Social Media Censorship — what to do about it?
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We talk a lot about Twitter and Parler lately, but I’m going to start this one with WeChat:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/07/wechat-censorship-china-us-ban/
WeChat is the #1 or #2 social media app/platform used by the Chinese, and its operated from within China. The accusation here is that WeChat is now also applying censorship regime (presumably those demanded by Beijing) on US users of WeChat.
So looking at Twitter censoring some politicians and some political content here in the USA, and you look at a Chinese app/platform like WeChat censoring some activists and some political content here in the USA, and both claim they do it to safeguard peace and security for the nation, what are you going to do as a matter of public policy?
Ban WeChat and Twitter? Make Google and Apple drop WeChat and Twitter from their “app stores”? (If you say drop it from the “app stores,” drop it only in the US or drop it worldwide? Apple will virtually lose all its market share in China if iOS devices cannot run WeChat.) Enact laws to regulate online political content?
Amazon AWS with Parler shows yet another side of the problem. Suppose you say you don’t like AWS because they dropped Parler because Parler cannot censor stuff to AWS’ satisfaction, are you going to similarly dislike an AWS-like entity when it continues to serve the likes of Twitter and WeChat that censor a lot more?
Right now, I take the free market position that says don’t use government power to do anything different with AWS or “app stores” or Twitter or Parler or WeChat or whatever. Let Apple sell its sound to Beijing over WeChat if it wants, let AWS sell its soul to the woke-ing class over Parler if it wants. I don’t see any of them as a monopoly power when it comes to providing social media services. (They may be monopolies with something else, just not with social media.) So let these private enterprises make whatever decisions they make with regards to content censorship and let the market sort it out.
The only “public policy” line in the sand I want to maintain is “net neutrality”, that includes making sure that everyone can get equitable access to the Internet. Anyone who wants to operate a bunch of servers can get Internet access from the utility companies (telecom carriers), anyone who wants to put up a new website can register their new domains with a DNS registrar. The basic plumbing of the Internet shall treat all of them equally. I am of the opinion that this is sufficient to maintain freedom of speech on the Internet.
No doubt many of you have different opinions on this. Let me know what you think.
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We talk a lot about Twitter and Parler lately, but I’m going to start this one with WeChat:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/07/wechat-censorship-china-us-ban/
WeChat is the #1 or #2 social media app/platform used by the Chinese, and its operated from within China. The accusation here is that WeChat is now also applying censorship regime (presumably those demanded by Beijing) on US users of WeChat.
So looking at Twitter censoring some politicians and some political content here in the USA, and you look at a Chinese app/platform like WeChat censoring some activists and some political content here in the USA, and both claim they do it to safeguard peace and security for the nation, what are you going to do as a matter of public policy?
Ban WeChat and Twitter? Make Google and Apple drop WeChat and Twitter from their “app stores”? (If you say drop it from the “app stores,” drop it only in the US or drop it worldwide? Apple will virtually lose all its market share in China if iOS devices cannot run WeChat.) Enact laws to regulate online political content?
Amazon AWS with Parler shows yet another side of the problem. Suppose you say you don’t like AWS because they dropped Parler because Parler cannot censor stuff to AWS’ satisfaction, are you going to similarly dislike an AWS-like entity when it continues to serve the likes of Twitter and WeChat that censor a lot more?
Right now, I take the free market position that says don’t use government power to do anything different with AWS or “app stores” or Twitter or Parler or WeChat or whatever. Let Apple sell its sound to Beijing over WeChat if it wants, let AWS sell its soul to the woke-ing class over Parler if it wants. I don’t see any of them as a monopoly power when it comes to providing social media services. (They may be monopolies with something else, just not with social media.) So let these private enterprises make whatever decisions they make with regards to content censorship and let the market sort it out.
The only “public policy” line in the sand I want to maintain is “net neutrality”, that includes making sure that everyone can get equitable access to the Internet. Anyone who wants to operate a bunch of servers can get Internet access from the utility companies (telecom carriers), anyone who wants to put up a new website can register their new domains with a DNS registrar. The basic plumbing of the Internet shall treat all of them equally. I am of the opinion that this is sufficient to maintain freedom of speech on the Internet.
No doubt many of you have different opinions on this. Let me know what you think.
@axtremus said in Social Media Censorship — what to do about it?:
So let these private enterprises make whatever decisions they make with regards to content censorship and let the market sort it out.
That's what Woolworth's said to those high-school kids.
That's what the bus driver said to Rosa Parks.
That's what the kkk said to mlk.
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How about the government continues to use official government channels for its communication?
Government email, government press releases, etc.
3rd parties can pick up what they want.
Don’t use private comms infrastructure. A key reason politicians use it now is because it is free. They wouldn’t take out ads in the NYT to get their message out in the past.
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I’m pretty indifferent when it comes to social media companies deciding what to censor. I am a big business rights guy, on all levels, so if they want to decide who or what content they allow, that’s their right in my opinion.
As long as it’s not the government censoring free speech.
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@Axtremus do you know how the Android devices that are being sold in China are configured? Do they use a regular Android installation with all the usual Google services, or do they use something based on the open source part of Android (such as LineageOS or GrapheneOS maybe?). If they use regular Google Android, do they pre-install a different app store?
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@Klaus practically every Android phone (hardware) maker customizes a version of Android and preinstalls it on their phones, this is not limited to China (e.g., Samsung does this too). In some cases it got so bad that sometimes customers are restricted (or at least cautioned) to only get OS updates/upgrades from the phone maker rather than from the general Google/Android channel for fear of incompatibilities that might conflict with the phone maker's customizations (this is also why lots of Android phones are lagging many OS versions behind Google's latest and greatest).
Since Google is blocked in China, the Chinese phone makers pretty much have to operate their own "app stores". Huawei and Xiaomi, for examples, these are two of China's biggest phone manufacturers, both maintain their own "app stores."
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@Klaus practically every Android phone (hardware) maker customizes a version of Android and preinstalls it on their phones, this is not limited to China (e.g., Samsung does this too). In some cases it got so bad that sometimes customers are restricted (or at least cautioned) to only get OS updates/upgrades from the phone maker rather than from the general Google/Android channel for fear of incompatibilities that might conflict with the phone maker's customizations (this is also why lots of Android phones are lagging many OS versions behind Google's latest and greatest).
Since Google is blocked in China, the Chinese phone makers pretty much have to operate their own "app stores". Huawei and Xiaomi, for examples, these are two of China's biggest phone manufacturers, both maintain their own "app stores."
@axtremus I'm aware that hardware makers customize Android, but AFAIK they customize the version with all the Google stuff on it. That is, they add extra stuff to the Google stuff. But they don't usually remove things. Are Google apps and services merely blocked on Chinese phones or are they not even installed on the devices?
