Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

What the right calls "free speech" has been tried by several investor-backed social media startups. In every case it has turned into a sewer of racism, misogyny, death threats, and non-monetizable yuckkyiness.

Nobody has an answer to that problem, yet. If there is no answer, turning Twitter into a desolation for trolls will not help Twitter.

These trolls want to go back to Twitter to torment everyone who rejected them. Good luck creating shareholder value that way.



I guess the solution would be tying your identify to your account. If you do something illegal then you can be held accountable. The problem is, how many of twitters users would vanish if they suddenly needed to be identifiable?


I assume you don’t mean ‘you can have free speech absolutism by making it easier to have real life consequences for saying the wrong thing’


Failure of a business can still occur with legal speech, like racism. How would tying your identity to an account help in that situation?


Depends on your jurisdiction. Racist is certainly not legal in the UK and people have been prosecuted for tweeting racist messages.




Consider applying for YC's Summer 2026 batch! Applications are open till May 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: