Welcome to The Know. I'm Ashley. I'm Ben. Strap in folks. It's time for a talk about free speech
Earlier this week gaming chat heavyweight Discord shut down a public server for altright.com, a political group that was used for organizing protests in
Charlottesville this last weekend and a number of other tech giant's have also ejected the fringe political group from their services.
Between
Discord, Google, Reddit, Godaddy and others serving up some high profile bans the affected groups or those wearing their next are decrying the bans as
the end of free speech online as we know it and the politicization of corporate corporations. Yeah, well I mean, yeah,
There's a little bit more nuance to free speech, and what's happening with these bans. What is undeniable?
Is that there has been a noteworthy change in the way online discussions are being policed by the Tech industry
For a lot of years a lot of these good companies have been more or less hands-off except in the most extreme
instances while still allowing certain types of language and communities to form on their platform, but there's been a shift
And it's not just this week. We've seen YouTube tightening down on all kinds of content
that they allow on their platforms and what they allow to be monetized, and that's been going on for months.
I keep getting emails that uh some of our videos are being demonetized. They're all from like three years ago, but there's one of like
You know Mormons and the war against porn, and they're like yeah, you can't talk about that
So yeah that has been happening with YouTube a lot
Now more of these online platforms are taking a harder stance which is going to bring a few free speech discussions
Particularly among those who are being banned and in some cases concerns about discrimination over personal beliefs
Because people in general are pretty jumpy about slippery slopes. Also of being banned. No one wants to be banned
Now before
Yeah
Before we get too far into what's actually going on it is worth mentioning the event from Charlottesville this past weekend
Not the focus of this story, we're not a world news channel
But we can't talk about the recent bans without at least that much context
By now you're more than likely aware of the controversial and violent protests that took place in Charlottesville's
by white supremacists and Neo-Nazis
one of whom drove a car into a crowd of counter protesters and killed a young woman and
What we're seeing now is a series of consequences to those events play out in the online space
Thanks to a number of moves made by the popular web sources including Discord. Yeah
So as to the Discord thing the popular gaming chat app made an announcement this week, Via Twitter informing users
that it would be shutting down the altright.com server and other users involved with what went down in Charlottesville
They wrote Discord's mission is to bring people together around gaming. We're about positivity and inclusivity not hate not violence
They went on to say Today
We've shut down the altright.com server and a number of other accounts associated with the events in Charlottesville
We will continue to take action against white supremacy
nazi ideology and all forms of hate. Now before anyone could accuse them of political bias, Discord's defense of the shutdown
Specifically actually has to do with terms of service
violations. They are claiming that the accounts and servers shut down were specifically promoting or enabling the coordination of violence around
Charlottesville by Several quote bad actors. And on top of that they don't want some of those Viewpoints on their service at all
Discord CMO Eros Resimini said We unequivocally condemn white supremacy, neo-nazism
And any other group term ideology that is based on these beliefs. They are not welcome on Discord
While we don't read people's private servers, our terms of service
Explicitly forbid harassment threatening messages or calls to violence
When hatred like this violates our community standards we act swiftly to take servers down and ban individual users
Now several community members have since asked for the ban and removal of counter protesters who were also using Discord to coordinate and Discord said if
They have specific complaints about abuse users can send an email to abuse@discordapp.com
And they would be happy to investigate it just as they did the accounts they've already banned.
No, word yet
though on any actions actually taken on that front though
Naturally this whole thing is kicking off a big discussion about what else free speech. Free Speech!
so we probably should talk a little bit about what it does and doesn't protect. Yeah because there's a lot of
Misunderstandings actually contrary to popular belief free speech does include all kinds of speech even hate speech weirdly enough
It was reaffirmed rather recently actually just back in June when the supreme court reached a unanimous ruling about the matter in Matal versus Tam.
That case was about a band wanting to name itself after a term that could be considered racially expensive and the government
Not allowing specific trademark protections for the band name because of it. The court ended up agreeing with the band that
Yes, they can be named what they want. No one has to like it. No one has to agree with it
No one has to think it's tasteful
But legally they're allowed to name the thing that. Free speech protects citizens from reprisal by the government for dissenting opinions
What isn't protected by the first amendment is your ability to violate a private company's terms of service agreement.
By which they can technically end their contract with you for virtually any reason they feel like. Or no reason. Nah, it's a loophole
they can use to terminate services for any user they don't want on the platform if those users violate certain clauses in the terms of service.
Yeah, and this comes up less frequently in Tech
But we have actually seen some weird versions of this play out in the real world
Not the same thing at all as people being banned for hate speech online by the way or white supremacy
or anything like that, but at least in the vein of consequences of our personal beliefs
We did see some weird stuff with businesses. They were hit for refusing to render services like baking cakes. Um,  bakeries were a big one for same-sex couples in recent years. In one of those cases the court did actually
Order that
It was discrimination and the bakery had to pay damages because laws in the state specifically prohibit companies from discriminating
their services based on sexual orientation
However bakeries, don't exactly have a terms of service you have to sign before you walk in the door
And that's where these online companies are a little bit better protected in their actions. They can point to specific
Violations to justify the Shutdowns and those terms can be pretty broad like Discord's
Which states the company may also terminate or suspend your access to any communication channels at any time without notice for any reason. Broad.
Plus the bakery instances were also a little bit different. They are about discrimination rather than free speech
They were refusing service because of someone's identity
Who they are rather than what they believe so not apples to apples.
Now if someone had something
discriminatory about beliefs or opinions in the terms of service in the first place that might be a little bit different story
And if they have something in there, that's about who you are something that you can't change that's more difficult to enforce legally. Yes
Just a little bit. If anybody is unhappy with the way all this is set up
They are free to take it to court so far
We don't have many instances of people taking a company to court over their terms of service
But it did happen once a few years back there was a Schnabel versus Trilegiant Corp which was a
Those sound like pretend TV names just by the way. Evil corporation trying to take over something
They do
Which was a class-action lawsuit brought against a program that offered discounts on products. The plaintiff wanted a full refund after several months
but Trilegiant Corp wouldn't grant it because it was explicitly stated in their terms of service. In that instance the
Second circuit ruled against the company most because their terms of service weren't conspicuous
They were like this little tiny font at the bottom of their site, and then in a follow-up email that wasn't specifically signed
So another case again not apples to apples
But since most people don't have the money to start a long protracted legal battle with services like Discord the other option is to find
Another service, and that's about all there is to it because free speech is not about your ability to say whatever you want online
so much as it is about your ability to say what you want and not get thrown in jail for it. And even then not completely
Fighting words, calls to violence also, not allowed which brings this whole issue back to square one anyway
So now technically Discord isn't violating free speech by exercising bans for users who are making calls to violence
And it's not just Discord getting in on it either
They've been just the most visible for those of us in the gaming sphere
Godaddy removed white supremacist site The Daily Stormer from its domain hosting this week while google delisted it from their domain registry also for violating
the terms of service. Oddly enough
That website has ended up in Russia. Oh interesting
AirBnb has been banning accounts for the same reason and both Facebook and reddit have also started shutting down numerous groups for hate speech in
The last few days as well. And with all the shutdowns happening for all these various groups
It seems like maybe we're coming to a fork in the road for online discussion after several years of growing contention
In the past sites like Twitter and reddit in particular have been pretty keen on allowing online discussions to continue
Unregulated more or less
But the events of Charlottesville and the growing threat of actual violence are definitely changing the positions of the tech industry's heavy hitters also
Because in this case the Company's really really
Understandably don't want to be associated with white supremacy in any way and are motivated to take a very strong stance against it
Because of all that there are some who are worried that they could one day be kicked off their social Media
Platforms over personal beliefs too, quick clarification. We're not talking about people who are in agreement with white supremacists
we're talking about others who while not sharing those extremist views do hold what they consider to be controversial opinions across all ends of the
political spectrum, or
Opinions that go against the grain and these shutdowns have some of those people concerned about the idea of who decides what hate speech is
And what if I'm on the receiving end of it next year?
So that's typically a worry for people who don't always see eye to eye with the rest of their online peers
but really the key Takeaway here is
Probably that the right to a freedom of speech isn't the same as freedom from consequences your beliefs may not get you arrested
But when you sign in to a privately operated platform you are also agreeing to abide by their terms
And those may actually be worth reading once you sign in free speech
Doesn't apply. So by all means continue posting your memes and arguing about whose fault it
Is that you've just got wasted in PUBG and yes even
expressing your controversial opinions like that Sonic the Hedgehog was never that good of a video game. Fighting words, but legal. Might also kill me, but leave the inciting violence and racism at the door
Okay, rule of thumb be excellent to each other. Bill and Ted have a lot to teach us.
What do you guys think of these recent bans happening online from Discord and all these other services let us know in comments.
For future updates on for the discussions about free speech remember to like this video, and if you're new around here subscribe to The Know
*wheezes*
I think I just read the
Declaration of independence, a lot of jargon. We get wordy
hmm
legal stuff. I'm gonna just going on time I done
