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On Parler and Internet Censorship

Arnox

Master
Staff member
Founder
Messages
5,288
For a while, I wasn't sure what to say here, or even if something really needed to be said, but someone made a video that really hit the nail on the head for this issue. I will post it here.


I also want to post something that was posted WAY back in the day by TOTSE founder Jeff Hunter in response to an old magazine article disparaging the aforementioned site as nothing more than a criminal hideout that should be shut down. It was relevant before, it was still relevant in the recent past, and it's even more relevant now.

Date--1993-07-28,18:13
From--JEFF HUNTER
To: ALL
Subject--Contra Costa Times
Flags:

Jeff's Letter to the Editor of the Contra Costa Times

July 28, 1993


To Whom It May Concern:

As the System Operator of & the Temple of the Screaming Electron and
the network co-ordinator for NIRVANAnet(tm) I wanted to thank your
paper for the extra publicity that Michael Liedtke's sensationalistic
article "MODEM OPERANDI: Tips On Crime Go On-line" has provided for our
BBS network.

I helped to start NIRVANAnet(tm) four years ago because I wanted to
create a computer network where ideas, any ideas, could be freely
exchanged between people. I wanted to create a network that was open,
free, and easily accessable.

When you exchange messages with people on NIRVANAnet(tm), you do not
know the age, gender, race, religious affiliation, political party,
hair length, mode of dress, or sexual orientation of the person you are
talking to. Because of this, people cannot be pigeon-holed into neat
little categories and you end up learning an amazing amount about the
thoughts, feelings, and beliefs of a much wider array of people than
you would encounter in everyday life. On our network teenagers talk to
grandparents, bikers talk with born-again Christians, and Socialists
talk to Republicans. These people would never speak to one another if
they met on the street, but because they can use computers, they freely
exchange thoughts, ideas, dreams and hopes.

Mr. Liedtke stated that we are "Using the First Amendment as a legal
shield" and that "The bulletin boards remain open by straddling a fine
line between the legal definitions of free speech and criminal
behavior."

I'm surprised that a newspaper reporter, of all people, has such a
callous disregard for the First Ammendment. There is no "fine line". We
are not engaged in criminal activities, period. We are engaged in
speech, period. Speech is protected, period. When the day comes where
people can be imprisoned merely for what they say or what they think,
it's time to move to another country. As Pacific Bell spokesman Craig
Watts stated in the article "You can't prosecute someone for bad
thoughts."

The information in the "criminal" text files that Mr. Liedtke refers to
can be found in any well-stocked library, or ordered from any number of
book publishers in this country. Many of our files were found on the
Internet, a worldwide government/university/industry network funded in
part by the National Science Foundation.

The article also stated that "The Times isn't publishing the phone
numbers of the rebel bulletin boards as a children's safeguard."
Another reason might be that people would actually call the systems in
question and find out that Mr. Liedtke did not tell the whole story,
and as everyone knows, the most effective way to lie is to only tell
part of the truth.



Sincerely,

Jeff Hunter
Sysop, & the Temple of the Screaming Electron
For those who don't know what the hell TOTSE is (or should I say, was) you can find much more information about the site we are based on here.
 
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Vendor-Lazarus

Arch Disciple
Sanctuary legend
Messages
937
He is right though. As long as you need to recreate the entire infrastructure, there is no free market.
 

Epyc Wynn

Adherent
Messages
41
I have been censored everywhere, including here, for stupid petty reasons.
I vote the government create its own social media platform that is not allowed to censor anything legal. All mods for that platform would be required to have some legal experience in judging this.
If the free market fails, and it fails so fundamentally that it cannot be self-corrected, the government is supposed to step in. Otherwise, why the fuck do we have a government -for show? -to watch while we fail? My taxes aren't free so the government better make an infrastructure-based solution if the laws aren't cutting it.

But none of that will happen because the left wing trades free speech for minority votes and the right wing trades free speech for authoritarian votes. You're all fucked and nobody's coming to save your free speech. Now piss off with your pseudo solutions every member of the Internet every day is complicit with their shitty fucking censorship by bowing to mods who have censored them and not telling them to fuck off. Speaking of which, Arnox fuck off.
 

Arnox

Master
Staff member
Founder
Messages
5,288
Ok, replying to both your shoutbox rant and your post here:

Epyc Wynn said:
Right wingers put at risk the continuation of the entire United States government
Implying the current US government is even worth saving anymore.

Fuck this site, fuck the pseudo-free speech warriors who never tell mods or admins off. If you all want to make a change, start with not taking shit from any mod or admin, and being ready to get banned if it means speaking unfiltered and true.
Again, me and Houseman JUST got banned for speaking out. While I totally agree with you about not letting site staff stifle what you want to say, I also don't generally agree with going specifically out of your way JUST to get banned. It's pointless.

Fuck every country on Earth for not tariffing the shit out of China over Covid-19 killing hundreds of thousands. Not even mentioning their rape of Hong Kong and their will to do it toward the great nation of Taiwan.
Mostly agree. The problem is, China has nukes, and they're notorious little bitches about everything.

I have been censored everywhere, including here, for stupid petty reasons.
While I don't think you ever got banned here (correct me if I'm wrong), you did get a slap on the wrist for bumping 3+ day old threads with nonsense. Don't be so dramatic.

I vote the government create its own social media platform that is not allowed to censor anything legal.
OR we could just break up these fucking internet monopolies and return competition back to how it was in the 90s. Government doesn't have to do anything more than that.

If the free market fails, and it fails so fundamentally that it cannot be self-corrected, the government is supposed to step in. Otherwise, why the fuck do we have a government -for show? -to watch while we fail?
Preaching to the choir here.

But none of that will happen because the left wing trades free speech for minority votes and the right wing trades free speech for authoritarian votes.
Well, yeah. I've long since been rallying against both the democrat and republican party equally.

You're all fucked and nobody's coming to save your free speech.
And you wonder why some people want this current US governmental regime deleted already.

Speaking of which, Arnox fuck off.
:(
 
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