Why oh why didn't Parler develop a Twitter clone based on Blockchain technology?
I'm no expert but I do believe that if Parler had gone blockchain, like Hive, instead of utilising regular server hosting (with AWS) then they would still be up and running right now. At least accessible using web browsers and also by the users who had the nouse to turn off auto app deletion on their iOS and their Android devices but, as good (yet sadly slightly gullible) Christians they trusted the integrity of the big tech giants to respect freedom of speech and sadly took the wrong technology path.
Now they are not only blocked from people downloading their apps, their hosting provider Amazon Web Services took their site down and even blocked them from accessing the data (as far as I understand). It's literally an actual conspiracy by big tech and not a theory at all. A "Conspiracy Fact".
This three pronged attack from Google, Apple and Amazon just smacks of double standards and it's telling.
So let's look at my own personal experience of the lack of moderation of "hate speech" and harassment on two of the big tech outfits offerings!
Several years ago I spent months and months reporting a Facebook group for antisemitism. it was called "Jewish Ritual Murder" and it was pretty vile, full of every trope imaginable and quite obviously antisemitic propaganda of the Nazi variety so I thought as an experiment I would report it to Facebook as "hate speech" to see if they actually cared about antisemitism. Yet Facebook simply sent me automated messages from their bots that it didn't violate their guidelines and they left the group up. It may still be there for all I know as I gave up reporting it.
As for Twitter. I once got doxed by a Twitter troll and reported them and Twitter ignored my report completely, not a peep, nothing from them. It was no big deal but to someone with a weaker stomach for hassle it could have been quite terrifying. I figured out fairly quickly how they found my real name and the city I lived in. It was a Google search of my username.
I've seen so much actual incitement to violence on Twitter and Facebook yet Amazon, who host Twitter are happy to leave Dorsey's leviathan on their servers, and Apple and Google allow them to distribute their Apps.
So it got me thinking. Is this really about incitement to violence or is it about Twitter not wanting the competition? We already know that Apple and Google don't compete on any level with Twitter and favours for favours they don't want to be the only tech monopolies that catch the unwanted attention of the US Congress and Senate vis-a-vis any potential antitrust case coming their way. And now that the Democrats have taken every level of government (no, nothing fishy there!) it is literally a clever form of big tech lobbying the Biden administration if they de-platform every Trump supporter in one fell swoop. It also acts as a warning to the incoming administration that these tech giants are more powerful than any president so don't even think about withdrawing any protection they have as platforms under current law (230 anyone?)
This stone kills so many birds. And Amazon may even only be doing this because Twitter possibly threatened to pull their service and set up their own data centres if AWS didn't strike the death blow (de-platform) Parler (ok this is pure speculation and a total theory but if you were AWS, who's invoice each month would have been the biggest and the one you want to protect? The one you send to Twitter or the one to Parler? But yeah, I can't prove that however I'll float it out there if some super sleuth wants to go and work backwards and investigate that theory.
The big question is "what's next?"
Great to have you posting on Hive!
Thanks chap. It's refreshing and come a long way since Steem. Very impressed! I like the use of Markdown too.
Parler deplatforming has helped me realise that it's not good to keep your eggs in one basket.
This is great to bookmark for extra formatting options.
https://peakd.com/steemit/@sisygoboom/the-ultimate-guide-to-formatting-on-steemit-markup-and-markdown
I actually laminated a Markdown Cheatsheet a while back as I have a plugin on my website that allows for Markdown use on a Wordpress blog. I tend to use iA Writer for the Markdown and then post it straight from the app to my Wordpress blog which makes it easy and I always have a local copy on all my devices. So I've managed to memorise some of it. But I post so infrequently that it's not really stuck in my head yet to any great extent.
Great summary.
What's next? The US may have gone crazy but a lot of other countries with conservative governments are going to go after these Big Tech companies.
I look forward to it. But for now I guess Hive needs to be pushed as well as Telegram and other freedom of speech web apps and social platforms to help the fight against the monopoly positions and abuse of power by big tech.
Absolutely, people need to move to the alternatives - they are actually better than Big Tech platforms.
See my guide here: https://peakd.com/hive/@apshamilton/alternatives-to-big-tech-presidential-censorship-edition
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