 Settlement

    Mike Masnick ( profile ), 02 Feb, 2023 @ 01:57pm

    To be fair, I know the people who grabbed the "attorney" and "lawyer" gmail handles when that service launched. Not saying who it is, but they're pretty happy with those email addresses (and I almost didn't believe it could possibly be the correct email when I emailed them.)

  • On the post: Financial Times Sets Up Mastodon Server, Realizes Laws Exist (Which It Was Already Subject To), Pulls Down Mastodon Server

    Mike Masnick ( profile ), 01 Feb, 2023 @ 02:34pm

    tl;dr: Mike is upset that a proper news organization (ie, not a tiny niche blog) tried Mastodon, realized what trash it is, and informed us.
    Speaking of "didn't read," if what you wrote was accurate, then at any point in the article, they could have said "Mastodon is trash and not worth it." But... they didn't.

  • On the post: DoNotPay Promotes Itself As Helping You Get Out Of Subscriptions, But Keeps Charging Customers After Telling Them Their Own Accounts Are Closed

    Mike Masnick ( profile ), 01 Feb, 2023 @ 10:57am

    ... yet.

  • On the post: Incredibly, Facebook Is Still Figuring Out That Content Moderation At Scale Is Impossible To Do Well

    Mike Masnick ( profile ), 31 Jan, 2023 @ 03:51pm

    I mean, if you "get rid of" social media, it will reform. We see that over and over again. People want to talk to each other, and they will. I'm reminded of stories of social media being banned in schools, and students basically building their own social media via Google Docs notes, since they still had access to that...

  • On the post: Twitter Sued For Not Paying Rent On Its SF Headquarters And Its London Offices

    Mike Masnick ( profile ), 30 Jan, 2023 @ 09:21pm

    The real Matthew is annoying enough. We don't need a weak fake approximation. Please don't do that.

  • On the post: Twitter Tumbleweed Watch

    Mike Masnick ( profile ), 30 Jan, 2023 @ 05:32pm

    Will you please shut the fuck up about twitter?
    No.

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