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The Folder, Bits of History part II ...Privacy and moderation

Now back to the issue of moderation and censorship which I did not even touch in the first part. There's one basic rule on the internet. "Nothing is private." The second rule is, everything is logged and recorded. The social networks of today are private entities; the technical name for them is Intranets. simplified it's just a big large chat room with a sophisticated name. Its sole purpose is communication.

What about advertisers? If you think about it, they are communicating with you with the prospect of selling you a product. The advertisers pay good money to companies that are running social networks. Not all social networks are funded by advertisers. I am not going to get into the complexities of these companies. I do know how they work and function because as you know I worked in a company that was the backbone of the internet for many years.

There is no such thing as freedom of speech in these companies, not one. They may claim it to get people to join their networks but that doesn't mean freedom of speech exists. These companies have the sole right to determine what is published on their platforms and forums. They actually tell you this in their terms of service which many few people read. They might talk about privacy in a limited fashion but if you are using a social net or anything on the internet, it is not private in the absolute definition of the word.

If you want to communicate with somebody privately, pick up the phone. If you want to send something really private at least here in the United States you have the US Postal service, and even those methods are not absolutely private. Yeah, there are encryption programs and other gimmicks, but as we all know these "secured systems" can be hacked. Do not forget that law enforcement can also retrieve your supposedly private data.

This is why on the_folder and the Facebook group JWblue, we remind brothers and sisters and friends that in reality, nothing is absolutely private and what you may post end up at the wrong destination, with my 30 years of experience on the internet I still have difficulties and have landed myself into serious trouble. Some of you already know what that trouble is.

In general what you write a post on the internet may reflect some of your personality and it is true that many people hide who they are, but that is a minority, you could have the same individual hiding who they really are inside of a Kingdom Hall. The difference inside of a Kingdom Hall is that Jehovah's holy spirit will find them out and have them removed if they are doing the wrong thing and do not repent. You do not see that on the internet or on social media. Keep that in mind.

It is kind of fascinating because social media companies like Facebook have their rules known as TOS, and then Facebook groups or social media groups also have their rules which are basically rules of conduct and propriety.

So in summary, nothing is private, you do not have any freedom of speech rights, on Somes social Nets you are the product, and you have to post or communicate following rules of conduct, you may not like it, but that's the way it is. As I said I've been 30 years in this business and I am still learning. Have a great day.

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