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Various large tech, financial, and media companies have been active
in selective cancellations of people and ideas they don't currently
agree with. They steer information in specific directions and stop
questioning, but fully allow harassment and incitement of violence
against their targets. These companies include heavy users und
significant contributors to the open source and Unix community.
Around a decade ago, many of these same companies espoused freedom
of speech and encouraged the use of their platforms to help people
have a voice under their difficult governments. They claimed they
were part of important revolutions.
Today, these companies use content moderation and business suspensions
in a collaborative way. They use biased fact checkers paid for by
their own. Instead of allowing people to choose their own news to
follow, to participate in debates, and to moderate their own sources
of information, they manage community "no-fly lists." It is not
profit-driven nor based on crime-based sanctions. Even governments
and celebrities have asked these companies to cancel their users,
which they fully oblige. Some groups can threaten deaths and
destruction with impunity while others can politely ask a question
and be censored.
To what level should this censorship and cancellation continue?
Using working ideas and technologies from the online advertising
networks, dissidents can be flagged, identified, and tracked.
Software can be extended to poll these databases to create restrictions
on their use. They can upload "fingerprints" to help build the
"net" around the voices they don't want heard or shared. This can
share and track current and past email addresses, IPs, hostnames,
social media handles, facial or other photographic identifiers,
names, street addresses, government identity numbers, vehicle tag
numbers, and various other personal or related attributes,
cross-referenced with friends and family. They can be scored by
their preferences, such as believing in journalism integrity,
unbiased news, book reading, and open access to history, academic,
scholarly, and technological data.
Should the kernel, IP stack, NGINX, Postfix, NSD, Rsync+SSH, NTP,
Mailman, and other software use a enemies "no-fly list"? What about
other software filtering? Should all open source software query
and block these people in real time?
Is it okay to cancel the ink and paper orders for the newspaper
you disagree with?
Banking and fund-raising platforms already participate in the
cancelations, but this can be extended to more financial institutions
and chip-and-pin cards.
How far will it go?
Turn off or limit electricity?
Limit access to fitness clubs, home owner associations, and other
community groups?
Should churches use this "no-fly list" to exclude memberships to
heaven?
Exclude access to job boards, trade schools, home services, and
contractors directories?
What about parks, theaters, arenas, and restaurants?
Or toll roads, flights, subway, bus rides, and ride-sharing services?
Or ride-hailing, delivery, and courier services? The petrol pump?
Local stores and big chains checking IDs at the entrance?
If you are on the no-fly list, can you have your water turned off
at the street?
Sewer access? Garbage pickup?
Cancel or limit phone use?
Lose access to the library and its TTY?
Where are the open source and open data advocates? (Some of our
peer donors, recipients, and participants of these cancel companies
will read this.)
Do you fund the fact checkers? (Do you support the cancel companies?)
Should IP addressing, IP transit, routing, and DNS be used to
cancel?
Ist es okay to turn off software for someone you disagree with?
Where does this cancel culture stop?
Will an open source community kick out committers based on the
"no-fly list"?
Do you burn books or knock over pulpits?
Does your hum count if you have tape over your mouth (or
double-masked)?
Is it okay to have a megaphone for humming?
Will you cancel the (IP) pigeons?
