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| DATE | 2021-01-12 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Re: [Hangout - NYLXS] internet freedom os speech,
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https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-55624630
Silencing Trump: How 'big tech' is taking Trumpism offline
By Joe Tidy
Cyber reporter
Published3 hours ago
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IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGES
If you ever needed proof of the power of "Big Tech" then the downfall of
Parler on Monday morning is a good place to start.
I, like many others, logged on to the controversial social network to
see what would happen after 11:59 Pacific Time in the US.
This was the deadline Amazon had given the app to find a new host
service before it booted the platform offline for allegedly containing
violent content.
It was being seen as a significant moment in ongoing efforts by US tech
giants to "deplatform" Donald Trump and some of his extreme supporters
after the US Capitol Hill riot last week.
Trump’s Twitter downfall
The clock struck 12:00 though and nothing happened. I and millions of
other users were still able to search and post just as usual.
But then, like dominos, users around the world starting reporting
problems. For me, at about 12:10, everything stopped working. No content
found, a message read.
With a flick of a switch then, Parler, a fast-growing app seen by some
as a free-speech alternative to Twitter, was no more. For now.
Parler can, and probably will be able to, find a new host provider but
losing Amazon Web Services (AWS) - the largest website hosting provider
in the world - means other major providers are likely to turn away their
business too.
Not unprecedented
Technology and ethics researcher Stephanie Hare says it's not the first
time a major US tech firm has taken a site down for similar reasons.
"Amazon's action against Parler is not unprecedented, as we have seen
other US companies such as Cloudflare remove content delivery services
and DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) protection and support to white
supremacist website The Daily Stormer in 2017 and 8Chan in 2019 after
that website was used by a gunman to post materials before he went on to
massacre people in El Paso, Texas," she said.

IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGES
image captionTrump's Twitter page on 8 January 2020
It's not just AWS which has taken action against Parler. Google and
Apple have also kicked the service off their app stores too.
Again, this is not unheard of.
Gab, another website billing itself as a free-speech platform but
accused of being a haven to the far-right and extremists, is also banned
from the app stores. It can still be accessed through a web browser and
claims to have seen a surge in users in recent days.
And as part a crackdown on accounts associated with the attack on
Congress, on Monday Twitter announced it has shut down "more than 70,000
accounts" linked to the QAnon conspiracy theory.
Facebook meanwhile said it was removing all content mentioning "Stop the
Steal" - the slogan associated with Mr Trump's unsubstantiated claims
that the November election was rigged.
'Problematic' ban
What is unprecedented though is the targeted approach against the president.
Since Mr Trump's supporters attacked the US Capitol last week, he has
been banned from using some of the biggest social platforms including
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitch.

media captionWhen a mob stormed the US capitol
YouTube has deleted some of his videos but said his channel is
effectively on its last chance.
European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, have
described the move as "problematic".
EU commissioner Thierry Breton described the events on Capitol Hill as
"the 9/11 moment of social media", writing in Politico that "the fact
that a CEO can pull the plug on Potus' [President of the United States]
loudspeaker without any checks and balances is perplexing".
UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said social networks were now "taking
editorial decisions", adding that platforms were "choosing who should
and shouldn't have a voice".
Elsewhere, Alexei Navalny, Russian politician and outspoken critic of
President Vladimir Putin, likened Mr Trump's ban on Twitter to state
censorship.
He tweeted: "The ban of Donald Trump on Twitter is an unacceptable act
of censorship. Of course, Twitter is a private company, but we have seen
many examples in Russia and China of such private companies becoming the
state's best friends and the enablers when it comes to censorship."
Covid changed social networks
The fact is, social networks are private companies. Just as a private
members' club can make house rules for its members, so can the likes of
Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg or Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter.
One of the key rules imposed has been, until now, to consider
politicians' content important to public discourse.
Platforms including Facebook and Twitter said they would therefore give
high-profile users like the US president more leeway when it comes to
violating user policies.
But since the start of the coronavirus pandemic things have changed
significantly and the companies have taken increased action against
world leaders.
In March, Facebook and Twitter deleted posts from Brazilian President
Jair Bolsonaro and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro for Covid-19
misinformation.
It wasn't until May that Twitter took similar action against the US
president when moderators put a warning behind a tweet that they said
glorified violence.
The president tweeted about the Black Lives Matter protests saying:
"When the looting starts, the shooting starts".
Social media commentator Matt Navarra says Mr Trump's ban sets "a
pivotal precedent" in the way platforms control who can use them and
what users can post.
Trump vows to fight back
Some analysts think the action may be a turning point for tech
moderation worldwide.
On Monday Facebook announced it had removed a network of accounts it
says were directly linked to the Ugandan government, and being used to
allegedly manipulate the forthcoming election.
Privacy attorney and technologist Whitney Merrill suggests the move
points to a change in moderation stance from the tech giants.
"Social networks' rules and guidelines are evolving over time which is
normal. But they aren't being consistently applied throughout the world.
I think the president's removal might be the beginning of a purge for
similar behaviour globally."
In his final hours on Twitter, Mr Trump once again blamed a piece of US
legislation called Section 230 for "banning" free speech. During his
presidency he threatened to repeal the law which makes social networks
largely exempt from liability for their users' post.
Many argue that removing the protection would actually harm free speech
as networks would be forced to moderate far more than they currently do.
US President-elect Joe Biden has also stated that he would like to
repeal the law to increase moderation and reduce the spread of fake news.
In the same final tweet Mr Trump said that he has been negotiating with
"various other sites" and that there would be "a big announcement soon".
If the events of recent days are anything to go by, Mr Trump and some of
his supporters face an uphill struggle against not just lawmakers but
tech giants too before they can establish themselves on mainstream
social media.
--
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www.brooklyn-living.com
Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
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