Social media as bastions of free speech

#里茲螞蟻批判性思考寫作專欄 #Alex專欄 #外師每週精選閱讀 
 
Social media was heralded as the great liberator of the press, opening up closed and censored societies, and making the already free press even freer, by removing the middleman and facilitating the free flow of information. Has this ideal been realised? While the rumour- and fear-mongers of government censors and press dominated by moneyed interests might have been relegated to somewhat less prominent roles as masters of information, the floodgates have also been opened to let through a torrent of hearsay, gossip and outright falsehoods in the form of anyone and everyone’s opinions. But it is only now, after four years of benefitting massively from the publicity attracted by the rantings of an egotistical sociopath have Twitter, Facebook and other platforms decided to ban Donald Trump’s accounts and attempt to stem the flow of hatred and vitriol. Is it too little too late?

It took Trump’s encouragement of a half-arsed attempt at a coup by some nut jobs to finally prompt big tech firms to take definitive action. On the other hand, there is certainly a lot worse hate speech and more serious false information all over social media that has not been removed. This begs the question: are social media companies really the bastions of free speech that they claim to be, or are they actually censors that have double standards which they apply unevenly, and only when it is in their self-interest?
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https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/jan/11/facebook-stop-the-steal-trump-ban-sheryl-sandberg
 
===我是分隔線===
 
💡這個專欄目的是訓練同學聰明閱讀。
 
上面的貼文內容是我們的實力派外師Alex，針對每週一篇英文文章閱讀後，親自寫出的批判性思考文（不是copy & paste的東西啊）。旨在讓同學知道如何用不同的角度來讀文章。你可以選擇先讀Alex寫的批判文，也可以選擇先讀本次的英文文章連結，但最好兩處都要閱讀才能達到最好的效果。
 
這是個訓練批判性思考的好機會，希望同學不要被文字牽著鼻子走，在閱讀時可以多思考。大家可以善用這個寶貴的資源～
 
舊文連結：
https://www.leedsmayi.com/alex-column
 
Alex是我們的御用老師，每週都會幫梅姨、托托、慕華上英文課。目前星期一晚上有開一班 #里茲螞蟻外師應用英文課程 ，程度高級，充滿知識性與深度。有開放單次付費上課。若你想學習用英文來深度探討各項主題，check it out！
 
Alex老師的應用英文課：
https://www.leedsmayi.com/applied-english.html