Alright, this is possibly the largest rant I’ve had on Hive.
So far, Hive has been a safe space for me to express myself through art and music. The community I’ve encountered is really great in the fact that it is very diverse, promotes high engagement, and connects people in ways that I find similar to the internet of ye olden days.
Yes, I appreciate the fact that I can express myself freely on Hive without fear of censorship. I enjoy the freedom America’s first amendment provides, which allows me to express what I want without censorship from our government.
I’m not here to inhibit or refute our right to free speech. Anyone can join Hive. I agree with this.
However, where I’m hung up, is should everyone feel welcome?
I’ve seen the hashtag #HiveFixesThis floating around on twitter in direct response to the suspension of Donald Trump’s account, as well as the removal of Parler from big-tech (which frankly, it’s their free-enterprise right). It’s a proclamation that Hive will never, and is unable to, inhibit a person’s right to their data, account, and online identity. Yeah, sure, all great.
I’m hung up on two things: Timing of the message, and who the message is for.
First of all, why now? It’s obvious that this is a direct response to a group that has been recently disenfranchised by big-tech. Specifically, and let me be clear, these groups were removed because of their roles and actions regarding the Jan 6th attack on the American capitol, among other conspiracies against leaders and groups of people in our nation. From my perspective, the message of “#HiveFixesThis” isn’t for anyone. It is calling to those who are recently unhappy with the big-tech censorship which was a reaction to the cause: hate speech and violence.
I have a burner account on Parler. I see what’s said there. It’s not really place teeming with members who strive for a civil and educated debate. It’s a place where people directly say, “I want to kill the coward Vice President for colluding with the enemy”. Or, “When Trump gives the word I am going to kill these liberal mother fuckers”.
I’m not questioning whether or not these people can say that and still be protected from the first amendment. Fuck em’, but they have rights, too. What I’m questioning is, do we want to actually welcome these people to our platform?
Do We Want to Welcome Hate Groups to Hive?
I wrote this analogy on @doze's post challenging twitter-hive's recent push to promote Hive in response to Trump's suspension.
Bear with me:
Say a school is allowing a group to meet in a class room every week, and it comes to light that the group is found to be a white supremacist group conspiring against non-white citizens. The school bans them from any future use and refutes them for what their cause is.
Is it wise for other meeting spaces to advertise to the group, "Please meet here! Our doors are open to ANYONE!".
I ask, because that's what it feels like is happening with #HiveFixesThis.
I believe it's impossible to mitigate such group activity on any platform. However, do we want to welcome such behavior and ideas with open arms?
History Could Repeat Itself
Parler isn't the first social platform to be challenged or shut down. Hive is not impervious to government laws, defamation & bad reputation.
What's your first thought when you hear "8chan"? 8chan was shut down for a spell after they were linked to the mass shootings of Christchurch Poway synagogue and El Paso. CloudFlare begrudgingly discontinued providing their service to 8chan. 8chan has since reopened and rebranded. However, does this sound like an enticing platform for any reasonable person to join in 2021?
What if Hive were to become the next 8chan? Let's say terrorists (domestic or otherwise) conspire on Hive and then take action, killing many. Let's say Hive representatives survive the legal battles. Do you think media outlets would be fair to Hive? Do you think Hive would have any sliver of a good reputation after such an event? Definitely not. Hive would be yet another bizarre Silk Road news story reinforcing the majority's view that crypto & block chain is for terrorists, drug traffickers and ne'erdowells.
Can I support Hive if its users actively welcome conspirators and hate groups?
This is a question for myself, I guess, but I want to share it out loud:
Is Hive a platform I want to support, and is it a platform I am comfortable using, if its members are so impetuous for the growth of Hive to actively welcome "anyone"?
And;
Can I share space with disparaged conspirators, terrorists, and those who are willing to execute hateful and or dangerous actions towards another person or group?
The answer is no.
I’m with you on your worries & feelings here. I worry most about this type of promotion at this particular stage of Hive’s development. The problem is we have 10,000~ active users. Should these “outreach” initiatives have “success” we could quickly quadruple that! Yay? Of course that means 80% of Hive’s content and overall culture are now Parler 2.0.
DLive has become synonymous with extremism and I find myself glad it jumped ship back in the Steemit days and isn’t Hive affiliated. Should Hive gain that type of classification at this early stage I’m sure it would survive, but I doubt it would ever grow beyond that community.
I’m keeping my eye on things and pondering how I might react if needed. Sell & leave? Actively recruit far left communities for “balance?” How comfortable do I feel downvoting violent rhetoric? Should I begin powering up an anonymous alt account specifically for that?
Going forward I believe Hive front ends & apps need to take a hard look at their moderation policies. The days of “show the whole blockchain” are coming to a close. It’s not good for discovery or community, and will be a legal nightmare for those teams. We literally cannot keep vile content off the blockchain, and if someone wants to make a Hive backed 8chan so be it. But if my content is surrounded and overwhelmed by that sort of shit on “mainstream” interfaces like hive.blog, PeakD, & Dapplr; I may be among the voices asking for App Store removals & ISP bans of the very spaces I consider my home online.
Happy to hear I'm not the only one out there! I agree that it's likely going to take a lot of refining moderation as they go. Hive is so young and while it has experienced some turbulence in its journey, I feel it has a long way to go before it reaches any type of platform maturity necessary to combat a poor public image.
Reaching out to Parler and capitol raider sympathizers definitely has me hovering over the power down button. I'll let it simmer a bit, but I am definitely on high alert.
I find myself conflicted about this. Free speech is a valuable thing and is much more limited in places beyond the US and Europe. People can be locked up or even killed for criticising leaders or religion. I know there are some on Hive who see it as an outlet for those who get banned elsewhere and they do tend to be on the political right wing. I can see why any commercial platform would not want them, but then they tolerated Trump for years and allowed him to build a massive following. Twitter have shut down thousands of ISIS accounts. Should they be encouraged to use Hive too?
The front ends do have blacklists as they have to conform to local laws. I know there was someone sharing pirated movies on Steemit. Anyone can set up a site to show the content and decide what they want to block, or not. They could ignore flags. They could even set up their own blockchain with the same software.
It's going to be interesting to see what happens next, but I really hope that Hive can still be a place for the rest of us. I know some people have been put off that extreme content is allowed.
I personally feel a bit like a political nomad these days. This feeling started after the 2008 bank bailouts. Prior to this, I was as Republican as the next person voting red. I look back and think about my past self, and though very conservative, was no where near the type of mindset we see in the likes of Trump's support group. I voted for conservative principals, not for a man.
I encourage Republicans to use this platform. I can live with it, I can communicate with someone who holds conservative values in a reasonable manner. It's the fanaticism that I oppose, which is what I feel Parler and Trump's message produces.
I agree that its going to be interesting, and a hell of a ride if an extreme group commandeers Hive. For one to believe Hive is impervious to corruption or shutdown due to extremism, is to disregard history of humanity itself.
I'm mostly left-leaning, but I have some issues with the UK Labour Party (confusingly our red party). Following a particular party involves compromise, but it seems to me that Trump hijacked the Republicans and they just went along with it. He's (ab)used his platform for his personal issues rather than what is good for the country. I am sure the Republican party represents a spectrum of views, so how many will be unhappy with what he has done?
I don't want to see Hive restricted in who it accepts or overtaken by any particular politics. I think having many more users would make that more viable. Many people are not that interested in talking about politics online anyway. What you tend to see are the extreme views as those who are not so bothered won't be talking about it.
I would like to see if they're capable to shut down Hive so easily as we don't have a central server, anyways I don't think that the Trumpists will come, they need to be heared by many people here in Hive they wouldn't have visibility.
Would be an awesome experiment though if Hive would be able to survive to that would have proven to be really resillient.