Discord has expanded its Hateful Conduct Policy to explicitly include prohibitions against misgendering and deadnaming in a policy update. Accompanying this policy update, Discord has also implemented a comprehensive warning system to enforce these guidelines effectively.

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[–] 85 points 2 years ago (1 child)

Conservatives screeching about being cancelled in three... two...

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  • [–] 25 points 2 years ago (17 children)

    No screeching. Just a sad realization that our 1st Amendment rights will slowly be whittled away by big-tech censorship. All while the unsophisticated masses (excited at the thought of a short-term culture war victory) cheer along the restriction of free expression.

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  • [–] [S] 96 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Everybody knows that these claims are bullshit. "1st Amendment rights" is the biggest dog whistle for bigots that they claim whenever their disrespectful conduct has consequences. You don't give a flying fuck about other people's "1st Amendment rights" when it isn't your racist, sexist or transphobic friends. Otherwise you'd be up in arms against book bans, but your kind cheers for them and every other effort to silence people you don't like.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    @squirrel

    @rtxn

    I'm actually a fairly progressive Bernie Sanders voter. I agree with Jon Stewart that the best cure for hate speech or more speech, rather than censorship. I am also against book bans for what it's worth.

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  • [–] 49 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    Regardless of your claimed allegiance, your interpretation of 1A is still incorrect.

    As a private entity, Discord is allowed to decide what content it permits and what it prohibits on its own platform. Especially in the case of online harrassment, a "let's talk it out" attitude will get you nowhere.

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  • [–] [S] 47 points 2 years ago

    Honestly, I don't care what you think you are. When you react to the news that there are consequences for transphobia with Fox News-style whining about the end of "freeze peach", says pretty much everything anyone needs to know about you: You are a hypocrite who is A-OK with transphobia, bullying and harassment, but attempts to hide the obvious behind a veneer of plausible deniability, ie. the usual slew of right-wing talking points. John Stewart, my ass.

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  • [–] 93 points 2 years ago*

    There it is.

    1A is irrelevant, it only protects against censorship by the government. Discord is a private entity, they can do whatever the hell they want on the platform they own. They aren't obligated to host your opinions, and neither are conservative outlets obligated to host liberal opinions. Get it right next time.

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  • [–] 57 points 2 years ago*

    dont even need to read past the first line, how many times do i have to say this for anyone like you to get it in your head

    THE FIRST AMENDMENT ONLY PROTECTS YOU FROM GOVERNMENT SILENCING

    no, discord, the private chat service, that you must agree to their terms to use is not a government service. they can ban you for whatever they fuck they want, and are not liable.

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  • [–] 46 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Please detail to me how discord, a private company, banning people who intentionally misgender or dead name others is a violation or the first amendment right in the United States?

    It doesn't say 'intentionally' as you've pointed out, but the wording is clear and pretty reinforced throughout the article, just below the following quote in the article is another 3 'targeted' explanations:

    "The update explicitly addresses behaviors considered violations of its hate speech policy, including targeted misgendering and deadnaming of transgender individuals."

    You can't say bomb in an airplane. You can't shout fire in a building. You can't shout removed in a Walmart. No one's saying you can't THINK whatever you feel like and SAY whatever you want in your own spaces, but you don't own discord or the plane or the building or the Walmart so you gotta follow other people's rules. Woe is you

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Wait - I’m out of the loop. What the heck happened at Walmart?

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  • [–] 35 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    what is it with kbin users and having the worst/most transphobic fucking takes?

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  • [–] 33 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Lmao are you governed by discord?

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago*

    Regardless of the first amendment rights or US law, centralised unfree communication silos do govern more information than government.

    The claim that private corporations shouldn't be subjected to the same ethical scrutiny (i.e: freedom of speech) as governments is invalidated once only very few people are exposed to other forms of communications than what these private corporations control.

    That being said, I am glad Discord is explictly banning the most obvious forms of transphobia. I will remind the privilaged white people here that none of these rules actually apply to most users on these platforms. Just go to any language or region where they won't/can't get sued or bad press.

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  • I won't deny that Big Tech and Media companies do undermine our freedom in many ways (things like weaponizing copyright and anti-repair or anti-circumvention laws), but this isn't an example of that, this is just Discord expanding on rules against hate speech and harassment which they already were against.

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  • [–] 62 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Oh good, so they plan to actually start enforcing their policies? Because I've never seen it happen, and I've reported users who explicity called for violence against LGBT+ people and black people.

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  • [–] [S] 27 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Yeah, I understand your scepticism. At least, they have a system in place for enforcement now. If they have the moderators to actually use it is a different question...

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  • [–] 34 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I was a moderator of a gaming server with 2k people. I quit modding and left the server over this.

    I've not once seen Discord enforce their policies. In fact, I can still look back in my DM history and see active users who have made clear and explicit threats with a side of slurs to black and LGBT+ people. No action whatsoever on their part, even though I did my diligence by reporting them.

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  • [+] 45 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 child)
  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Telling diet Nazis to go fuck themselves is an appropriate use of power, but any power can be abused. You have an underlying moral right to free expression. That's the reason behind the first amendment. It is not a gift from the state.

    What makes Discord's choice okay is freedom of association. Most people don't want to deal with diet Nazis. It is fine for most businesses to exclude diet Nazis, whether or not anyone asked them to.

    But nobody would tut 'Discord's not a government' if they'd banned trans-rights advocacy. And that's fine. There's no hypocrisy in it. You understand businesses can do harm, individually and in bulk, through their decisions. Silencing reasonable opinions, expressed politely, is almost always censorship we should fight. There's just nothing reasonable or polite about being a goddamn fascist.

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  • [–] 23 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Oh cool! Now, is that with Nitro or so we have to pay extra for it?

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Discord never had freedom of speech to begin with, but isn't this extreme? People should be able to say what they want privately in their own servers. Brigading and harassment in DMs is already banned.

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    [–] 5 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    I hope that doesn't include Twitter :D

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  • [–] 16 points 2 years ago (3 children)
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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    its not deadnaming when its a company

    s company does not deserve the same amount of basic respect an actual person does, nor does a company have the same rights

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