Suggestion to ban X Links

You know how I feel about censorship and the lengths I go to in avoiding banning people.

This is different, it’s not dissenting opinion, it’s fascist propaganda which needs to be rejected.

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Yes it is however a benign football link originating from there? Not applying too broad of a brush stroke?

I suppose the question is and I can see your concern as a site owner would be would it curate or skew an algorithm that someone from here clicks on towards that content & would it mark this site as something as being in cohesion or cahoots with that sort of right wing twaddle? There is an old maxim is print media in that ‘let your readers write the paper for you’ and all that social media in general has done has skewed it to the nth degree for the purposes of monetisation.

This forum really sits outside that ecosystem however so the odd link isn’t going to drive someone who clicks on it to wearing silly horns and raiding the whitehouse.

My instinct is to ban, not because the linked content specifically is problematic or risky, but because any traffic supports that fascist cunt Musk and facilitates the spread of the pond scum values of its owner. Anything that reduces traffic to that site is a good thing.

I’m still trying to decide what the best way forward is.

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Yeah that’s my view on it too. It’s not because its a “town square” with opinions different to mine. It’s because it’s not a town square. It’s a ludicrously powerful and rich arsehole’s soapbox/megaphone that’s there to help amplify his power and views.

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It’s also a website that’s being used to push through his agenda and very much being used to bring far right politics to the forefront and giving them a platform to share their views without repercussions. Clicks make money for him, as a whole, SFCU not posting links isn’t going to do much, but seeing that there’s a very large number of organisations doing the same, it’s now a sum of the parts, rather than, what can I do?

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Definitely ban links. Screen shot content if it’s not available elsewhere.

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These are all very good points however I can’t in good conscience support it as I consider all censorship a slippery slope.

Whilst social media platforms ( all of them ) have their own biases my overall point for this specific forum the political content that emanates from it would be very minimal to non existent however the football content that it hosts is still useful. And how a football link be considered political? The person posting it? Say if for example they had particular proclivities? So what? Are you clicking on it or on there profile? Are you influenced by it? Are they influencing anyone on this forum? Highlights are useful is all I’m saying regardless of where they are hosted.

I’ll go with whatever is decided however I couldn’t let this one go through to the keeper without putting in my two cents.

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We’re not saying the posting of it is political, we’re saying the owner of the website is political and very supportive of fascist policies and supporting him should be stopped. Think about the fact that Musk is already censoring a whole bunch of stuff on X and driving a whole bunch of other stuff. Essentially that platform is no longer about freedom of speech or anything else, it’s about driving a right wing agenda. Yes there are a few parts that are still useful, but considering there’s plenty of other free platforms, it’s not going to cost football writers to move anywhere else and shifting over should be a good driving force.

Slightly different if they had contractual obligations to post on X, but they really don’t.

The more engagement with football writers and content on other platforms, the better to justify it. This isnt like the TV rights discussion, every single one of us has the ability to like or comment a post on socials. This forum alone could increase ten-fold the engagement on for example, a joe gorman bluesky post.

As for X - musk has a vested interest in pushing it further and further down the toxic spiral it is already on. Cut it loose.

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One can always screen cap X posts.
Anyway on my phone I use stayfocused to block that URL and show the message “Musk is a bellend”.
I also use Cold Turkey on my work and home PCs to avoid procrastination-ey sites for most of the day, but stretch the Meta and X blocks to 24/7.

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Another vote for banning Twitter/X links.

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