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PaperclipPerfector  7mo ago (text post)   27785 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 18, 2023

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https://www.independent.co.uk/space/elon-musk-russell-brand-caroline-dinenage-mps-twitter-b2415346.html

Social media site X has been asked by a senior MP if owner Elon Musk, who changed its name from Twitter, “has personally intervened in any decisions on Russell Brand’s status on the platform”. Following rape and sexual assault allegations being made against Brand, online content platforms that host his content including YouTube and podcasting company Acast said that he will not make money from advertisements on their sites and apps. Culture, Media and Sport Committee chairwoman Dame Caroline Dinenage has written to other video hosting sites and social media outlets on Wednesday to ask whether Brand can make “profit from his content” on their platforms.

In the communication to X chief executive Linda Yaccarino, Dame Caroline said: “We would be grateful if you could confirm whether Mr Brand monetises his content and, if so, we would like to know whether X intends to join YouTube in suspending Mr Brand’s ability to earn money on the platform.

“Given Elon Musk’s response to Mr Brand’s tweet regarding the allegations, where he wrote ‘Of course. They don’t like competition’, we are also keen to understand whether Mr Musk has personally intervened in any decisions on Mr Brand’s status on the platform.

“We would also like to know what X is doing to ensure that creators are not able to use the platform to undermine the welfare of victims of inappropriate and potentially illegal behaviour.”

https://twitter.com/CountDankulaTV/status/1704607541852844072/photo/1

I think that it is important. But I am at loss of words so I am not even sure where to begin to make it effortpost. It is outrageous, indefensible and at first I though it was satire.

Do think this is rogue action? (my guess no), Will there be punishment for the MP for overstepping greatly any boundaries? (also no).

It's amazing that seemingly overnight, a norm was kayfabed into existence that people accused of sex pestery should be deplatformed/demonetized off all social media. Like this has always been the case, and has been applied in a politically neutral way. Despite, to my knowledge, this is literally the first time it's ever happened.

The political motivations for this are naked as can be. Even in the initial reporting, it was included in the article that none of the women chose to come forward, they were sought out by reporters. At least that's what I heard reported at The Hill, still can't read the initial article due to paywall and archive links not working for me for some reason.

The MP in question is a Conservative ex-Minister (under Cameron, May and Johnson) while Brand is an anti-establishment Marxist (to the extent he is anything). So if there is a political motivation it's might not map exactly to what people may think.

This is like Google confessing to the censorship of the World Socialist Website to prove how neutral they are. The UK conservatives in particular are an especially bad example of opposition to the woke establishment.

Conservatives (most of them at least) are the establishment, how "woke" they are varies. In many cases political stories in the UK are better explained by looking at establishment vs anti-establishment than left vs right.

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