• lemmus@szmer.info
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    7 days ago

    Ew, that sounds bad. I would prefer “promote open twitter-like social media” instead of “ban X” (you can replace X with any other website/software, even FOSS one). No banning should be allowed in EU.

    • 46_and_2@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      Yeah, keep X on and pile up the multi-million fines if they don’t comply with laws. That’s the only thing companies care about - something eating up their profits.

      And if they keep not complying - then ban it altogether, like Brazil did. I prefer to recognize and ban it for the illegal activities it does, not because some folks don’t like it and banded together against it.

    • Zink@programming.dev
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      7 days ago

      They should pass a resolution that all EU member nations shall create official Mastodon and Lemmy instances. Moderators and admins would be actual jobs constrained by the relevant national or EU law.

      (Or replace Mastodon and Lemmy with whatever open platforms you deem appropriate)

      • ThePyroPython@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        I like this idea.

        Twitter was supposed to be the “online town hall”. And online public spaces are not publicly owned, they’re run by private companies that can ban you at their own whims.

        With each country having their own federated platforms, they can truly act as online public spaces where the usual laws apply as they would do offline.

        You’d need to employ thousands of moderators though if everyone was online but honestly I think it’s worth it.

        But don’t be handing out prison sentences for posting stupid shit. Online harassment and calls for violence can still be legally handled the same way they are offline, but jailing people for offensive jokes and stupid hot takes is just idiotic.

        Best way is temporary bans increasing exponentially in length, then small percentage of income fines again increasing exponentially.

        Also, and I’d argue we already need this, a court system for online crimes. This means the regular court system doesn’t get more workload added on to it and specialist judges and lawyers can be appointed.

        • doingthestuff@lemy.lol
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          6 days ago

          I’m okay with this as long as things like general political or religious speech is protected. When you’re punised for speaking against the majority, congratulations you have left/center authoritarianism and it’s no better than fascism in my opinion.

          • ThePyroPython@lemmy.world
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            6 days ago

            Agreed. Perhaps the best implementation is a highly integrated mix of Mastodon and Lemmy where Mastodon is used for general discussion and news and Lemmy is used for organising communities around subjects like politics and religion.

  • XIIIesq@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    If someone told me “I don’t like Musk, I’m going to stop using Twitter”, I’d say “good for you”. I think it’s great when people stand up for their beliefs and put their money where their mouth is.

    If someone told me “I don’t like Musk, so you’re not allowed to use Twitter”, I’d tell them to go fuck themselves. It’s none of their business whether they personally like what it is that I want to do as long as I’m not hurting anyone.

    Inb4: I’m not a Twitter user and probably never will be, but I believe very strongly in the freedom of expression, even when that means I have to hear things that I don’t like.

  • max55@lemm.ee
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    6 days ago

    I also don’t think banning anything is the way to go. Who don’t want to use X doesn’t have to - there is Reddit, Mastadon, BlueSky and others.

  • XIIIesq@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    How about “if you don’t like Musk, don’t use X or buy a Tesla?”

    I personally don’t really like any billionaires at all, but I’m not going to get in to a hissy fit because someone uses Microsoft Windows or bought something from Amazon.

    • Zink@programming.dev
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      7 days ago

      That’s all well and good, and that’s currently my policy.

      But that’s an entirely different discussion than whether banning a certain propaganda platform is worth doing and would cause the intended results.

      • XIIIesq@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        The first thought that comes to my mind is that the people in Twitter are just going to migrate to another social network. It won’t be problem solved, it’ll be problem moved.

        The second thought I have is the amount of hate and comments full of misinformation on sites like Facebook. Should we ban Facebook too? And if so, where does it stop and who is it that gets to decide that a site is getting banned for “wrong think”.

        Personally, I believe this isn’t so much a petition against X, but a petition against Musk, who I think wouldn’t be absolutely gutted even if X went out of business. I think he bought it with the aim of derailing anyway.

    • Irelephant@lemm.ee
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      6 days ago

      I’m not going to get in to a hissy fit because someone uses Microsoft Windows or bought something from Amazon

      You’re more mature than some people here.

  • vane@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    Why there are always petitions to ban something, not to create something, like eu based social network everyone can join and use for free ?

    • Eunie@feddit.org
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      6 days ago

      Found the market liberal.

      You ban stuff not because it is bad and you want something better. You ban stuff that is so bad that is actually harmful.

      • XIIIesq@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        As with hate speech, the harm needs to be quantifiable. “I don’t like that people are sharing ideas and opinions that I personally disagree with” doesn’t cut it.

        The price of freedom of speech is needing to hear things that make you uncomfortable every now and again. Deciding what people can and can’t write on the internet is a slippery slope.

    • Spezi@feddit.org
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      6 days ago

      The German government already has their own mastodon instance on social.bund.de

      Much better alternative to a EU funded social network, as this would automatically drive critics to the assumption, that politicians are controlling the narrative and deleting critical content. Also supports the development of open source and self hosted alternatives this way.

  • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    I think they should just force him to disclose his shitty algorithm

    Edit: Third party, local moderators for social media should also be a standard requirement. No outsourcing of moderation.

  • vga@sopuli.xyz
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    7 days ago

    There’s absolutely no sensible reason to even consider doing this.

    • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      Yeah, but they’re great at discharging the righteous indignation of people who might otherwise do something extreme like going on demonstrations or start campaigning for non-“moderate” political parties.

      This way people just put their personal data next to a meaningless and powerless piece of text on a website alongside that of other people, get the feeling of release after having done something about what pisses them of, and won’t do anything further about it.

      Petitions are the single greatest invention of the Internet Age to keep the masses dormant (Social Media would’ve been it if, it wasn’t that, as the far-right has shown, it can be used to turn some people into activists).

  • Bruncvik@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    Everyone who signed the petition should close their Twitter accounts. And write their newspapers that they would cancel their subscriptions if the articles quoted or embedded tweets. I didn’t sign any petition, and I’m already doing it. Well, sort of. I didn’t have any Twitter account ro close.

    • Irelephant@lemm.ee
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      6 days ago

      My twitter account is just a link to my mastodon profile, with a script that posts a link to it every week or so to stop it getting banned for inactivity.

    • XIIIesq@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      I actually can’t remember the last time I saw someone under 60 buy a newspaper. I think the cross over in the venn diagram is going to be pretty small.

    • itslilith@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      8 days ago

      Maybe not quote, but embed. They should still quote noteworthy things on there, but don’t force us to interact with the site

      • Bruncvik@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        You can always quote without giving the source. “Politician XY said that …”, instead of “Politician XY tweeted that …”

      • Irelephant@lemm.ee
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        6 days ago

        I hate the amount of lazy journalism that embedded tweets have spawned, I will find articles that say “people are saying” something and the proof is three random tweets with about 6 likes between them.

        • itslilith@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          8 days ago

          Maybe I wasn’t clear in my comment. I think it’s fine if they quote what somebody tweeted. I don’t think it’s fine to have Twitter embeds in articles.

          Come to think of it, I should write a uBlock origin custom rule

    • BeatTakeshi@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      Agree with the first part, but news ought to still quote tweets while it exists, otherwise they cannot denounce many of the wrong things going on in there. I quote the Guardian’s email I received this week (even if I prefer quoting to embedding, as tweets get deleted, and embeds brings traffic to the site):

      Dear reader, Yesterday we announced that we will no longer post on any official Guardian editorial accounts on the social media site X (formerly Twitter). We think that the benefits of being on X are now outweighed by the negatives and that resources could be better used promoting our content elsewhere. This is something we have been considering for a while given the often disturbing content promoted or found on the platform. The US presidential election campaign served only to underline what we have considered for a long time: that X is a toxic media platform and that its owner, Elon Musk, has been able to use its influence to shape political discourse. X users will still be able to share our articles, and the nature of live news reporting means we will still occasionally embed content from X within our article pages. Our reporters will also be able to carry on using the site for newsgathering purposes, just as they use other social networks in which we don’t officially engage. Social media can be an important tool for news organisations and help us to reach new audiences but, at this point, X now plays a diminished role in promoting our work. Our journalism is available and open to all on our website and we would prefer people to come to theguardian.com and support our work there. You can also enjoy our journalism on the Guardian app and discover new pieces via our brilliant set of regular newsletters. Thankfully, we can do this because our business model doesn’t rely on viral content tailored to the whims of the social media giants’ algorithms – instead we’re funded directly by our readers.

    • RobotToaster@mander.xyz
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      8 days ago

      write their newspapers that they would cancel their subscriptions if the articles quoted … tweets.

      Given the former and future president of the USA’s habit of announcing policies there, that seems unworkable.

      • Bruncvik@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        I’m not American, but even I heard about Trump tweeting like a maniac. Here in Europe, though, the media understand that politicians use social media to communicate with their supporters, and nothing else. So, traditional media usually ignores them (unless they say something clickbaity), and focuses what was said outside the social media. Perhaps the same could be applied in the US. Especially if Trump is indeed as narcissistic as he’s portrayed. When he realizes people don’t listen to him, he may change his methods of communication.

          • GHiLA@sh.itjust.works
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            7 days ago

            It’s like waving a disapproving finger at a brick wall, has always been my criticism.

            Protests shouldn’t be so easily tossed in a bin. If you aren’t a problem, then no one has to listen to your message.

            • x00z@lemmy.world
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              7 days ago

              Petitions in Europe are required to be discussed when they reach a certain threshold. The platform does not matter.

            • reksas@sopuli.xyz
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              6 days ago

              even if they do nothing about the petition, it still directly shows that people care about the issue. Its just one of the things that ever so slightly could tip the scales in right direction. But yes, if people think that its all done and good by signing the petition and nobody doing anything else, you might as well yell in the wind about it. But there could be people with a bit more influence that want to do this too. Even the surveys dont get information from every single person of the populace so having many signs could help even if they dont have to immidiately put it on effect.

  • RobotToaster@mander.xyz
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    8 days ago

    As much as I dislike Musk, expansion of the great firewall of Europe seems like a bad idea.

    • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      +1

      They should discourage institutions from using it (and use government Mastadon instances of course). This is honestly long overdue.

    • BeatTakeshi@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      Yep they should keep fining him exponentially till he leaves (he obviously will never fall in line with EU rules)

    • Dragon Rider (drag)@lemmy.nz
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      8 days ago

      They only need to expand it a little bit. Add a rule against Nazi websites, and enforce it. That’s not restrictive very much at all. Drag has gone drag’s entire life without relying on Nazi sites

      • MajorHavoc@programming.dev
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        8 days ago

        Lol. That’s true. I suspect that Xitter doesn’t have the staff or engineering talent left to pivot to enforce any new rules internally. It should be possible to catch them in a constant automated ban without hitting anything worthwhile.

        • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
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          7 days ago

          To operate there they would have to hire the staff back then, or not do so. That said, usually intent is all that matters, so if something gets through, so long as you showed efforts to prevent it and remove it in a reasonable manner, they would be fine.

    • jagged_circle@feddit.nl
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      8 days ago

      Does the article say anything about censorship? Usually bans like this are financial. So X offices would close in the EU and bank accounts seized and they wouldn’t be allowed to conduct business (eg with advertisers) in the EEA

  • m-p{3}@lemmy.ca
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    8 days ago

    Let’s at least block the government agencies from using it in favor of open platforms and protocols to communicate with its citizens.

    At least give me some good ole RSS in the backend, and they could host their own Mastodon instances that people can subscribe to from other public instances.

    • MajorHavoc@programming.dev
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      8 days ago

      Let’s at least block the government agencies from using it in favor of open platforms and protocols to communicate with its citizens.

      Yeah. When public services solely use Xitter or Facebook pisses me off. We can and should make that shit illegal.

  • maplebar@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    Corporate nationalist social media like “X” (American oligarchy) and TikTok (Chinese oligarchy) are a danger to the sovereignty and stability of the Western world.