Banning people from Twitter, App Store, AWS, VISA being cancelled, kicked out of distribution etc...
Private institutions are narrowing their versions of what was considered normative 'crude' behaviour into 'hate speech' which has implications. Netflix, Hulu etc. spend a lot of time defining what's appropriate and not in their programming, and someone uttering something 'counter narrative' is problematic for them (unless it makes them a lot of money).
That said, with Trump lying about the election, and others lying about vaccines, and foreign actors 100% trying to influence electoral outcomes (these are real things), it's an actual problem.
I mean, I don't care if RT.com is punted from anywhere, it's not relevant, but it's a slippery slope.
Those are examples of private companies not platforming certain speech. But how is that a modern change? Are you saying that decades ago, the big media companies at the time (say, NBC, CBS, ABC) platformed a greater variety of speech than now? I don't think you can earnestly claim that.
Did VISA, in the 1970s, kick people off of their network 'because speech'?
Did ABC Shipping refuse customers, 'because speech'?
That's not 'platforming' - those are just businesses that do business.
Second - what happened in the past is irrelevant.
Businesses should not really vetting customers unless there's a material reason.
Certainly banks, telcos, retail - should be barred from this. VISA is not 'platforming' anyone, that's ridiculous.
Twitter, Appstore - because they are directly related to the content, this is more arguably 'platforming' and there's more likely to be some kind of content management, but we have to be very careful about it.
Private institutions are narrowing their versions of what was considered normative 'crude' behaviour into 'hate speech' which has implications. Netflix, Hulu etc. spend a lot of time defining what's appropriate and not in their programming, and someone uttering something 'counter narrative' is problematic for them (unless it makes them a lot of money).
That said, with Trump lying about the election, and others lying about vaccines, and foreign actors 100% trying to influence electoral outcomes (these are real things), it's an actual problem.
I mean, I don't care if RT.com is punted from anywhere, it's not relevant, but it's a slippery slope.