Both of the big news stories of the past 3 days implicate social media in crimes against civil society. This…

Both of the big news stories of the past 3 days implicate social media in crimes against civil society. This one, and the Higgins/Lehrmann/Channels 7&10 court case. Enough is enough, it’s time action was taken. /1 https://t.co/F7jQx10CUx https://t.co/b4rvX2jTHj

In both stories social media was the driving force. Clearly in what happened to Benjamin Cohen, and beyond that in that case look how easily a handful of anti-social wreckers were able to co-opt public narratives, quickly and destructively. /2

The court case may seem less serious. It isn’t, every party to that action should be ashamed. The judge certainly made that abundantly clear, in a judgment few of the culture warriors will even read. /3

It wasn’t a victory for anybody, it was another disaster for civil society, sophisticated legal reasoning was immediately ignored, as every ‘team’ battling in this debate jumped all over the judgment to make it say what they wanted it to mean. /4

Regulating social media is seen as a Herculean task, processing every individual transgression of basic human decency. But it’s a NETWORK, it’s easier than that. There will always only be a relative handful of hubs driving the sewer. /5

Just shut those accounts down. Let them bleat rubbish about ‘free speech’, without the platforms nobody will be listening to them anyway. Yes that will be a continuous process, but again it will always only be a handful of accounts driving the sewer. /6

Twitter under old management gradually realised that, when it shut Trump down. But it needed to do that much more widely. Many could immediately identify the main anti-vax/Covid wreckers for example. It’s not rocket science. Like the GBD folk - just shut all of those accounts. /7

It’s not tyranny to do it, we were never allowing open mobilisation of anti-vax/anti-public health bullshit before social media. It’s basic, adult regulation. /end