Deplatforming works. A few people follow to other sites, but most don't. It also becomes harder to attract new cultists if one is shut out of major services.
Yes, it is one of the methods used by Russian government to silence the opposition. Though the platforms are usually privately owned, they all 'independently' decide that some content can't be allowed on them.
This is not true. Russian government does not dictate FB and YouTube (which it does not own), and they would have to force ISPs to block these sites if they wanted to ban the content. I doubt ISPs would ban them themselves.
Do not be so fast with 'not true' claims. Russia has at least three social networks, each with audience bigger than russian audience of Facebook and Twitter combined. All three remove anti-putin groups, etc.
the third one is Moi Mir (https://my.mail.ru), an extension of by far the most popular email service in Russia. Mail.ru corporation actually owns all three of them.
VK absolutely does remove anti-putin groups and events. [1]
You can't attack other users on HN like this, regardless of how right you are or feel you are. Please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules. Burning this place down is not an option.
Edit: given that your recent comments have been this shockingly abusive:
... I've banned your account until we get some reason to believe that you want to use this site as intended. That level of abuse is deeply not ok.
No, I'm not siding with liars-fascists-traitors. We'd ban any account that posted this way. Being right doesn't give you any excuse to behave like this, and no matter how wrong your enemies are, it doesn't give you the right to destroy the commons. It's not in your own interest to do that either, but that's another story.
As has been so often quoted on HN, "The 'Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it." I see no reason for things to be different this time.
The ANTIFA CEO is sitting in his fortified command center underneath the Appalachian Mountains as we speak, cackling and torturing a Trump supporter to death for not calling xir by the proper pronouns. Our joke of a liberal government is doing nothing to eliminate this dangerous threat to our guns and precious, precious strip malls.
Luckily the difference in response is absolutely not emblematic of any serious structural issues in American policing, and we can all move on from this with no real reforms.
Yeah I live a few blocks away from where where ANTIFA was supposedly terrorizing and burning. The only danger to the public was the tear gas the police indiscriminately used and drifted into apartments and retirement homes. You are full of it.
I thought right-wingers respected private property rights? Surely you don't hold contradictory and illogical opinions, because the right also prides itself on "facts" and "logic?" Is this not true?
The facts of the war in Iraq were objectively bad. Should the media have hidden this to avoid accusations of bias? The problem is that the same critical coverage did not continue for Obama. Keep in mind too that all major outlets cheered the lead-up and start of the war - it's a big money spinner after all.
The incentives are all wrong. Tests are money spinners, so hospitals and clinics push them hard. Over-testing is usually associated with worse health outcomes. For example, nearly anyone who gets a full body scan has a few suspicious looking blobs. It's almost always nothing, but it results in unnecessary treatment or exploratory surgery while not actually saving many lives.
