EU: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft to remove hate speech

a reply to: Morrad

Bottom line is how can one legislate against *hate speech*? Isn't it

relative.... like *beauty* in the eye of the beholder. What offends

one person doesn't necessarily offend another.

Words of *hate* can be erased .... but the *hate* cannot be

erased from the mind of the the offender.

and finally....

Isn't this just another form of control by an undemocratic 'entity'

This world is FUBAR.

I am glad I will die relatively soon.

originally posted by: Atsbhct
a reply to: Morrad

Free speech doesn't exist when you're speaking online in the realms of a company who solely owns the platform someone is speaking on. They get to make the rules.

BUt when government starts calling the shots, then free speech is in danger. How long before criticism of government becomes "hate speech?" Sure the company can censore speech it does not want, but when the government is pulling the strings public/private style ... is that really the company or is it the government doing it? Then how free is your speech, really?

And again, who gets to define what is "hate?"

a reply to: Atsbhct

That was my thinking too.

We are restricted in what we can say here on ATS

Freedom of speech does not apply to businesses on the internet you're only free to say what they allow you to say and they are perfectly entitled to revoke their service from you at any time they see fit

originally posted by: Discotech

We are restricted in what we can say here on ATS

T & C, manners and decorum! ....hardly censorship?

That's what *marks ATS out* from other similar sites on the internet. The

English language is so rich in vocabulary its a shame to short circuit posts

with expletives ** @@ ### ) $ [LOL!!


Making one *think* about what one is posting, makes for much nicer and

better conversation/debate posts.

Good manners cost nothing

a reply to: Morrad

Fascists, the lot of them. That's what this amounts to, and what many are promoting here as well. Look at the university campuses. Anything the Left doesn't like, they want to silence.

Heck I have seen it said here on ATS that children should be taken from the homes of those that don't teach the "the right things", meaning, what that person believes.

Hate speech = any speech that runs contrary to the official government positions and narratives, particularly if its true and compelling.

Any thoughts that dont align with the neo-commie left here in America are being called hate speech. After Europe these laws will come here to control free speech. Remember when they started having "free speech zones"? Next is free speech parameters on the internet.

I have to wonder if they will have any suggested guidelines for those of us who write on social media.

Some sort of primer maybe. So they can just tell us what to write.

Hate speech, the latest tool of the powers that be to silence criticism and suppress free speech.

You can either have free speech, or anti-hate speech laws, not both.

Restricting free speech under the guise of "combating hate speech" makes it far more palatable to the uninformed masses.

Sorry, but you don't have a right not to be offended. You don't have to watch, you don't have to listen, you don't have to read. If someone is deliberately targeting YOU, and YOU personally, then you possibly have a claim for harassment. No need for the hate speech tyranny.

It's used as a tool to silence everyone from political groups to comedians. You know what I'd do if I didn't like a comedians' material? Not go and see them.

I'd like to think they'll be some form of public backlash against this horse#. But considering the state of things in Europe, seems unlikely.

Am i saying that people who support genocide, sharia law, al-qaeda and the like should be allowed to say it? Absolutely. They have a right to say whatever they want. You don't have to listen, pay any attention or give publicity to such people promoting such things. They are bad ideas, they should be dismissed based on the arguments against them, not suppressed.

I can't help but think of the hang man poem at times like this. Comes to me every time I read about new restrictions to freedom of speech in one sort or another.

In Nazi Germany speech that the State didn't like was called "Sedition" and "Treason"
in Stalin's reign over the USSR it was called "Counter-Revolutionary"
In the Modern West it is called "Hate Speech"

originally posted by: thinline
How about calling some a bigot, homophobe, tranphobic, and all the other political correct names that are supposed to hurt people's feelings?

Truth hurts?
That is like someone pointing out that you have symptoms of a toxic disease, and because you fancied yourself the epitome of health, you get (symptomatic) defensive and aggressive.
They were making a simple generous (although painful) observation and, as the shoe fits, we deny and defend.
Yeah, truth hurts!

a reply to: Morrad

All this has come about because of the 'Lefties'.... those in the LGBT community and those of Faith who get offended at the drop of a hat. Add to those on the Far Right... well... now everyone i between gets labelled 'Racist' or 'Bigot' just for debating over a Topic!

Blame those lot and I hope in the referendum coming up that the UK leave the EU as these rules won't apply.

a reply to: thinline

Is the LGTBQ+ attempt to kick out gay white men, being censored?

Not sure how this is relevant. Is this question directed at me because of a previous thread? Are you insinuating that I only see hate in issues which affect me?

a reply to: butcherguy

Let's say that I post on Facebook that 'I hate cats'. Is that hate speech in the EU

No.

But I'm pretty sure if you were to say: "I hate n***** monkey black cats"

.... the site owners might have something to say about it.



Context is everything.

So when are the major networks, over air and cable going to be censored? They definitely try to tell me what to hate... guns, muslims... etc.

It definitely is a crazy world. Why limit speech to limit my talking about its craziness?

Why limit a basic human emotion to begin with? Are the ambiguous "they" wish us not to be human?

These people in the OP need a healthy dose of living with "The Human Condition". There are the way things ought to be and there is the way things are. I choose to live the way that is close to reality.