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My local app keeps hiding posts about the new apartment build. Thoughts? | Digital Free Speech Battles - Free To Speak

My local app keeps hiding posts about the new apartment build. Thoughts?

I use this neighborhood app to stay in touch with folks around here, and it's usually great for sharing news. Right now, there's a hot topic about a big apartment complex going up near the old school. People are posting their likes and dislikes, but I've seen a bunch of comments against the build get taken down overnight. The app team says they break rules on 'bad talk', but some were just plain facts or worries about traffic. It really seems like they're muffling one side of the chat. I wrote to them twice and got back a robot answer about their policy. Isn't this app meant for open talk? How do we push back when mods erase stuff that should be heard? I'd appreciate any tips from you all!

4 comments

4 Comments

henry_fox6mo ago

Facebook did the same thing with local town groups when developers moved in. These platforms quietly pick sides while hiding behind content rules. Why are we always stuck arguing with a robot about what counts as free speech?

singh.cole6mo ago

My inner monologue argues with robots enough already.

mark_ward6mo ago

Argue with my smart fridge about what counts as a vegetable (spoiler: it thinks ketchup is a fruit), and now I'm doing it with social media too. These companies pretend to be neutral, but their rules always seem to favor someone with money. We end up pleading our case to an algorithm that has no clue about local issues. It turns free speech into a technical problem to solve, not a right to protect. And the worst part is, I catch myself getting mad at a piece of code more often than at actual people. Maybe we've all just accepted that robots are the new town hall moderators, even though they're terrible at it.

aaron8546mo ago

My town's Facebook group got locked last month over a debate on new stop signs. The bot flagged it as "local politics" and shut it down. Henry_Fox is right, it's always about the rules protecting someone's money, not the talk. We weren't yelling, just trying to figure out a safety fix. Now we can't even post about the bake sale. The robot picked a side by doing nothing.