







Bluesky civil war shows free speech is harder than it looks
Last week, a joke familiar from X circulated on rival platform Bluesky: “(bluesky user bursts into Waffle House) OH SO YOU HATE PANCAKES??” It was obviously a jab at the moral intensity that now seems to define the site, and indeed much of the rest of the social media landscape. On most platforms such a [...]Read More...

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There is no ethical case for staying on X
X has crossed a line it cannot uncross. This is no longer a debate about moderation or free speech trade-offs, but about predictable harm enabled by design. When a platform becomes ethically indefensible, outrage is not enough – walking away matters.

The Freedom to Write
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Capitalism, Democracy, and Du Bois’s <em>Two</em> Proletariats
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Declaration of Social Media Rights
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Creative Freedom as an Act of Resistance

Apparently, “free speech absolutism” now comes with a daily usage cap. Speech on X is now even less free. Free X accounts are limited to 50 posts and 200 replies a day unless they pay for a blue checkmark. That’s down from the previous 2,400 posts per day limit. engadget.com/2175771/x-free-accounts-limit…
X accounts are limited to 50 posts and 200 replies a day unless they pay for a blue checkmark - Engadget
www.engadget.comI wish the Atmosphere had content warnings (like on the fediverse)... because I'd like to show you the limits of free speech absolutism and the kind of content that is allowed on #WSocial: blatant racism, xenophobia and transphobia. X vibes... but hey, it's "hosted in Europe" 😒
Some thoughts on #WSocial, how they have been responding to criticism and why I believe they are showing the limits of free speech absolutism. I agree with @echna.bsky.social that "W Social seems to be on an X speedrun - without ever having been like Twitter." 🔗: aseachange.com/@elena/statuses/01M0SDV98GRDW…
Elena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂ (@elena@aseachange.com)
aseachange.comThe forced global adoption of puritanistic American cultural norms vis sexuality and nudity via app store/payment processor rules is one of the least-discussed free speech issues of the last decade and this lack of attention is going to hurt online expression so much in the years to come.
♍ Bee 🐝
I think also we cannot ignore the potential social and cultural ramifications of normalizing the demonification of anything adult or sexual The whole system is stacked against any sort of movement in the other direction and it's not something the porn industry can handle alone at this point
It's official! I'm *permanently* banned from X for tweeting "TLDR: Fascism." (appeal denied) What an honor—and a sign that the Silicon Valley billionaires feel threatened by my book. (One of my final viral posts featured this cover.) Pre-order here! simonandschuster.com/books/The-Nerd-Reich/Gil-Dura…
Gil Durán
The CEO of Palantir posted a fascist manifesto on X. I pointed out that it was fascist—which resulted in a permanent suspension from X (my second time!). So, when you hear the tweeters complaining that BlueSky is intolerant, remember why many of us came here in the first place.
“There's plenty of research in this topic area that shows hate speech doesn't decline when real-name policies are in effect, in fact usually the inverse, and the diversity of people contributing to conversations decreases” — bsky.app/profile/did:plc:5w4eqcxzw5jv5…

Real Names and Responsible Speech: The Cases of South Korea, China, and Facebook — Yale Journal of International Affairs

Deliberation and Identity Rules: The Effect of Anonymity, Pseudonyms and Real-Name Requirements on the Cognitive Complexity of Online News Comments
Digital Social Norm Enforcement: Online Firestorms in Social Media

Why does Google+ insist on having your real name?
doi.org

Warum anonym, wenn's auch persönlich geht?: Der Klarname bringt für den Hasskommentator Vorteile