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The irony of private platforms censoring hate groups (for their own PR I might add; let's not forget that YouTube's algorithm famously favors alt-right content because weirdly enough algorithms that favor "engagement" tend to end up favoring lowest common denominator populist reactionary politics) is that it 1). Legitimizes the claims of groups that otherwise might sound like delusional paranoid conspiracy theorists, and 2). Forces these groups to adopt decentralized alternatives that make them even harder to do anything about. Tech companies engaging in performative content moderation is really just creating selection pressure that will ultimately create more resilient, technically competent hate groups that will also have an increasingly legitimate case to make for being persecuted by powerful organizations.


It might, but that's a bit like saying "fixing security holes will just make hackers resort to trickier tricks to crack systems."

Quite possibly. And we want to put the burden of labor on them to do so, instead of operate in a world where the rule is "Don't use the internet; hackers will steal all your data."




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