I think frankbell hit it on the nose. Like, racist people may, or may not do, depending how stupid their parents or surroundings may have made us?!

Are you kidding me? An internet search for "alternatives to facebook" yields 1.6 billion results.

This is one of the first ones: https://www.maketecheasier.com/faceb...cial-networks/
I'd call it a customer base with tunnel vision.

There is no conspiracy. There is no over-regulation. Just a whole bunch of dumb people eating sh_t sandwiches.
Now you're getting closer to the mark.

Logout of LQ n try using it...

Quite frankly: if people knew how to search and think for themselves, this site would be more useful? No offense ta small business men.

Both media and free speech, help people: not think for ourselves??? Or, are we just... enablers?

Forgotten what I was gonna say next? Smiley time!

The premise that social media is “bad” is not well supported, but has already been said, freedom of speech has nothing to do with social media in any case.
The whole point of the first amendment is that Congress (the State) cannot control the press nor prevent anyone from saying what they want. Congress.

If that is correct, why are demonstrators or protesters commonly given police protection to make sure their speech is not being silenced by others?

There are indeed to schools of thought here: Some believe Free Speech is a natural right and that the state exists partly to protect those rights, while others believe that rights only exist to the extent they are given to you by the state.

Yes, there used to be Parler and it became rather popular among people who had been banned from Twitter. And what happened then? Amazon Web Services, which hosts just about everything on the net these days, decided that they would not host Parler and they kicked it off their servers.

So much for free speech and alternative channels.

Again, Amazon Web Services is a private business. Are you arguing that private business should be regulated in this regard???

Private businesses have always been regulated when they become monopolies because monopolies are against the public interest. Why are online monopolies different?

They did this because Parler hosted right-wing hate groups. Same reason Twitter banned right-wing hate speech. Freedom does not equal anarchy. That is one concept lost among some people; they feel they have the "right" to do and say anything because (speaking of the US), this is a "free" country.

As other have stated, these are private companies and they can do whatever they want. They should not be regulated by any government because then the government can inject its interests into the business. We already have far too much government intervention in private business here in the US.

OK, as long as you recognize that according to the powers that be, you do deserve it. As in, right now.

The only reason you haven't experienced their ire is that you're neither in the public eye, nor in a position to inconvenience those disagreeing with your opinions. That can change in an instant.

If the "right" to voice your opinion means that if you do so you get fired, evicted, expelled from college or university, lose your bank account and credit card, and find yourself unable to shop or participate in any public discourse online, then the entire "right" is fictional.

That's been investigated and debunked by the FBI.

They did find some questionable online activity by some individuals. On Facebook.

Parler hosted people Twitter claimed were all sorts of things. That's not the same as them actually being any of those things. And of course they were on Parler, Twitter had just thrown them out.

Because they're willing to act as the extended arm of certain political groups. Also, they make political contributions.

They are mostly public companies. Finding those with overall control as well as those with major stakes can be an entertaining paper trail.

Don't worry about governments interfering in these corporations....

Worry about the level of influence and control they already have over governments... not just yours... as they include some of the major political donors - to the parties which have pledged to best serve their interests - not yours.

Everyones heard, sticks and stones may break their bones? I've always liked to say: if I can't say anything and get away with it, you're a moron? But,,, only a smart @#$ minus the smarts whould say that.

Hackers and anarchists are not same, except stereotyped?

Democracy seems a giant corporation? You (I say you because I've never voted for persons, only policies. Which should be mandatory and never taken away!) try to find people aligned with your views and hope they don't change? CEO Biden*... 🙄

https://www.gnu.org/software/social/
https://medevel.com/open-source-solu...ocial-network/

I think if we ever get to the point where we can say anything and get away with it? We won't be staying stupid 💩

https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/co...down/?sort=new
(EDIT: that got locked. From 'legit': https://blog.cloudflare.com/october-...acebook-outage
Edit#2: (UNfortunately) it's back (BGP 'fixed') https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28752131

I'm looking forward to reading: How to delete *ALL* BGP&DNS info about a company. (new kali cmd?)
("deleting all BGP routing &DNS info" 'disappears' them from internet)

I'd love to be the fly on Zuckerberg's head right now.