We’ve moved into an interesting place as it pertains to social media. With new sites like Parler popping up (I’m not creating an account there), people who feel their voices are being censored are heading there to exhibit their freedom of speech. My opinion is that most of it will be what I consider to be hate speech, based on all I’ve read. No problem in my opinion; let them have their place in the world so they’ll leave my preferred spaces.
Stupid 1However, some of those folks don’t want to have to go to a place like that. From their perspective, it’s not as much fun as if they exhibit their thoughts against people who don’t want to hear it. So they’re staying on places like Twitter, LinkedIn and of course Facebook. Some of them are saying things like what you see above.
On a place like Twitter, people can use fake names like above. On LinkedIn, you have to use a real name; they’re the best at tracking down fake profiles and eliminating them. You’d think people wouldn’t want their business showing bad behavior, but they don’t seem to care. What do they care about though? Glad you asked.
A couple of weeks ago someone I know left a comment on another person’s LinkedIn post. He’d been flagged for harassment. The harassment… copying hateful things people said and posting them via his profile… with their names, faces and places of business.
The first question is why is this harassment? After all, they felt comfortable saying it on LinkedIn in the first place. They didn’t care about anyone knowing their names, seeing their face and where they worked. Suddenly they were shy because someone else shared it?
The second question is why were they that stupid in the first place? Many people have lost their jobs being stupid; many companies have had to disassociate themselves from something their employees have said. A few businesses have stuck with “what they say on their own time is their right to free speech”… only to rescind that when people start protesting, the press shows up wanting some answers and business starts slowing down.
I’m not afraid to have an opinion. I usually express myself a bit more diplomatically than people on the other side do. So when I did a video like the one below, I chose the term “ethics” when I really wanted to use a stronger term:
https://youtu.be/CecHa2wfWaM
On this blog and my business blog, I’ve talked often about why freedom of speech isn’t really free. Everyone wants to have freedom of speech, but most don’t want to accept the potential consequences of it.
That’s another thing folks on Parler are going to learn pretty quickly; there’s different levels of hate speech, and some folks are going to be uncomfortable with it. What I expect is some of those folks will leave that site when they either get scared or someone threatens them like what’s going on right now with Tucker Carlson (never thought I’d mention his name… ever!), who hated himself by telling a truth he didn’t want to tell, and has been lambasted by his followers all weekend. That’s the first ethical thing he’s ever said (yeah, I said that!).
Stupid 2As you see, I’ve shared two fairly stupid statements in photos in this article. They’re both from Twitter, and to find them I had to temporarily go around a term I usually block to find them. You can try to find them, but I suspect both are fake accounts, or at the very least the owners are using fake names.
I’m not worried about sharing their words; after all, it’s their words, not mine. This blog is also my paid space; if I can pay for the right to say what I want to say, let these other folks do the same; either that or stop being so hateful…. and stupid.
At least that’s my opinion; are you willing to share yours?
The stupidity mystifies me, but I also take exception to social media sites acting against the people who are calling out bigotry, rather than the stupid people who posted that bigotry in the first place.
I agree, though a couple of weeks ago we did talk about the problem with using AI to figure out when using language that racists might use or come close to would be hard to figure out. Still, it’ll probably also take having a site run by minority owners who have a better understanding of such things. There actually used to be one I belonged to over a decade ago, but it was way too clunky.
You talking about Izania? That was quite a website, back in the day. It’s still rocking and Roger Madison is still running things. 🙂
Cheers,
Mitch
I wasn’t thinking of Izania, but I’d also forgotten about it. I’m ashamed to say that because I have an article published there from a very long time ago. 🙂
I try and avoid all kinds of controversies in Social Media and so far, have been successful. A couple of times however, my comments, due to cultural differences between the Indian ones and the Western ones caused uproars and I apologised and amicably settled the matter.
You’ve always been a gracious host Ramana; I applaud you for that. I’ve been pretty good at that, but admit I have my moments, especially when it’s in regards to certain topics. It’s tough times in America right now, and I think some folks need a better understanding that if they (we) post things in public that come back at us it’s probably our fault for doing it. I don’t believe in posting someone’s home address and phone number in public, but calling them out by sharing their blatant stupidity… I think that’s fair.
We were faced once with a similar situation when an influencer accepted to receive a giveaway from us in exchange for sharing it on her account, then stopped responding to all our messages after she received it (despite the fact that she was so eager to get it and was very happy with it)
Had a debate about publicly exposing her on social media for her unprofessional attitude but decided to take the high road and move on. It always backfires no matter what.
That’s a tough call. I had a guy not pay me for services once, and I called him out in a blog post without mentioning his name. I eventually sued him in small claims court and won, but I was still mad about it for a long time. In this regard I don’t know the morons spouting this really stupid stuff. I doubt their real to begin with, so I have no qualms about sharing their idiocy.