At the moment the recent coordinated banning and shadow banning of conservative media groups has started a huge debate about free speech in the United States. Having lived both in the U.S and the UK and being a citizen of both countries I can't say that where this is going is surprising at all. I live in a country that is run by a government which daily shows it's nightmarish Orwellian fangs to its gelded public. The response from most Britons is to just shrug and refocus on reality television, football, and whatever red herring issues the media feeds them. If something tragic does happen the half way educated members of our public take to twitter for jibs and sarcastic commentary on behalf of their partisan views and in a week shrug and move on.
Where the United States is heading is altogether saddening. One of the great things about America has always been the ability to say whatever the hell you want and it's a freedom I don't have in the U.K but I do when I visit the states. When I'm there I can say if someone is fat, ugly, stupid, or all of the above and not risk imprisonment or being fined. When we begin to ask companies or governments to authorize what views are acceptable or allowed we always end up at totalitarianism in the end. Some are applauding the recent Info Wars ban but I can't help but see this clapping as short sighted. It may be working out for their side of the argument at the moment but it's a double edged sword that will eventually swing back their way.... maybe I'm wrong though. Maybe big companies and those who call the shots in government as well as special interest groups do have your best interest at heart.
I remember when I joined Steemit I had high hopes for it being a platform for free speech which of course it's not. It only takes one user with more money invested in exercising their opinion to flag anything I could say into invisibility if they disagree. Steemit does however have the ability to be a wild west though with a restructuring of the flagging system. I.e a thumbs down function to reflect the view on the content and a thumbs up for monetizing the approval. A flagging function could exist for plagiarized content as that can be bot managed with relative ease. Basically people could voice whatever they like whether agreed with or not and no one could silence or penalize them for the opinion.
Right now there are some whales on the platform who can say what goes with millions tied up in Steem, but by comparison to larger entities out there? These whales are small fish and if Steemit ever did attract those big entities attention as problematic or a place where opinions are being freely formed... well we would see what we are seeing with all other platforms out there at the moment.
I know I'm not the only one who has hopes that someone out there in the block chain world will create a place where people can legitimately say or do what they want. Where if someone disapproves then they can voice it, start a debate, and let the real truth of the matter come out through that process. Flagging into invisibility just kills the debate. It's a small scale version of what we are witnessing with big tech companies banning conservative views at the moment.
Yes, I know what I'm suggesting could provide an open source for hate speech and the like but I think in many ways that would be great. Let's you know where the morons are at. No amount of legislation or company policy is ever going to stop hate mongers from gathering or voicing their opinion. We all make the choice to click on what they have to say and invest ourselves enough into their views to let it effect us. If it's an open platform where everything can be viewed by everyone then the extremist, racist, or nut job wouldn't last very long anyway. Shitty ideologies don't fair to well in the face of transparency and free flowing debate. We all know this deep down.
I'm not saying that I agree with conservative media or I'm some sort of Alex Jones/Info Wars subscriber. I'm simply stating that free speech needs a wild west where anything goes. The ideas that can take pressure and hold truth would be the ones to survive in such an environment. For the most part it's just a rant post brought on by a sadness at watching one of the favorite things about one of my home countries slowly die. I live in a place where I don't have free speech and daily am amazed at those of my fellow citizens who don't even notice the loss of this natural right.... so yeah, a rant post. Me impotently trying to nail my vomit to a wall basically.
But having said all of this I'd love to know what you guys think. Do you think we need an anything goes social media platform? A wild west for ALL free flowing opinions both dumb and sound? Could or should the block chain be what delivers that?
Well guys that's it for now. Thanks for giving my post a read and as always keep on Steeming.
image credits:
Thevintagenews.com
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ukpolicecheshire
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