I know there are problems with online abuse, and I don’t want to downplay or ignore them, but I really do feel like “free speech” has become a dirty word in the space of about 12 months after literally decades of consistent, principled and passionate adherence to the idea, *especially* by internet nerds. This never used to be a right vs left splitting point, Noam bloody Chomsky argued very straightforwardly in favour of FoS precisely for ideas that you despise. What happened? (end, 2/2)
@solderpunk I think the centralization of social media sites (contra protocols, like email or Tor) and the conflation of servers and clients (Facebook/Twitter run the server and control all the clients) has confused the historical distinction between apparently neutral conduits of information and user-driven control of the information we see.
If we accept there is no distinction between the two, then anti-harassment and free-expression will appear to be in conflict. Let's not.
