[HN Gopher] EFF: Twitter Has a New Owner. Here's What He Should Do
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       EFF: Twitter Has a New Owner. Here's What He Should Do
        
       Author : guerrilla
       Score  : 21 points
       Date   : 2022-04-25 20:17 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.eff.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.eff.org)
        
       | bavell wrote:
       | I stopped reading after the first paragraph, couldn't get past
       | the obvious slant from the authors.
       | 
       | Genuinely curious, did EFF write a similar article when Bezos
       | bought the WP? (I searched but couldn't find anything). I hope so
       | because otherwise this is very hypocritical. I'd be glad to be
       | wrong on this but I suspect I'm not.
        
         | daveoc64 wrote:
         | Why would EFF care about a newspaper?
        
           | bavell wrote:
           | Literally the first sentence of the article:
           | 
           | > Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter highlights the risks to
           | human rights and personal safety when any single person has
           | complete control over policies affecting almost 400 million
           | users.
           | 
           | Doesn't this apply to Bezos and WP?
           | 
           | You could argue WP doesn't have the same reach in terms of
           | raw numbers which is fair but I'd argue both their audiences
           | have a lot of power and the overall point made by EFF applies
           | in both cases.
        
             | wbsss4412 wrote:
             | WP is neither of the same magnitude, nor is it the similar
             | in kind. WP is not nor was it ever a platform in the sense
             | that Twitter is.
        
         | MattRix wrote:
         | In what way is it hypocritical? Surely you don't believe they
         | have to have an article about every media takeover before
         | writing about this one.
        
           | bavell wrote:
           | No, I certainly don't believe that. But if they report on one
           | billionaire buying a major media platform / outlet, shouldn't
           | they do it for the others? I mean, it's not like this stuff
           | happens everyday.
        
         | sha256sum wrote:
         | The EFF is the Electronic Frontier Foundation. From their
         | homepage: "The leading nonprofit defending digital privacy,
         | free speech, and innovation." So technology, privacy... not
         | really newspapers. You might be thinking of the ACLU?
        
           | twoxproblematic wrote:
        
           | bavell wrote:
           | Please see my reply to a sibling comment w.r.t. newspapers
        
       | mc32 wrote:
        
         | DiabloD3 wrote:
         | EFF pays attention to when screaming into the void isn't
         | helpful.
        
       | newbamboo wrote:
       | Et Tu EFF? Sigh. I remember when they supported open source.
       | Won't give them my support going forward. At least rms is still
       | alive and kicking.
        
         | ncmncm wrote:
         | They don't need it if they get Elon on board.
         | 
         | But they won't. To get out the value he poured in, he will need
         | to run it the way Murdoch runs Fox News, the WSJ, and lots
         | else. Twitter is a bigger megaphone than even the Murdoch
         | empire.
        
         | xhkkffbf wrote:
         | Two years ago, I personally complained to EFF folks that I knew
         | about the censorship of Twitter users like the NY Post. They
         | said nothing. They seemed to have chosen sides. Long ago they
         | cared about censorship and free speech. Now I just don't know.
        
           | type0 wrote:
           | I noticed it as well, they were slowly sliding in hopes no
           | one would notice, when did EFF became ideological?
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | tempnow987 wrote:
       | Ironic seeing this from the EFF. This is after we had CORPORATE
       | control of twitter (which they apparently applaud) that provided
       | us with endless spam / scam bots and tons of crap.
       | 
       | I don't doubt Musk poses critical threats to the old way of doing
       | things. Does EFF get a bunch of corporate type sponsorship? This
       | is such a weird read.
        
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       (page generated 2022-04-25 23:03 UTC)