Trump Says He Won't Allow Social Media Companies To Censor Conservatives

Discussion in 'Politics & Government' started by Ken Anderson, Aug 18, 2018.

  1. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Source: Washington Times

    What do you think?

    On the one hand, censorship was intended to be a prohibition on government, not private companies or individuals, but the protection of our censorship laws have been extended to businesses and organizations before.

    An argument could be made that the larger social media companies, such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and I would add Google as well, do have a practical monopoly. Sure, there are alternatives to Facebook but not realistic ones, and there are few alternatives to Twitter and Youtube. Certainly, the government has gone against other companies as monopolies who had more competition than Twitter and Youtube.

    You may not be aware of it but the government was about to split Microsoft up into several parts. Bill Gates wanted to keep his business focused on business and wasn't contributing largely to political causes. He now contributes to Democrat candidates and leftist causes everywhere and has the protection of the government. To a large extent, our government is quite capable of using such Mafia-like strongarm tactics to extort money from people who simply want to run their businesses.

    But what do you think? Is this one of those things that Trump sometimes voices as a personal opinion, with no intention of acting on it, or is this something he will seek to enforce. Will he be successful?
     
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  2. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    I don't know how Trump would do anything against the social media giants, even if he tried to get them declared monopolies or utilities. They could ramp up anti-Trump sentiment faster than even the MSM, and I don't think he wants that. The only real alternative would be to start another conservative-leaning social media company. As I once posted, some people are trying to get Jeff Bezos to do an impartial, Prime Members-only social media system. I don't know if Bezos will agree to the idea, though, and I don't know how impartial it would be.
     
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  3. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I don't know. Most Facebook users I know are not in love with Facebook and would love to have a viable alternative, and the same is true of those who spend time on Youtube. There is also the question of how much more could they do to him than they are already doing?
     
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  4. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    It seems like facebook and YouTube are both getting worse and worse, and not better; so it is not looking like our President is going to be able to hold the line for conservative American patriots to have equal time on either one.
    We like to think that we should have free speech, because the Constitution says we should have that; but neither one of these social media is publicly owned, and so the owners have a right to decide what content they will allow.
    I have looked at some of the alternatives to Facebook, but it really doesn’t help if there is not one that people use, like we have been on facebook.
    I don’t see any reason why we can’t visit with friends and family on Facebook, and then have the political groups somewhere that more freedom of speech is allowed.

    I just found this one today, haven’t signed up, but it looks hopeful. Has anyone else found an alternative that seems to both viable and growing for conservatives who want to opt out of the media propaganda ?

    https://conservativefiringline.com/rightbook-new-conservative-alternative-to-facebook/
     
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  5. Bess Barber

    Bess Barber Veteran Member
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    I think when we went with the notion that certain stated opinions are considered 'hate crimes', then we kind of shot ourselves in the foot. People use that argument if you say you don't agree with any particular thing. If they can get it under the hate crime category, then social media companies have no option but to censor it. If people really want freedom of speech, then they need to quit whining and playing the victim card when other people don't agree with them. I personally think the strength of America IS different opinions. It's how we keep things balanced. Until we can no longer speak out.....then the balance is lost.
     
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  6. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    While I don't entirely support the concept of anti-trust laws, Google and Facebook might be the poster children of arguments in favor of them. Yes, they are private companies but, at the same time, there is no serious competition for either of these companies. Facebook dominates social media by many times, and something like eighty percent of Internet searches in the United States are made through Google, and since these are among the main sources of information for Americans, there is a reasonable public concern.
     
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  7. Hedi Mitchell

    Hedi Mitchell Supreme Member
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    FB dominates way more than most us even want to know. Mr Z is building more sloar stations this one in Texas. Four football fileds in width and length. He claims he needs this to store more our info photos and other FB posts. In the meantime this solar station supposedly can power 72,000 homes in the process . Sorry lost my source of info on this. Read this on Tuesday I think
     
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  8. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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  9. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    This testimony by Dr. Robert Epstein is totally astonishing... and very discouraging.

     
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  10. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    If one goes to another social media outlet like talk radio for instance, the FCC is in control. Among the many mandates, a show has to give equal time to all political parties who wish to express their opinions. If the show interviews a Democrat running for a position in government, then equal time has to be given his or her opponent.
    The show is a private business but it still has to abide by certain rules and regulations in order to keep the license and remain on the air.

    Seems to me a similar program the FCC has can be implemented across the other facets of the social media.
     
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  11. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I'm sure there are those in government who would love to be able to dictate just what someone can publish online but that won't be something I'd support. I'd rather see the company broken up, so that Google Search would have to survive on the basis of its search results again. Then maybe they wouldn't play around with them so much.
     
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  12. Martin Alonzo

    Martin Alonzo Supreme Member
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    Here is a great new web site who has put up all the banned videos off youtube. This should be passed around as it has no ads so it cannot not be pressured by the leftest. It has a lot of videos that disappeared before you had a chance to see it. Have fun.
    https://www.altcensored.com/
     
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  13. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    As we get closer to the election this fall, we are seeing more and more censorship in social media, and people are already moving to more conservative platforms than Facebook , Twitter, and even Youtube, because they have clamped down on what is allowed to be discussed there.
    Since the mainstream media is totally controlled by the liberals, and most news there only reflects a liberal opinion, and not an actual news report; people are starting to look for a more honest view of what is happening in this world, and turning to social media is becoming the best answer.

    Facebook is fine for just keeping in touch with friends and relatives, but some of the facebook groups are being highly censored and even shut down. If you try to join any kind of a group which talks about vaccines, you will be directed to the CDC website and warned about the facebook group. The same thing is happening with groups that support our president, and especially the Qanon groups.
    Youtube is deleting informative videos as fast as people are uploading them, if they do not follow the liberal agenda.
    There are several alternative choices that are getting more followers now, so people are slowly moving to another platform where they can freely talk. It is quite likely that facebook and Twitter will be losing people just like CNN has been losing viewers.

    I was just reading that Rush Limbaugh has over 43 million listeners for his radio program, and CNN does not have even a million viewers for any of their programs. It seems like radio is making a comeback, especially online radio, and there are some really good programs online that a person can listen to. John B. Wells is another great conservative radio host, and he has interesting guest speakers quite often.
    I had subscribed to his website when he first started, but the price has gone way out of my financial capabilities, so now I just listen to the shows that he puts on YouTube.

    Many of the conservative people are moving to places like Gab and MeWe, and I have made an account at both places, simply to follow the same groups and people that I follow on Facebook and Twitter for political news.
    There is also a Youtube alternative that has many of the videos that were banned on YouTube, so it may start replacing YouTube soon.
     
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  14. Tom Galty

    Tom Galty Veteran Member
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    Thank you for the link.
     
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  15. Peter Renfro

    Peter Renfro Veteran Member
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    You folks are rich:oops::oops::oops::oops::oops:. Strict constitutionalists, one and all. but you are asking the government to manipulate private entities? I am guessing if the executives and stockholders in Google Facebook twitter whoever, want to dictate the direction of their platforms it is their right.
    Right wing babble has had a solid lock on the radio waves for thirty years now. Democracy Now is the only left radio show that I can think of. Perhaps OAN, NewsMax ,or business insider could launch their own platforms and steer the content where they want it to be.
    Isn't free enterprise a conservative value? How about you reach down grab your bootstraps and pull yourself up?
     
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