I see and hear it many times a day - onchain, on twitter and elsewhere. The chatter about the evil centralized social media giants deplatforming people, censoring certain topics like crypto and Covid, and using heavy handed algorithims to supress content & increase advertising revenue.
We don't like censorship, I saw on a tweet this morning.
Onchain, on Hive, content isn't removable. It can be downvoted to the point where the content isn't immediately visible, but it is ALWAYS possible to open, read and share it. And to engage with it.
Which is why it is SO DISTURBING to me to witness Hive community members on other platforms, talking about uncensored Hive, and still merrily blocking each other. Gagging one another. Locking people out of chatrooms and key discussions.
This week @HiveLift was blocked by a fairly active Hive marketing account. Ironic, no?
This week, too, I saw a leader of a Hive community talking on twitter about another Hive community leader who has blocked them (and countless others) on twitter. Really?
And I saw three so-called "community elders" conspire to block another community member from discord becasue he was asking very awkward questions about community funds. Gotta say I don't consider any of these three to be elders anymore because they were not willing to try to "walk the talk". They were called out but, to date, the said blocked person has not been readmitted. And is effectively censored.
I've seen community leaders make decisions about curation but not inviting all the curators to the secret chatroom. sigh
And yet we claim to be censorship resistant. If we don't believe in it, then inevitably we'll find a way to do it on Hive.
The BEST Hive marketing and the BEST way we can uplift and grow the Hive community is to Walk the Talk. To Be The Change. To allow and enable diversity of opnion, conflict and challenging questions. No, those questions will not always be asked politely and sometimes they may offend. But we must not close down discussion because of the way it happens.
Discord, Twitter, Facebbook, Telegram etc DO block and censor others. Not just the big bad platform owners either; we are given the power to do it to each other. Does that mean we should?
The Hive community is, by definition, going to be extreme and diverse. The christians may not like the people using Hive for porn. The eco builders may be fundamentally opposed to urban gamers on loads of issues. We may not like the way each other does things. And we may often feel threatened.
But the essence of Hive is to allow everyone the right to speak - a right of free expression and participation in governance.
How can we sell the ideals of Hive if we can't live them?
"I do not agree with what you have to say but i'll defend to the death your right to say it."
Evelyn Beatrice Hall
You DON'T have to engage in troll comments. You DON'T have to follow people. You CAN just ignore them. You CAN appeal to your community for support and assistance. You CAN begin to practise Non Violent Communication, or just allow your non response to be your response. You CAN stop taking everything so personally. Your opinion will not be less is someone else has a contradictory voice.
- So do YOU block people on facebook, twitter or discord? Why?
- How do you respond to this idea of allowing free speech even when it angers, offends or challenges us?
Welcome your thoughts in the comments below.
Find us on twitter @HiveLift
I've never blocked anyone before, but there is someone on my Facebook who enjoys stirring people into arguments and occasionally I put them on a temporary stop of notifications until I feel up to dealing with them again. The reason I don't use social media much and try to keep a low profile is so I can just ignore things I don't agree with and leave everyone else to the arguing. I'd rather not be in the position where I have to deal with belligerent people, but sometimes you don't get a choice.
Many years ago, when I worked as a receptionist at a hotel, on occasion I would get someone come to the reception, riled up and angry about an issue. My first steps were to apologise, find out what it was that they were unhappy about and sympathise, letting them know I would get straight on to the manager and to make themselves comfortable (away from the reception) until the manager arrived. By the time the manager arrived, I'd calmed them down, the manager knew what the issue was and they were able to deal with a much calmer customer.
I find that most people who are confrontational are, if treated with respect, generally quite reasonable if you humble yourself a little and start with an apology. However, I realise that most people don't respond that way if they feel under attack. They get defensive or attack in return and don't see why they should apologise or humble themselves if they feel they've done nothing wrong.
Saying we shouldn't take things personally is often easier said than done. Most of us are actually doing our best, yet also not that confident in ourselves, so our immediate default IS to take it personally. We have preconceived assumptions and often don't wait to hear the full story before we lay into someone. Then if we get it wrong, many people struggle to admit they were wrong and apologise. So it's easier to just shut the "problem causer" out.
I think censoring is just the easiest way to make something hard to deal with disappear. However, there are times when someone seems really to just be there for the purpose of stirring up trouble (I know someone who does this for entertainment). When it comes to people like that, then is there any recourse other than to block them, or end up with no-one coming into the forum because they'd rather not deal with them?
Tact on both sides would help matters, unfortunately, not everyone has that.
Ignoring, muting notifications etc is all quite reasonable. You're NOT silencing them, just toning down the volume. They CAN still reachh you and engage, albeit you're making that harder. And it's true that facebook attracts a LOT of angry trolls who seem intent on arguing.
But those of us on Hive who purport to value free speech? Yes, often we are not skilled or overwhelmed. But that doesnt justify blocking or excluding or silencing people. Ever.
Censoring SEEMS easy but all it does is compound anger and frustration for it to spew out somewhere else, later. It resolves nothing and damages community.
People who SEEM intent on being beligerant are usually just expressing an unmet need. It's up to us collectively to find out what that is, and channel their energy elsewhere. The more we block and deny, the more we become that whch we denounce in others.
Tact? I wish I could produce it and fling it around like fairy dust. After sprinkling it rather liberally around myself. 😆
!ENGAGE 25
ENGAGEtokens.Most of my muters claim to support free speech,....oh, the irony.
I hear you! One DOES need to have a stong sense of irony (and a phlegmatc approach) to stay sane when dealing with HUMANS. We are an opinionated lot and so often fall short. Free speech actually requires us to EVOLVE beyond spats and differences and visted interests and taking things personallly.
We are a collective work in progress.
Appreciate you popping over to comment.
!ENGAGE 15
ENGAGEtokens.On the one hand I like it when tweets about Hive posts get retweeted - more visability etc. On the other hand, that floods me with such an amount of tweets that I can't read everything from the people I'm following.
Being flooded with RTs is fine - you can scroll and skim and cherry pick things that take your fancy. It's all good. You can also adjust your settings to limit what you see, which is diffeent than blocking people.
!ENGAGE 15
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STOPDo not miss the last post from @hivebuzz:
Three things:
1. Nobody understands the word FREEDOM they think they do but they actually don't. Most tend to see it as a "Get out of jail free" card that's played when they've said or done something that antagonises someone else. The favourite statement being: "Freedom of Speach".
2. But that leads us nicely on to the second item, people only believe in their version of Freedom or in a lot of cases "You're free to do whatever you like within certain guidelines" so how is that Freedom then? You can't say I'm free to come and go as I please and yet refuse to give me a key to the door and why is the door locked anyway if people can come and go as they please?
3. Nobody really wants or likes Freedom, seriously, they don't because if there was true freedom there'd be total mayhem on a daily basis. People would literally be able to do whatever they liked and some people can think up some right funky stuff let alone shooting one another for "Looking at me in a funny way!"
I think there's a case for blocking people if it's only for your own sanity. I went for years not blocking or muting people telling myself that by blocking people, even though they were making my life hell, I was being a hypocrite to the views I held on Freedom in that by the very act of muting someone I was in fact censoring them until finally after a few years I decided "Why am I putting up with this sh..?" so far across all my social media accounts I think I've blocked or muted about 10 people. I haven't blocked anyone on Hive so that might say something?