Oddbean

Which is fine but most normal people will only put up with it for so long having to see the abhorrent content them mute it before they leave the platform. If I see even a single post from a pedo with illegal content I'll drop the platform in a heartbeat as would most normal people. Will you still think it's a great idea if the platform ends up being a handful of die-hard supporters like yourself alongside a bunch of Nazis and pedos with everyone else having left?

You underestimate people's need for free speech. Session is a case study that has been about for a while. You get nasty stuff there too, worse than i have ever seen here, but the community is good and growing. Nasty stuff is a rare exception. The problem here, at least using amethyst and iris clients, is theoretical more than a pressing issue. NSFW content is marked so and easy to ignore.

You overestimate people's desire for an absolutist view of free speech. I guarantee you that if you asked people if pedos should be able to post child sexual assault material without it being taken down that the vast, vast, vast majority would say they absolutely should not be able to. On these platforms nasty stuff always starts out as an exception but as those people realize they can stay on the platform their content increase while normal people pull the rip cord and bail out. And as the content gets reported, other platforms such as the app stores pull access to the platform making it even harder for you to reach normal people.

Trouble is, once you make an application censurable, it is open to just that. We have seen the state grossly abuse its power in that regard during covid and many other cases. That is the same state which funds intelligence services and permits them to enable the very same horrific abuse of kids which you rightly are disgusted by. Remember Epstein and if that is not enough, read Whitney Webb's "A nation under blackmail" Blocking free speech because some may abuse it is not a solution. If you say it is, then you should next ban cars and every other tech which can be used for evil purposes. That includes the ability to censure, as together with propaganda it is used to brainwash people and enable wars with all the horrors these entail.

It really depends on what you want from the platform though. If you want a platform where no normal people frequent, the apps all have to be installed manually and you have to use dodgy relays and DNS servers and it's just you an a bunch of illegal abhorrent types, then the way it's currently going is the path to that. But if you want broad reach then you have to be able to keep the platform within the law, and unfortunately for you (not me because I don't actually subscribe to the cult of free speech absolutism) that's going to require censorship to some degree.

I have to say by the way that you guys need to find better examples if you want to convince people that censorship is a bad thing. Saying "I wasn't allowed to spread dangerous health misinformation during a pandemic" isn't really a strong selling point. If anything many normal people don't think governments went hard enough or fast enough at cracking down on misinformation and that resulted in a great many deaths.

So your response is to post more antivax propaganda? He may have skated by on the "unethical practices" claim but the paper is still retracted from real journal. The journal is has been published in is an antivax journal and so no objective peer review has taken place. Just a bunch of idiots nodding along with each other because the paper pushes the narrative they want even though to call it "factually inaccurate" would be a massive understatement. Ultimately if what you want is a platform that allow Nazis, pedos, antivaxxers and conspiracy theories to circlejerk and cheer each other on, then congratulations you're getting that. But normal people will only see it as further evidence that cryptocurrency is designed to benefit the most abhorrent parts of society and will push back against your platform and the causes you are pushing. And if you're such a luddite that you don't want to understand the actual science then you do you. But you choose to live in a society that has rules and will protect itself so don't expect the rest of us to allow you to put people in danger without repercussions.