← Back to context

Comment by serverholic

4 years ago

The government shouldn't do anything about hate speech. Full stop.

Edit: I’d love a definition of hate speech from someone who downvoted me.

Which government? surely each country gets to choose for itself - the US 1st amendment is only a US law, it doesn't apply world-wide - the internet however is a world-wide entity and once a company like CF, or Google etc gets big enough it needs to obey the law everywhere

It absolutely should. Full stop.

  • What is hate speech?

    • The German criminal code has a pretty good definition; good in the sense that it is limited. It applies to speech that fulfills 4 criteria:

      * It happens in public

      * it is capable of disturbing the public peace

      * it attacks an entire segment of the population

      * by inciting hatred, insulting, defaming or calling for violence or arbitrary measures against them.

      You'll have a hard time explaining what the value is in allowing speech that fulfulls all of the above.

      6 replies →

But it should do something about how 2-3 giant corporations have become effective arbiters of online speech.