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NYT fights free speech

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Don Surber

All errors should be reported to DonSurber@gmail.com

Friday, December 02, 2022

NYT fights free speech

The New York Times did a hit piece on the First Amendment today with a story, “Hate Speech’s Rise on Twitter Is Unprecedented, Researchers Find.” It was filled with scary numbers such as, “Slurs against gay men appeared on Twitter 2,506 times a day on average before Mr. Musk took over. Afterward, their use rose to 3,964 times a day.”

Oh please. Internet Live Stats reported that there are “500 million tweets per day and around 200 billion tweets per year.”

Thus 1 in 126,135 users posts contains a gay slur. Honey, if you cannot handle that, leave. 

NYT’s fight for censorship has nothing to do with protecting blacks from slurs (3,876 times a day) or gays or Jews or anyone else. NYT wants to control the narrative and silence anyone who dares criticize such government initiatives as the pandemic panic, confusing kids about sex in kindergarten and promoting black supremacy through CRT-trained teachers that preach that America suffers systemic racism.

Have I left anything out?

By the way, NYT tried to cash in on CRT with its Project 1619.

The fear-mongering call for censorship on the basis of maybe 1 in 50,000 tweets containing a slur (an arbitrary standard) runs contrary to everything NYT once stood for, at least publicly. Not long ago, standing up for free speech was a tenet of good journalism.

But the enthusiasm for free speech shrank when the Internet came along and more voices were able to be heard. The axiom about never arguing with a man who buys ink by the barrel became irrelevant when anyone could buy pixels by the ton.

NYT now mocks Musk as a free speech absolutist. But that was a position every respectable newspaper once held, which shows how respectable the New York Times is these days.

It reported, “Mr. Musk, who did not respond to a request for comment, has been vocal about being a ‘free speech absolutist’ who believes in unfettered discussions online. He has moved swiftly to overhaul Twitter’s practices, allowing former President Donald J. Trump — who was barred for tweets that could incite violence — to return. Last week, Mr. Musk proposed a widespread amnesty for accounts that Twitter’s previous leadership had suspended. And on Tuesday, he ended enforcement of a policy against covid misinformation.”

The reality is the most harmful covid misinformation came from Tony Fauci and the rest of the government. Twitter banned people who told the truth that cloth masks don’t stop a virus and the vaccine does not stop the spread of covid either.

Meanwhile in Europe, the government is demanding Twitter censor critics.

The Metro reported, “Elon Musk’s Twitter could be banned from Europe if it fails to stick to its content moderation rules.

“The European Union has warned Musk that Twitter could be banned from operating in the bloc if it does not follow the rules, as reported by the Financial Times.

“Thierry Breton, the European Union’s commissioner for the internal market, was on a video call with the Twitter CEO when he gave the warning, according to the FT which cited people with knowledge of the discussion.

“‘Twitter will have to implement transparent user policies, significantly reinforce content moderation and tackle disinformation,’ said Breton in a tweet on Wednesday.” 

Musk does not need Europe.

In fact, he should be like the pirate radio stations that parked just outside of Great Britain in the 1960s and 1970s to circumvent censors and broadcast in England.

There is a 1 in 50,000 chance that a tweet will contain a slur?

So what?

In 2016, Hillary called me deplorable and the New York Times was silent about her hate speech.

As it should be.

And as it should be now.

Posted by Don Surber at Friday, December 02, 2022