..Including Moderation
This might be an odd time to discuss this, (my current Facebook jailing for 7 days), but I actually do understand why social media platforms need to be moderated. If you have ever spent any time among the sort of folks who have absolutely no filter at all, you understand how ugly things can get online. We moderate debate because if we didn’t there would actually be no freedom of expression at all. If you didn’t get your four uninterrupted minutes, neither would your opponent, and sooner or later we would all be throwing spears at each other.
I understand why we don’t allow Jihadists to post hydrogen bomb plans online and I understand why you might not want to be online at work when a correspondent posts a picture of Hillary Clinton’s head superimposed on a plus-sized intimates model.
But, please, folks — the people getting banned from Facebook, and jailed, aren’t just posting animated boobs memes. They are people talking about genuine issues of social and political concern. Do you want your daughter to suffer FGM in some post-Christian Sharia world? Does everyone really need to pretend that a 6’6″ guy in heels, with a beard, and fishnet stockings is a chic, with rights to share the potty with your daughter?
When the debate is narrowed that drastically, we don’t have a first amendment.
Play it safe, folks, but we are all going to miss each other when we’re gone.
We need another platform, and we need it soon.
