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Sometimes I'm a bit confused by the discourse around #SocialMedia in the West. On the one hand they rail against censorship and decry countries like China who practice it. On the other hand, they demand for moderation, which, well, means censorship of certain content. (It's just a nicer way of saying it lol.)
I've come to believe that unbridled "freedom" on social media is damaging and "censorship" is a necessary evil. This is based on my experience as a Malaysian used to "cybertroopers" who are used to sway public opinion in Malaysia, sometimes dangerously. In our last election, teenagers were recruited as cybertroopers to incite people to attack minorities after the election. The platform refused to take down the content for weeks. There was a lot of fear that racial riots would happen.
Even in China, where there's lots of censorship, social media like Weibo is rife with terrible content that spread rumours, destroy people's lives and cause violence. What I'm saying is, I feel that social media is tearing apart society's fabric in some way, and there's still no good solution to this.
@liztai I'd say your confusion is caused by treating Europe and the US as the single homogeneous entity "the west". Europe and the US have been divulging on this and other issues for quite a while now, it seems that divergence is about to become a rift.
Europe wants moderation and digital privacy controls, the US (and particularly their tech companies) don't and so brand it censorship.
@ely_peddler nah I have called it the west because I am including Europe in this. This is of course applicable to the more free speech sabre rattling folks
@liztai The US and Europe are very different places, if you lump them together you will find contradictions.