Musk defends enabling Turkish censorship on Twitter, calling it his “choice”
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So much so for free speech. I lost count the number of times Musk has been hypocritical.
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It's ALWAYS been about Musk's freedom to say whatever the fuck he wants to say. It's NEVER been about "free speech" for everyone else.
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Snarky Robot
Ars Legatus Legionis
As a reminder, I will give people who can demonstrate that they’ve closed their Twitter account since Elon Musk took over a free Ars subscription (until I run out) of codes. PM me for details or questions.
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The cowards way out. "Look I need to stick to the rules so I have no choice in this. Just don't look behind the curtain seeing the bully 'forcing' me to do this making the rules".
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Look, Musk, and therefore Twitter under Musk, believes white supremacist authoritarianism is the best form of government, so those are the only people protected by "free speech absolutism."
Well, those and people who want to fawn over Musk.
Well, those and people who want to fawn over Musk.
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Ah! All this time we thought you meant universal free speech but really it was just your free speech that you are so gung-ho about. Silly us.
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Jakelshark
Ars Tribunus Militum
Elon promised one thing and didn’t come close to delivering later?!? I’m shocked. Shocked!
Well not that shocked…
Greatest hype man since Steve Jobs, but at least I wanted to use the later’s products.
Well not that shocked…
Greatest hype man since Steve Jobs, but at least I wanted to use the later’s products.
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freedom of speech absolutist as long as it's speech he wants amplified. What a stooge.
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You can’t count the times because his hypocrisy is an infinite state of being.
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ColdWetDog
Ars Legatus Legionis
Woke up this morning - no Ars articles concerning Musk antics 
. Came back from a bike ride three hours later and ... oh well ;
It's almost like he does this on purpose.... (/snark)
. Came back from a bike ride three hours later and ... oh well ; It's almost like he does this on purpose.... (/snark)
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AmanoJyaku
Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius
More good news for Muskie: seems like a few people are sounding the Twitter death knell.
What you need to know about a glass cliff and why it could put Twitter’s new CEO in danger
What you need to know about a glass cliff and why it could put Twitter’s new CEO in danger
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At this rate Twitter might get unbanned in Russia. Labels on state-propagandists are gone, compliance with state moderation demands is at its highest, all that remains is to promise to give up user's identities at the first request and "the deal of the century" is done.
Values? Principles? Those are up for other people to uphold and pay for it!
Values? Principles? Those are up for other people to uphold and pay for it!
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Jobs pretty much always delivered, especially after his return to Apple.
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I'm shocked, shocked that a man who has abused his position to promote his own Tweets and suppress unfavorable news coverage is suddenly a hypocrite!
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How about challenging the requests under the law in court? If the law is so important, then that would be the venue in which to resolve these issues, not at the whim of a bureaucrat.
My point being that, since the requests were not challenged, this has nothing to do with the law.
My point being that, since the requests were not challenged, this has nothing to do with the law.
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Jakelshark
Ars Tribunus Militum
He’s only among the richest and most influential people in the world. You can’t expect him to be able to use that to better the world. He’s too focused on becoming the King of Mars
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Are you talking about banning then-President Trump from Twitter?
Remind me again, who was in charge of the US government at the time (there's a clue in the first sentence of my post)?
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Says the person who doesn't understand the First Amendment at all ...
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It's possible that you're so dumb that you need to be watered, but there is no US law guaranteeing anyone the right to post on Twitter, unless Twitter denied that account based on some protected status (gender, ethnicity, etc.).
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musk's defense of like "well of course i'm going to comply with censorship laws"
reminds me of when google pulled out of china. easy to see it as a cynical PR-resale of a financial decision (google market share having declined a lot in china), but having spoken to a lot of people who were working there at the time, it definitely was felt within most of the company as a matter of principle, that google couldn't hold up its end-user information reliability and privacy promises. and that "principled" narrative definitely seems validated given that when in 2018 news leaked that google was internally testing a censored version of search again, there was such an internal revolt that it got killed.
google has a lot of flaws, but i'm just highlighting what a for-profit company has chosen to do in terms of making money vs trying to align with some sort of principle, even when the CEO(s) of that company haven't made nearly as big a deal about aligning with such a principle as much as Musk has.
edit: when google pulled out of china, it redirected search to hong kong. and when the HK national security law was rammed through, google fully stopped all direct cooperation with HK authorities and now data requests have to go through diplomatic resources and then through the US DoJ. the bar is low and Musk fails to clear it.
reminds me of when google pulled out of china. easy to see it as a cynical PR-resale of a financial decision (google market share having declined a lot in china), but having spoken to a lot of people who were working there at the time, it definitely was felt within most of the company as a matter of principle, that google couldn't hold up its end-user information reliability and privacy promises. and that "principled" narrative definitely seems validated given that when in 2018 news leaked that google was internally testing a censored version of search again, there was such an internal revolt that it got killed.
google has a lot of flaws, but i'm just highlighting what a for-profit company has chosen to do in terms of making money vs trying to align with some sort of principle, even when the CEO(s) of that company haven't made nearly as big a deal about aligning with such a principle as much as Musk has.
edit: when google pulled out of china, it redirected search to hong kong. and when the HK national security law was rammed through, google fully stopped all direct cooperation with HK authorities and now data requests have to go through diplomatic resources and then through the US DoJ. the bar is low and Musk fails to clear it.
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It's worth noting that Twitter challenged a censorship demand by Erdogan in 2014 and that Turkiye backed down shortly thereafter. So, contrary to Musk's claims, Twitter was more supportive of free speech before he took over.
https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/a/2014/challenging-the-access-ban-in-turkey
https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/a/2014/challenging-the-access-ban-in-turkey
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AmanoJyaku
Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius
Pixy Misa Mk II is spreading disinformation. Ars reported on the censorship-that-never-was, so anyone still claiming it is lying.
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Yes, Musk is a hypocrite. As for the rest of your post, absolutely none of that ever happened.
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Eagerly waiting for Catturd and Ian Miles Cheong’s enlightened opinions on this, since their feelings drive Musk’s actions to a considerable extent and they are such astute and wise (geo)political analysts with impeccable intellectual credentials.
/s
/s
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Look, Musk. No one is saying that you're certain to win if you fight this. But if you don't fight it, you lose by default.
If you had fought this and were forced, in the end, to bow to the inevitable and remove those tweets, then, so be it. That's how standing up to authoritarian regimes goes sometimes.
No one is blaming you for failing to protect free speech in an authoritarian country. We're blaming you for failing to present even the barest illusion of trying.
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