Thread by @ErrataRob

Dumb people like to argue how censorship by Facebook isn't a free-speech issue. The latest example is this article
techcrunch.com/2019/10/20/fac…

If the argument is that it's not a "First Amendment" issue, then of course it's correct. The First Amendment only prevents government censorship, not private censorship by companies like Facebook.

Moreover, the "First Amendment" means that government can't even step in to stop Facebook censorship. That would restrict Facebook's own rights to publish whatever it wants.

But while the "First Amendment" only applies to government restrictions on speech, words like "censorship" and "free-speech" apply also to private entities, whether it's Facebook, churches, radio stations, or whatever.

Free-speech is a fundamental principle of civil society, that reasonable people disagree, that disagreements should be handled by open debate, not silencing those we disagree with.

In any case, the real criticism of the above article isn't its desire for censorship, but its misunderstanding of "memes". It blames Facebook for things going viral on Facebook. But it's not Facebook here that's the problem, such things go viral in any medium.

The word "meme" predates the Internet. It was coined in 1976. Anything that improves communication makes memes go viral faster. It's a fundamental law like gravity or supply-and-demand: you may not like it, but there's no getting around it. Silencing speech won't stop it.

The solution isn't backwards ideas like 'censorship', but forward ideas like 'critical-thinking'. People need to learn critical-thinking, and apply it to what they read on social-media.

Everyone likes critical-thinking when pointing out the flaws in their opponent's arguments. That's not critical-thinking. Instead, critical-thinking is about looking for flaws in your own arguments.

It means instead of blaming Facebook for its amplification of outrage and fake-news, that you look critically at your own efforts to amplify outrage and fake-news. You all do it, you just don't admit it.