2022/4/18
The following is from an article by Shohei Osawa, CEO of "Daisy," a former associate professor at the University of Tokyo, titled "The flag is freedom and realism, Japan's first conservative social networking service SAKURA," which appeared in the monthly magazine WiLL on November 26, 2021.
It is a must-read for the Japanese people and people around the world.
The emphasis in the text is mine, except for the headline.
A new media to counter biased mass media and dictatorial social networking sites has been born.
Lies or Truth?
The past year has been a turning point for the media.
It all started with the U.S. presidential election.
In response to the "anti-Trump" movement in Existing newspapers and TV, Trump supporters launched a "pro-Trump, anti-Biden" campaign, mainly on the Internet.
As you know, the presidential election ended with Trump's defeat. However, even after the polls closed, there was still a simmering suspicion that the Biden campaign manipulated the vote, the so-called "rigged election."
Amid this situation, Trump's social networking accounts (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube), which he had been insisting on allegedly rigging the election, were suddenly frozen by the companies running them for "sending out false rumors."
The social network account of the incumbent president of the United States was frozen by a private company dependent on Chinese capital.
And this was pursuing allegations surrounding the presidential election.
At the time, this event caused a stir around the world as an unprecedented crisis in democracy.
This chaos soon posed two challenges to social media.
First, how should the truthfulness of information, such as "lie or truth," be judged?
The second is how much freedom of expression should be allowed.
Political ideology makes these two questions even more difficult to answer.
For example, there is no doubt that the Asahi Shimbun's coverage of the comfort women is a "fabrication," a "lie," and a "hoax.
Because it reported something that "did not exist" as "did exist."
What about the statement that "President Trump is the greatest politician of all time"?
Trump supporters will nod their heads, and anti-Trumpers will argue desperately.
What is even more difficult to judge are "racist statements."
The receiver can interpret what is and what is not discriminatory in many ways.
In a society where political correctness is widespread, it is not uncommon to be labeled as "xenophobic" just for speaking about patriotism.
Depending on each person's position and ideology, what is accurate or false changes.
In informatics, these ambiguous concepts are collectively called "culture."
Since suppression of political statements would lead to the denial of culture, we need to be highly cautious.
However, Twitter and Facebook succumbed to some pressure and used the "forbidden" method.
As a result, they have caused a "political divide" in American society and worldwide.
This article continues.