Austin Kocher, PhD 🌎Nov 20, 2022

Meet Eugen Rochko (@Gargron), founder of @Mastodon, who just got a profile in TIME magazine. I encourage you to really read the entire excellent interview, bc not only will you learn more about the ethos behind Mastodon, but you can also hear what it’s like for an intelligent human being to talk about social media.

“Thousands Have Joined Mastodon Since Twitter Changed Hands. Its Founder Has a Vision for Democratizing Social Media.”

https://time.com/6229230/mastodon-eugen-rochko-interview/

Thousands Have Joined Mastodon Since Twitter Changed Hands. Its Founder Has a Vision for Democratizing Social Media

Thousands of users have joined Mastodon since Elon Musk took control of Twitter. Mastodon's founder Eugen Rochko says it's been a vindication

Time
Show threadAustin Kocher, PhD 🌎
“I think that is a very uniquely American idea of creating this marketplace of ideas where you can say anything you want completely without limits. It is very foreign to the German mindset where we, in our Constitution, our number one priority is maintaining human dignity. And so, hate speech is not part of the German concept of free speech, for example. So I think that when Elon Musk says that everything’s gonna be allowed, or whatever, I generally disagree with that.” – @Gargron
Nov 20, 2022 at 1:58pmWeb
Show threadAran HegartyNov 20, 2022
@austinkocher @Gargron The fundamental disagreement that I have in the German position is "who" determines what is "human dignity" and makes these often arbitrary decisions as a centralized authority. Individuals are more than capable to determine and block sites and speech that they find offensive. We can use social and economic pressure to mute these voices of hate.
Show threadRagnell the Mildly UnpleasantNov 20, 2022
@austinkocher @Gargron My only gripe with that is Elon Musk is not American. He's a South African racist who idealizes American racism and has squatted in a place where he doesn't have to pay taxes. His idea of "free speech" stems from there, hence why within a week he was locking down name changes and suspending accounts that mocked him.
Show threadRagnell the Mildly UnpleasantNov 20, 2022
@austinkocher @Gargron There is a problem with free speech absolutists in the US, but there's also a problem with foreign racists seeing it as a safe place to continue their racism and Musk is part of the latter.
Show threadNew GoliathNov 20, 2022
@austinkocher @Gargron bankrupting other nations and having a leader reign for 16 years is totally cool.
Show threadGryph LaneNov 21, 2022
@NewGoliath @austinkocher @Gargron At least their government actually works
Show threadNew GoliathNov 21, 2022
@MxG84 @austinkocher @Gargron what does it succeed at doing? Neo-colonialism and welfare capitalism?
Show threadAlexandria BrangwinNov 22, 2022
@austinkocher @Gargron Most importantly, freedom is nothing without responsibility.
In countries where one has freedom of speech, they never have freedom from consequences...sadly people like musk think those consequences are freedom denial.
Twitter only banned non-advertiser friendly individuals because they were a threat to revenue.
...and Germans should know what happens when you let hate speakers gather https://youtu.be/vGAqYNFQdZ4
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Show threadarcepiNov 23, 2022
@austinkocher @Gargron I always think of how different the Internet would be if the social networks had been created in Europe. We have different views on what is acceptable and what isn't compared to the USA.
Show threadmojtaba ahmadiDec 11, 2022
@austinkocher@mastodon .social @Gargron