This article from the EFF seems naive at best. They argue that Tier 1 ISPs should not police speech, which is fair, but their proposed solution is to just let hate sites sit around and radicalize people, then have the law deal with the few who cross the line between protected speech and criminal harassment.
Below is an extensive list of all the times 'just throw more cops at the problem' has solved anything:
The entire reason for-profit companies are policing speech is because the law makes it so they are literally the only ones who can. The big kicker is how they felt the need to put "Solid enforcement of existing laws" knowing full well they literally don't exist.
It's like if some dude was stood on a street corner giving people maps to the local banks, instructions on how to rob a bank without getting caught, and a free loaded gun, then we concluded the best solution here is to have the police just try extra hard to find and arrest anyone who has previously robbed a bank.
@z3r0fox If the pentesting company was giving people instructions to commit crimes and encouraging them to do so, they could and most certainly would be held liable
@malwaretech Ahh, fair. Not familiar with how hate speech law applies in the relevant jurisdictions but the site should be shut down or fined into oblivion if possible
Look at what's happened in the financial sector when backbone payment processors cave to government and societal censorship demands. Sex workers have almost zero methods to use modern financial systems, including for legal work and activities.
Offensive systems should be handled at the root by pressuring their service providers. DNS providers can also refuse to resolve hostnames for inappropriate content.
The solution isn't simply send the cops. There are other levers that can be applied.
@seanm@malwaretech what do we think those levers are (besides "social pressure")?
Not to be argumentative, I tend to agree with you and EFF. But I also don't want KiwiFarms to be able to operate so easily. So how do we get rid of them without putting "good" free speech at risk?
Also, improving privacy laws and data handling. Activities such as doxxing would be more difficult if data brokers and services were held liable and could collect less data.
@malwaretech its like okay I concede that the data brokerage industry is an aspect of the problem and that it just shouldn't be that easy to dox someone but like when has 'giving them support and resources' ever enabled cops to address problems that don't exclusively affect the property or lives of rich people? lmao
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