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Re: An open letter to Elon Musk

Subject Re: An open letter to Elon Musk
Newsgroups comp.misc, talk.politics.misc, talk.politics.misc
References <kSIGlW7yBTuZxaaAi@bongo-ra.co>
From "25B.Z959" <25B.Z959@nada.net>
Date 2022-07-20 22:22 -0400
Message-ID <ZMSdnUUiUonPJUX_nZ2dnUU7-bPNnZ2d@earthlink.com> (permalink)

Cross-posted to 3 groups.

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On 7/20/22 9:41 PM, Spiros Bousbouras wrote:
> Dear Mr. Musk,
> 
> I have read in the news that you are (or were) interested in buying
> Twitter in order to promote free speech. I applaud your goals , I care a
> lot about free speech myself. But let me suggest that the operational
> model of Twitter and free speech do not fit well together.
> 
> An absolute concept of free speech is that if persons A and B want to
> exchange views or information about whatever issue , no entity C (where
> "entity" means individual or corporation or government) should be able to
> prevent it. In other words , the decision should be entirely up to A and B
> and noone else.
> 
> There are physical limitations which make such absolute free speech
> impossible and it may not even be desirable. But it is also very far from
> a desirable level of free speech if a single entity , like Twitter , can
> restrict people's ability to communicate with each other. Obviously
> Twitter isn't the only form of online communication but my overall point
> is that online discussion is too centralised at present , that this
> centralisation negatively affects freedom of speech and plurality of
> opinions therefore the right way forward is to give emphasis to more
> decentralised methods of online discussion.
> 
> And as it turns out , there is such a method. Not only that but it is one
> of the oldest forms of online dicussion : usenet !
> 
> I will guess that you have already encountered usenet although perhaps not
> recently. It is a lot less popular than what it was some decades ago but
> it is still going strong. From the point of view of freedom of speech it
> has many advantages over Twitter : it is decentralised , meaning a large
> number of servers controlled by different entities instead of servers
> ultimately controlled by a single entity which can command that this or
> that should be censored. Usenet is based on open standards for which there
> exist already a large number of implementations both of servers and
> clients and also programming libraries for many programming languages. So
> whether one wants to use a preexisting client or server or implement their
> own , possibly one with a fancier interface , the possibilities are
> limitless.
> 
> You are a visionary so let me a suggest the following vision : every city
> block in every city in every technologically advanced country will have at
> least 1 usenet server operating. Note that the servers do not need any
> special facilities , it could just as well be a server operating from
> one's own home. It doesn't have to be a recent or powerful computer either
> , an old computer which one has lying somewhere and remains unused , would
> do the job just fine. The important thing is that all of these servers
> would be operated by different people. So lets say someone does not want a
> certain usenet group or messages on their server because they consider
> them as too right wing or too left wing or too whatever wing or they feel
> it's "hate speech" , etc. Not a problem. With so many servers the messages
> would still get transmitted between the people who are interested in them
> because there would be billions of different paths (passing through
> servers) between clients a message could follow. Now  *that's*  freedom of
> speech.
> 
> So where do you come in ? No , I'm not suggesting that you pay for all
> those servers out of your own pocket. What you can do is express publicly
> your interest and support for usenet. Coming from someone as well known as
> you , this already will have a large positive impact. It may be that this
> is all that is needed. The infrastructure already exists : there is news
> client and news server software for the usual desktop operating systems ,
> there exist both free and commercial servers running and more can be
> created whether one is primarily motivated by profit or the desire to
> offer a public service.
> 
> If you want to go further than that , you can announce a public competition
> for a new news client or a new news server with a prize for each of say
> 20,000 USD. That's not to say that there is anything wrong with already
> existing software but people get attracted to the new sexy thing and such
> new software , with the attendant publicity , would be the new sexy thing.
> I won't go into details of how such a competition could be run or what
> criteria should be used to rank the entries because it would make this too
> long and it would be a digression. The publicity would be more important
> than the precise rules of the competition anyway.
> 
> You could create a charity which runs news servers. Again , the main
> advantage of such a thing would be the publicity caused by the association
> with your name rather than having a few extra servers.
> 
> None of the above suggestions would cost more than thousands of USD. A lot
> cheaper than Twitter and they would do a lot more for freedom of speech. I
> will admit though that if your main goal in the endeavour is to make
> profit rather than enhance freedom of speech then a centralised medium
> offers more opportunity.
> 
> So these are my suggestions , I hope you will get to read them and give
> them some thought.
> 
> Finally , for your convenience here is a list of some usenet servers :
> news.aioe.org , news.cyber23.de , news.eternal-september.org (requires
> registration) , news2.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de (read only).
> 
> Best regards
> Spiros Bousbouras
> 

   Usenet doesn't belong to anybody ... ergo there's not
   much money in it. You can't buy it, you can't sell it,
   it's just an IP port number. It's also basically a
   text-only kind of media, very 70s/80s, and not even as
   interactive as those old 300-baud dial-up BBS systems.

   If Musk wants to BE somebody then he needs control of
   one or more large profit-making modern 'social media'
   sites.

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Thread

An open letter to Elon Musk Spiros Bousbouras <spibou@gmail.com> - 2022-07-21 01:41 +0000
  Re: An open letter to Elon Musk "25B.Z959" <25B.Z959@nada.net> - 2022-07-20 22:22 -0400
    Re: An open letter to Elon Musk not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2022-07-23 09:02 +1000
      Re: An open letter to Elon Musk "25B.Z959" <25B.Z959@nada.net> - 2022-07-23 00:15 -0400
      Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2022-07-23 09:01 +0100
        Re: An open letter to Elon Musk "25B.Z959" <25B.Z959@nada.net> - 2022-07-23 14:33 -0400
          Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2022-07-25 19:18 +0100
            Re: An open letter to Elon Musk "25B.Z959" <25B.Z959@nada.net> - 2022-07-25 23:15 -0400
      Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2022-07-23 11:39 +0100
      Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Spiros Bousbouras <spibou@gmail.com> - 2022-08-02 17:14 +0000
        Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2022-08-02 18:36 +0000
          Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2022-08-02 21:27 +0100
            Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Spiros Bousbouras <spibou@gmail.com> - 2022-08-03 12:44 +0000
              Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2022-08-03 16:26 +0100
                Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Jan van den Broek <balglaas@dds.nl> - 2022-08-03 18:35 +0000
                Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> - 2022-08-03 22:26 +0100
                Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Spiros Bousbouras <spibou@gmail.com> - 2022-08-13 14:51 +0000
                Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2022-08-04 09:17 +0100
                Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Spiros Bousbouras <spibou@gmail.com> - 2022-08-14 12:47 +0000
                Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2022-08-14 14:17 +0100
                Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Spiros Bousbouras <spibou@gmail.com> - 2022-08-14 14:01 +0000
                Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Spiros Bousbouras <spibou@gmail.com> - 2022-08-13 14:42 +0000
                Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2022-08-13 21:25 +0100
                Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Spiros Bousbouras <spibou@gmail.com> - 2022-08-14 14:22 +0000
                Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2022-08-14 18:00 +0100
                Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Spiros Bousbouras <spibou@gmail.com> - 2022-08-14 18:13 +0000
                Re: An open letter to Elon Musk "25B.Z969" <25B.Z969@noda.net> - 2022-08-16 12:14 -0400
                Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Spiros Bousbouras <spibou@gmail.com> - 2022-08-16 18:15 +0000
                Re: An open letter to Elon Musk "25B.Z969" <25B.Z969@noda.net> - 2022-08-16 20:51 -0400
                Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2022-08-17 08:02 +0100
                Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2022-08-17 20:12 -0300
                Re: An open letter to Elon Musk kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) - 2022-08-18 02:15 +0000
                Re: An open letter to Elon Musk James Warren <jwwarren987@gmail.com> - 2022-09-05 19:50 -0300
              Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2022-08-03 15:27 +0000
    Re: An open letter to Elon Musk kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) - 2022-07-23 13:23 +0000
      Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Spiros Bousbouras <spibou@gmail.com> - 2022-08-02 17:31 +0000
        Re: An open letter to Elon Musk kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) - 2022-08-03 01:10 +0000
          Re: An open letter to Elon Musk "25B.Z969" <25B.Z969@noda.net> - 2022-08-02 22:34 -0400
            Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Spiros Bousbouras <spibou@gmail.com> - 2022-08-03 13:04 +0000
              Re: An open letter to Elon Musk "25B.Z969" <25B.Z969@noda.net> - 2022-08-04 00:05 -0400
                Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Spiros Bousbouras <spibou@gmail.com> - 2022-08-14 09:36 +0000
            Re: An open letter to Elon Musk kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) - 2022-08-05 23:40 +0000
              Re: An open letter to Elon Musk "25B.Z969" <25B.Z969@noda.net> - 2022-08-05 22:12 -0400
                Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2022-08-06 02:40 -0300
                Re: An open letter to Elon Musk kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) - 2022-08-06 18:09 +0000
                Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Spiros Bousbouras <spibou@gmail.com> - 2022-08-14 13:58 +0000
                Re: An open letter to Elon Musk kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) - 2022-08-14 17:22 +0000
                Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Spiros Bousbouras <spibou@gmail.com> - 2022-08-16 18:58 +0000
                Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Spiros Bousbouras <spibou@gmail.com> - 2022-08-16 19:10 +0000
                Re: An open letter to Elon Musk kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) - 2022-08-18 02:12 +0000
                Re: An open letter to Elon Musk kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) - 2022-08-18 02:11 +0000
                Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Spiros Bousbouras <spibou@gmail.com> - 2022-08-23 08:35 +0000
  Re: An open letter to Elon Musk "voyager55" <voyager55@none.none> - 2022-07-23 17:13 -0400
    Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Bud Spencer <bud@campo.verano.it> - 2022-07-24 00:50 +0300
      Re: An open letter to Elon Musk "voyager55" <voyager55@none.none> - 2022-07-24 12:14 -0400
        Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Bud Spencer <bud@campo.verano.it> - 2022-07-25 03:18 +0300
          Re: An open letter to Elon Musk "25B.Z959" <25B.Z959@nada.net> - 2022-07-24 22:26 -0400
            Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Bud Spencer <bud@campo.verano.it> - 2022-07-25 16:17 +0300
              Re: An open letter to Elon Musk "25B.Z959" <25B.Z959@nada.net> - 2022-07-25 09:49 -0400
                Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Bud Spencer <bud@campo.verano.it> - 2022-07-25 17:09 +0300
                Re: An open letter to Elon Musk "25B.Z959" <25B.Z959@nada.net> - 2022-07-25 23:01 -0400
    Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Spiros Bousbouras <spibou@gmail.com> - 2022-08-03 12:02 +0000
      Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Spiros Bousbouras <spibou@gmail.com> - 2022-08-14 15:09 +0000
  Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Y A <y000000000000@ya.ee> - 2023-02-11 08:13 -0800
    Re: An open letter to Elon Musk Spiros Bousbouras <spibou@gmail.com> - 2023-02-11 19:24 +0000

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