Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Assault on Free Speech...again!

I’m currently in the process of writing up a piece about “World War Bee”, the massive, multi-faceted war taking place in EVE Online, and it’s taking a bit longer than expected, because quite frankly there’s more involved than I intended.  However, this came to my attention on my newsfeed.  Please keep in mind, this is not necessarily game related, but it’s something we all use in our everyday lives, so it’s relevant.  I’ll also come out fully in this, I am anti-SJW (Social Justice ‘Warrior’).  I don’t subscribe to the millennial views on ‘safe spaces’, ‘hate speech’, ‘third-wave feminism’, ‘Black Lives Matter’, and the like.  I’m a libertarian, albeit one that subscribes to having a military that can beat the shit out of people who need it.  After all, we’ve seen what happens when the US doesn’t have a well-funded and well-established military, though eventually we became BACK TO BACK WORLD WAR CHAMPIONS AW YISS!

According to Bloomberg Technology, Google, Twitter, Microsoft, and Facebook want to go beyond the criminal laws established for freedom of speech and freedom of expression and clamp down on “hate speech” in less than 24-hours of being notified.

Now, this is being said to the European Commission, and it’s not hard to expect them to try to push for this in the United States.  And if it makes it to the States, the history of the government trying to pass SOPA and PIPPA will come to the fore again.  After all, the government will try sleight of hand: “Facebook now does it, why not make everything safer and let the government do it?”  Believe me, any censorship on the internet is bad, and it opens a whole bunch of doors that should stay shut.  However, over on the Continent (and in England) it is far easier to curtail speech of others, labeling something hate speech just because you disagree with someone.  In fact, in Canada a man by the name of Gregory Alan Elliott was arrested by Toronto police in November 2012 amid allegation he harassed two third-wave feminists over the course of several months through Twitter.  He was acquitted after two years, but during that time he couldn’t use a computer, among other stupid limitations placed on him.

In the United States we take freedom of speech for granted.  However, such things are not the same in Europe.  Facebook has been working with Germany to censor posts critical of Islamic immigration, labeling it as ‘hate speech’ even if the person isn’t saying anything particularly hateful.  Voicing concerns in Germany is now hate speech?  Of course, it’s understandable about that.  Germans, after all, are still really sore about killing over six-million people just because of their birth status.

They’re blaming the terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels (and conveniently leave out San Bernadino) for the need to curb this type of speech.  However, this won’t stop it.  Terrorism experts (and military experts) agree that radicalization is only made easier via social media, but it’s been happening for decades before Facebook and MySpace.  In a joint statement made by the conglomerates, they stated that activity needs to be “expeditiously reviewed by online intermediaries and social media platforms, upon receipt of a valid notification, in an appropriate time-frame”.

That, by the way, means 24-hours or less.


This comes on the heels of several well-known anti-SJW pages being taken down because of bot reporting (a lone person using hundreds of bots to report posts on a page, leading to it being removed).  This isn’t a hard thing to do.  Several military-themed pages I follow are on their 27th incarnation, or more!  Some page organizers just became tired of dealing with having to constantly remake the page.



And please keep in mind, there are legitimate pages out there calling for attacks on people.  There’s a whole multitude of pages calling for attacks on Donald Trump, just as there were pages calling for attacks on George Zimmerman, Officer Darren Wilson, and many others on the “wrong” side of the “social justice debate”.  Many of them aren’t found to be in violation of Facebook’s Terms of Service until the national media gets involved.  But the minute you question mass Islamic immigration, enjoy a 24-hour post ban!

This all comes on the heels of Twitter removing the “verified” status of Milo Yiannopolous, a prominent Conservative speaker, and on the heels of the revelation that Facebook censors the news stories you see and the pages that appear in your feed.  Don’t get me wrong, as a private entity Facebook has that right, but to tell people, “No, we don’t do that” is the problem.


They want to be labeled Social Justice Warriors.  But can you be a warrior when you cry for safe spaces so your feelings aren’t hurt, and shout down prominent feminists who disagree with your brand of feminism, like spoiled children?  Looking at you, Trigglypuff.


And yes, this is chilling to free speech on the whole, ladies and gents.


I've asked for comment from several pages I follow that have been on the receiving end of Facebook's bullshittery, and will update when they get back to me.

Wook NationHonestly I think many Americans have become weak and too damn sensitive. If someone makes a statement that doesn't agree [with] their opinion, immediately it becomes an issue. [Facebook] is the worst at trying to suppress freedom of speech. They won't take down liberals, Black Lives Matter or Muslims hatred but you say anything derogatory about any of these groups and you're [sic] post is removed and you're banned. Anything anyone says can be defined as "hate speech" if the person hearing or reading is opposed or offended.

America is breeding spineless children. It's like the 60s again. Peace, love and happiness. They have the freedom feel that way and act foolish spreading their brand of freedom. They fail to realize freedom is not free. There's a price that brave men and women have paid with their lives. Children don't learn about [w]ars past. They learn nothing of The Holocaust. They couldn't even tell you about Pearl Harbor or DDay. Why? Because our education systems are failing [our] youth and parents do nothing. Everyone wants to paint a pretty picture of everyone living peacefully. That is the biggest crock of shit out there. It's never going to happen. Our children can't say the Pledge of Allegiance in school because it offends some people. I guess that's "hate speech" in some peoples bubble. They can't have a moment of silence but Muslims can pray so they aren't offended. My own daughter and her friends in Middle School were called an Infidel by a young Muslim boy who's father was from the Middle East. That was 7 years ago. Where did an 11 year old kid get that knowledge. Yet I was called radical for going to school and discussing it with the principal. The Father wouldn't even attend the meeting because I had spoke at a Veteran's Day assembly and he knew who I was and that I was prior military. I was told that my bringing light to the situation was being a bigot and showed intolerance. I will not go into to what I told the principal to do with his intolerance, but you know me well enough to figure it out. In short, Americans have become soft. We are no longer allowed to be Americans. We can't be proud of our heritage and we are supposed to forget the past that made us a Nation. If you're not with those people you're against them. As far as the page, we have toned it down because redoing the page over and over is exhausting. We have no reach because FB has stifled that. What happened to if you don't like something simply don't read it and move on? Aren't these folks that attack us just as guilty of posting "hate speech" in their comments to us? In the end its perception of the individual. Do we push the edge? Sure we do. It's just words, but these days words will get you locked up for verbal assault. What have we allowed to happen?
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United States Meme Corps: And that's where political correctness has ruined society. People are so scared of hurting someone's feelings that they aren't even telling the truth anymore. It is leading to the destruction of society. When you silence the masses for fear of hurting the few you will eventually lose all creativity and honesty.
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-31/tech-giants-vow-to-tackle-online-hate-speech-within-24-hours

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