Taylor Lorenz on Online Censorship and 'Unfettered' Speech

Channel: Alex Kantrowitz

Published at: 2023-09-30

YouTube video id: UkCrTyj8lXc

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkCrTyj8lXc

out there you know truly believe that
I'm like a political actor or that I'm
like part of you know the CIA or who
knows what right
um and that's yeah it's disorienting
right I mean the narrative I think was
that you were more in favor of content
moderation which is so hilarious which
is so hilarious because anybody that's
followed me for years knows my drama
with the content moderators I have had
drama with the content Alex I've had
like 18 accounts of my my accounts I've
had more band accounts than probably
anybody else in media like right I oh
even Elon banned you oh sure he's inside
of me I mean I have always said from the
beginning
um that I I believe I I do not believe
that these tech companies should
moderate
speech it makes me very nervous I don't
think I'm much more in favor of sort of
community moderation like the type of
things you see on Reddit you know where
it's sort of like here's the Norms of
this community here's what we're going
to agree to I'm a big fan of things like
Community notes I think it's corrosive
and bad when these big tech companies
come in and try to like litigate
evolving stories which is often what
they're trying to do they're trying to
parse the news and yes there are
objective facts I just don't think that
the tech companies should be the ones to
determine it because they often rely on
like
you know I
they rely on the government which I
don't think as a journalist we should
necessarily rely on I don't think that's
a scalable policy thankfully in America
we have a pretty reliable government in
certain ways but like
you know around the world that's not a
good policy to rely on so
yeah I mean it's just the content
moderation thing drives me crazy and the
people that say that stuff have truly
never listened to me talk about it
because I talk about it frequently and
constantly and
um my community of followers
like
knows about that and makes memes about
it I mean you're currently like in the
middle of I think a bit of a war with
the threads people who oh my God yes
search for covet they won't search not
just covet Alex dozens of words dozens
of words you flat out cannot search you
will not be able to view the search
results and I'm fine with them putting
up a warning for certain search results
I think blocking full-on blocking words
from search especially newsworthy terms
which is how they sort of defined it
when I was talking to the when I was
talking to the comments people and going
back and forth they're like well these
are newsworthy terms so what so if
another War breaks out in Ukraine we're
just going to block the word Ukraine
again this is cutting off people from
access to information and I don't think
it's up to the platforms to her to make
those determinations of what people what
access people should have you know what
information people should have access to
and I know the misinformation people
like I'm sympathetic to that I cover
trust me I don't think that's a tech
problem I think it's a media literacy
problem I think there's things that tech
companies could do better but
fundamentally this is a problem with
media literacy in the country it's not
not let's just get it's like that
Highway meme where it's like just one
more Lane just one more Lane that's how
the content moderation people are it's
like just ban a little bit more just a
little bit more content moderation just
a little bit more content moderation and
we'll have a safe platform no right I
think this perception if you did it
emerge like in the middle of the
clubhouse days I don't know there was a
story in the times that had the word
unfettered in it was that was that you
like that did you actually read the
sentence by the way let me just read
let's just read that sentence back
um
uh hold on
oh my God you're giving me you're giving
me the chance to um
to uh squash all my uh haters here so I
really appreciate it uh okay so here's
what I here's what I said right
um and tell me if you think this sounds
like I'm advocating for Content
moderation
Clubhouse has generated debate about
whether audio is the next wave of social
media moving digital connections Beyond
text and videos to old-fashioned voice
in thousands of chat rooms every day
Clubhouse users have had have conducted
unfettered conversations on subjects
such as astrophysics geopolitics queer
representation in Bali to Bollywood and
even cosmetic and even Cosmic poetry
quote this is a major change in how the
social internet works said Dave Morin
who founded this social networks path I
believe it's a new chapter
clubhouse's trajectory has been rapid
where
yeah no it doesn't seem like it's
calling does
that sound like content model at all in
fact doesn't that sound like I'm talking
about the liberatory nature of
unfettered conversations saying that
they have astrophysics geopolitics queer
representation in Bollywood does it not
sound like I'm advocating for that for
sure
huh so wouldn't you say that like I mean
can you imagine being me and like then
seeing how that's misrepresented online
how infuriating it is definitely
drives me insane it's like and it's like
what they just pick out one word right
and then they try and act like and it's
like you guys are literally saying You
Are misrepresenting My Views to say the
exact opposite of what I've said and
they do that to me 24 7 on the internet
it drives me insane yeah I think it
might have just been the product of
um this
long I guess yeah there was a an era
where the New York Times wrote all these
stories about all the bad content on
social media which did lead to a bigger
Crackdown and I'm sure the censorship
that we saw and I think that there was
there was a Target mostly on the New
York Times back and you know people yeah
they probably saw that word and then
just went bananas on it but it's like we
should be having unfettered
conversations right that's my point yeah
yeah and I mean again I I I totally
agree that misinformation is a problem
and I totally agree that the tech
platform should play a role in not
amplifying it
but I think the way that they're doing
it now is this like heavy-handed blunt
approach that just ends up censoring
news content and content from lgbtq
people like we see time and time again
that the people that suffer from these
content moderation bands it's like I
mean look at what the YouTube stuff
right like it was it was I think I can't
remember I'm gonna get these details
wrong but it was like a lot of like
Arabic language channels were censored
you know around fears of the with after
these Isis videos were going up so I
just think that there we need to have a
more nuanced approach to these
conversations and the way it's always
framed is that you're saying that Elon
has a point
um I don't know what you I mean elon's
the most anti-free speech person ever so
he has no not a leg to stand on yeah but
I agree with like the sentiment I mean
the thing is he's lying when he says it
it's like Trump right they're they're
often lying when they say these things
but
um but I I mean I'm a journalist of
course I'm from free speech I couldn't
do my job without it
yep