Thread

1. abroszka33 · 1790500847 · focus · HN ↗

   I hope Lula wins and they will ban Facebook for good after the elections. This is an attack on Brazil’s sovereignty.

   1. tryauuum · 1790501518 · focus · HN ↗

      nothing good usually comes out of governments censoring internet

      1. ben_w · 1790502510 · focus · HN ↗

         In this case, the unelected leadership of Facebook is apparently censoring the free speech of a political candidate.

         I don't really know anything about Lula (I wouldn't have known this was Brazil if it wasn't explicitly mentioned, I only know from the Wikipedia page 30 seconds ago that their full name is Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and "Lula" is a nickname), so I can't say if they're "fine" or "evil", but one does not simply get to disregard the implications of censorship (of anyone, let alone a political party) when it happens to be done by a private corporation.

         Especially when it's a foreign private corporation that's already deeply suspicious for political interference in multiple nations, as Meta is.

         1. tryauuum · 1790504824 · focus · HN ↗

            It feels like your treat the facebook as some common good, and censorship made by it thus preposterous, something which should be punished

            But it's a multimillion dollar corporation in a foreign country, to me the idea they owe you something is strange

            ---

            Governments are still more powerful than corporations, this is why I am more afraid of the censorship of the internet by governments than of it by corporations

            1. ben_w · 1790551691 · focus · HN ↗

               Meta's specific goal is to have conversations go through them. They want to have the benefits of free speech without the obligations to support it, and use their power and influence to campaign to maintain both aspects of this.

               To borrow the EU's language, Meta is a "gatekeeper".

               > But it's a multimillion dollar corporation in a foreign country, to me the idea they owe you something is strange

               You misunderstand: I do not claim they owe us anything. At least, not in this regard.

               What I claim is that nobody owes them anything either.

               They want to be the platform? Then speech occurring on it is not theirs.

               They wish to perform acts of censorship? Then they cannot be "the platform". With emphasis on "the", because if they were simply "a" platform this wouldn't be any bigger a deal than a newspaper picking a side.

               I don't actually know if Meta is close to being a monopoly in Brazil, that's just kinda an assumption on my part owning to the other legal cases against them for knowingly making their products addictive.

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