Free speech or something more sinister

https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/…te-speech/

Yes

I’m not sure I would agree with all that @ROBANDSUE . I take your point about mainstream media. Sure, they need to be watched. But the only people that stand to be hurt by social media is mainstream media and governments, no I don’t agree.

Snowden showed the world that the NSA were spying on everybody through there social media accounts. Cambridge Analytica target millions of undecided Brexit voters with ads promoting anti-immigrant , anti-EU bias through Facebook. Had the ‘No’ campaign hired CA first, no doubt it would have gone the other way.

Social media impacts us all negatively IMO.

Social media allows people to say sh*t with no recourse. All keyboard warriors can not be brought to court, it's not moderated for instance, like this forum, people say and do what they want to a certain extent, it is out of control and shows no inroads to stopping it's bullshit regulation of none.

It needs regulated last decade not in the next decade, zuckerberg (and others) needs brought down for his ruination of communities and the internet. But when the British Government can demand him in court and he doesn't show, what hope is there of that?

Free speech is now hate speech because of it, I absolutely love the internet, the freedom it has given us, the information it has given us, the secrecy it has allowed us to know, but when you give millions a worldwide audience built without any work, built without any knowledge of the internet (facebook groups and pages), built without any regard for other business, are able to steal intellectual property then it needs regulated and it needs regulated now. I personally have suffered at the hands of intellectual property theft for the last 7 years on and off, more recently: more so. I don't have the means to take those responsible to court so they sit and type away their vitriol without any justice. They are as bad as someone breaking into your house.

I’m not sure we are saying the very same thing @ROBANDSUE although I’m sure we agree on a lot. Snowden was a hero I’m sure you agree. He did point out what the government was doing, that’s true. But the social media corporations gave the NSA what they wanted. Back doors into their systems to allow them eavesdrop. They do not give a damn about our privacy.

That pretty much hits the nail on the head alright

"I would read my post again" why? I read it perfectly the first time.
"Has free speech become hate speech, was the question." I read that perfectly the first time too.
Heres where i think you are confused.
Free speech and hate speech are 2 different things. The people like Varadkar and co that put the argument forward that they are one and the same are usually the same people that have been criticised on social media and now want it regulated so people cant criticise them.
Character assassination if untrue is hate speech and spreading lies is libel, leaving the publisher open to legal action.
If however, I call out someone on something they done, and I am correct, thats free speech. But the person that is the subject wont see it like that. They will call it hate speech, but they would be wrong. They mightnt like it, but thats free speech.
You cant just take a whole chunk of social media comments and label them hate speech. Thats not the way it works. You seperate the two and leave people their right to free speech. But if you are in the spotlight and you know you are going to get negative comments about your policies if you are governmental for instance, and you know you can stop it by paying media barons back handers, you will.
So the media adapt a policy whereby they label everything hate speech, (unless they print it) and people start to get offended if they are called a tw*t. And then your civil rights are slowly eroded until you cant say boo and everybody wonders how we got to the point where its illegal to question your government.

I was using Varadkar as an example of people in power manipulating the mainstream media, as he has done.
no need to explain, i think i have a handle on it

i even used emojis

Here are some examples where the two gel together wrongly and done in the name of free speech, they are allowed to go on for years before they are stopped

Tommy Robinson
Britain First
EDL
Saoradh