Agree to disagree; first, I am not American, and don't buy into the notion of Freedom of Speech - I am Canadian, and we have Freedom of Expression, which includes the notion that while people should have freedom of expression, there are certain elements of expression that infringe on the safety of others, and it is reasonable to restrict them. I know the US has had similar constraints in the past (fire in a theatre, etc), but the US is also currently speed-running trying to throw it's history of oppression into the memory hole.
It's not enough to just depend on educating people - we can see that education hasn't been very effective, and education has been subverted in several countries, including the United States and Canada.
You say that as if there is some conscious decision to explicitly allow each and every instance of questionable speech like it's their job to police it.
Do you consider Cloudflare agreeing with the speech on 4chan by allowing them to use their services?
I take comfort in knowing that (many) companies understand they should not be the judge of what speech should be allowed, I see them merely as a conduit and not an arbiter. This is exactly why Section 230 exists in the US, it shields providers from what other people say or do when using their networks. And if we didn't have that, I think the Internet as it stands would be completely different.
Not sure what good you thought it was going to do to come into a thread about a US company, say they are defending free speech and then turn around and go "yea I don't believe in free speech".
I would die for their right to free speech even if I don't agree with what they say. Are you prepared to do the same for your beliefs?
> Do you consider Cloudflare agreeing with the speech on 4chan by allowing them to use their services?
Yes I do; it is a choice to profit by delivering services to different communities. Over and above being a good company and having lots of interesting technical challenges, one of the reasons I stayed at Fastly for nearly 5 years was because of the good neighbours practice, and the fact that the leaders at Fastly chose not to do business with companies that platform hate.
> Not sure what good you thought it was going to do to come into a thread about a US company, say they are defending free speech and then turn around and go "yea I don't believe in free speech".
Well, Shopify is a Canadian company, and I am Canadian, so I thought it might be useful to share a Canadian perspective.
> I would die for their right to free speech even if I don't agree with what they say. Are you prepared to do the same for your beliefs?
Yes. I enlisted in my countries military, and indicated my preference to join a peace keeping regiment because I believe that as someone who has the ability to stand up for and defend others, I should. I believe very strongly in Freedom of Expression, but when that expression turns to hate and advocating eugenics, genocide or any number of things that my country and my grand-parents fought against, well.. sometimes you have to punch Nazis... (or Hutu war criminals, or Bosnian war criminals, etc).
It's not enough to just depend on educating people - we can see that education hasn't been very effective, and education has been subverted in several countries, including the United States and Canada.