Saturday 30 May 2020

It's About Bloody Time Too!

A few days ago, US President Donald Trump had one of his Tweets flagged for fact-checking, see: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2020/05/trump-gets-fact-checked.html. It would be disturbing to think that his own Twitter censorship experience alone led to what happened next, and it can't be. Trump is no fool. He is briefed constantly by every kind of expert in every field. He knows very well how important free speech social media was to his 2016 election. However, in the intervening years he has taken no action while the tech giants arrogantly flag, ban, delete, demonetize and place in limited states with gay abandon. He once remarked that he was "monitoring the situation". Many of the users and content creators who supported Trump to become president have been attacked for their beliefs since then; and they feel frustrated and betrayed at the inaction of this man they looked up to. It has come across as ungrateful to put it mildly. Nobody knows the real reason Trump has sat on this for so long. As I've said in previous publications, the God Emperor is not all powerful, see: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2019/01/denying-2016.html; however, with no explanations, what else were people meant to think? Then, finally!... On Thursday May the 28th 2020 Trump signed an executive order stating: "...As President, I have made clear my commitment to free and open debate on the internet... Online platforms are engaging in selective censorship that is harming our national discourse.  Tens of thousands of Americans have reported, among other troubling behaviours, online platforms 'flagging' content as inappropriate, even though it does not violate any stated terms of service; making unannounced and unexplained changes to company policies that have the effect of disfavouring certain viewpoints; and deleting content and entire accounts with no warning, no rationale, and no recourse... As a nation, we must foster and protect diverse viewpoints in today's digital communications environment where all Americans can and should have a voice.  We must seek transparency and accountability from online platforms, and encourage standards and tools to protect and preserve the integrity and openness of American discourse and freedom of expression..." Source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-preventing-online-censorship/. These words will not only vastly increase Trump's chances of re-election; they may well save the world, and that's no exaggeration. Online censorship has been one of the world's biggest civil rights issues of the last few years. It's because the New World Order is teetering above disaster at the moment and they are lashing out in panic. Trump's executive order does not automatically solidify into legislation. It is just the start of a long process. The US system allows the president's dictates to be overturned by the Supreme Court. However, the very fact he has simply done something at last is thrilling and vindicating. I'll be watching carefully how far this goes. The social media giants are, of course, infuriated; one glass of Mark Zuckerberg's tears coming up! I can't wait to see what Kevin Logan and Kristi Winters make of this "freeze peach", see here for the background: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2019/07/ancient-mysteries-reply-to-kevin-logan.html. The executive order means that social media corporations will no longer be able to exploit the legal loophole that allows them to hover in the convenient no-man's land between being a publisher or a platform. They will effectively be legally immune from the results of any material users post with their service and so therefore will not have the excuse to remove it. The only exceptions will be material that breaks the law such as threats, incitements to commit crimes, the creation of panic- "yelling fire in a crowded theatre" etc. That has always been the case and perfectly fair and sensible laws already exist to deal with that. Interestingly, the following day Trump announced that the USA was breaking its affiliation to the World Health Organization. I'll have to study that subject in more detail later to know what it's all about, but it is interesting that it came about just after Trump's online free speech stance, see: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-52857413. It seems this week has seen a massive drive to freedom. Let's make next week even better.

2 comments:

Roger said...

Has any post hereabouts stood up to verification and the test of time ?

Ben Emlyn-Jones said...

Sadly no. The Plan failed. This doesn't mean all is lost though. If it did I think Joe Biden's cronies would look a bit more confident!