Today, it got brought up in Germany....mostly by political analysts looking over SPD commentary (left-of-center politics) that they are pretty worried over Elon Musk and where he might take Twitter.
At stake, they think he's halting most moderation (as required by German law) and they are ready to wave the big stick....fine them, and get their attention rather quickly.
I pondered over this for a while, and came to this thought.
I think Elon will ask them to explain their position, then remark that Germans seem to be motivated to have constant moderation and control over commentary.....especially from Germans themselves. Then he'll say that maybe Twitter is just too much for a German to handle, and he ought cut them off from use of the platform.
Just for kicks.....he'll hit the filter button, and for seven days (my humble view).....there's no Twitter in Germany.
Naturally, this will freak out the news media folks and create a massive public forum discussion.
The SPD folks will defend their position and just say 'fine, we didn't need Twitter'.
Then....an amazing thing will happen....around 3-million Germans will sign up for VPN services, and hit a server in Mexico or Iceland....that then goes to the US Tweeter server. Quietly, those Germans will continue to access and use Tweeter.
For six months.....this will continue....with 8-year old German kids teaching Oma and Opa how to install a VPN and access Twitter.
Eventually, a teenage group will invent a word for this....with the SPD Party patting themselves on the back....on how they saved the 'glory' of Germany from the evil Elon. Then they will finally grasp the VPN business.
The truth of the matter here? Basically, it's a hyped-up view of the 1930s and how people got all attached to bad boy behavior, and it's a political view that you can never allow this to occur again. So everything.....must be moderated, or we are doomed.
An average German agreeing with this BS? No.....probably less than 10-percent see a necessity for moderation. The less intellectual you are.....the less enthusiasm you probably have for the art of moderating.
My story? I used to go and view a particular web site in Europe....that was in English (no, it's not the UK or Ireland). At the time, there was an event unfolding where some bad-boy migrant guy had screwed up enough....to be on the deportation agenda. This web content guy wrote up a big agenda propaganda piece....saying none of this was right, and people should stand up for the 'poor' migrant.
In the comments area of the article....I wrote, by this country's laws....the guy had screwed-up and the consequence (written by the law)...was deportation. Then I wrote.....if you are unhappy with the situation....delete the law or amend it. Then I used the phrase....it's not rocket science to change law in a democratic society.
The next day? The web folks blocked me from any access to the commentary area....for any news item. Basically, I had done something that regular people hadn't considered....suggesting that there's law, and there's consequences for stupidity.
In effect, they had moderated me to the extreme....I'd never suggest or comment on anything that would screw up their agenda ever again.
I'm not against moderation, but in the vast number of cases.....most of us would only moderate if you used extreme cursing, or started suggesting violence on people or society.
I'm pretty sure that 99-percent of German society should be able to comment on just about anything....without ever being a 'must-moderate' situation.
No comments:
Post a Comment