It is strange to hear the phrase, "private corporations can do what they want" in 2021. That has not been the case for over a century now, and is shockingly ignorant of the fact that the world imposes literally tens of thousands of regulations on private corporations already.
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The decision, as it always has been, is which freedoms we want corporations to have, and which we do not. That is a public policy choice, and it is not answered by an absolute statement like they "can do what they want because they're private", as if they are not subject to law.
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If you think a private corporation should have the right to censor, _say why you think that should be the law_. Don't pretend that somehow private corporations aren't already restrainted by thousands of laws, so somehow it would be "weird" if they were barred from censoring.
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Replying to @cmuratori
I usually look at it from the other end of the telescope - what would those companies be forced to do if they couldn't censor? Perhaps they'd be forced to platform conspiracy theorists, people who push ivermectin as an effective treatment for Covid, etc.
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Replying to @HjalmarAstrom
Do you also ask that question of all the other companies that serve "people who push ivermectin", etc.? The power company, the bank that holds their money, the grocery store that sells them food, etc.?
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Replying to @cmuratori
No, because selling food to a conspiracy theorist doesn't harm anyone. Giving them a platform to spread dangerous misinformation does hurt people. E.g. the Bret Weinstein fan who didn't get vaccinated and later died of Covid.
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Replying to @cmuratori
Yeah, I quite reasonably think that the regulations you apply to businesses depends on what the business does, crazy!
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Replying to @HjalmarAstrom
No, I mean, do you see how that worked much better than saying, "private corporations can do what they want?" You actually said the thing you wanted, which was an actual public policy statement, so now we could have a real discussion :)
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Of course, I _also_ happen not to agree with your public policy decision, but that was not the point of my tweet - the point of my tweet was that the fact that a company is private has nothing to do with whether they should or shouldn't censor their customers.
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Replying to @cmuratori
Fwiw I do have a lot of sympathy for the argument that social networks are creating a "public square" and so shouldn't be able to censor. The thing that swings the decision for me is imagining a world where social networks aren't allowed to censor
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