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Re:Google deletes artist’s blog, a decade of his work by x0x0 on Friday July 15, 2016 @01:31PM (#12102565)
It's perfectly reasonable for Google to not wish to host drawings of naked children, nor sex stories about underage children. That isn't censorship.
Re:Google deletes artist’s blog, a decade of his work by clevernickname on Friday July 15, 2016 @01:39PM (#12102612)
>Censorship is the suppression of free speech, public communication or other information which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, politically incorrect or inconvenient as determined by governments, media outlets, authorities or other groups or institutions. Governments, private organizations and individuals may engage in censorship.

Sounds like censorship to me, just a socially acceptable form of it. The "only governments are capable of censorship because my understanding of the idea of freedom of speech deliberately stops at the First Amendment" meme needs to die.

Re:Google deletes artist’s blog, a decade of his work by pgwhalen on Friday July 15, 2016 @01:45PM (#12102659)
Meme? That's what freedom of speech is. It specifically has to do with the government. Censorship is a broader term, but don't invoke "free speech" if you don't want it to apply to the government case.
Re:Google deletes artist’s blog, a decade of his work by Karunamon on Friday July 15, 2016 @03:55PM (#12103414)
That's what freedom of speech is. It specifically has to do with the government.

No, it damn well is not.

Freedom of speech is the principle, the first amendment is the law. The law protects a principle our society has deemed important. The principle exists with or without a government.

Re:Google deletes artist’s blog, a decade of his work by Aaron1011 on Sunday July 24, 2016 @08:26PM (#12155711)
In this case, it certainly does only apply to the government. You can't force another person or entity to host your content - they're allowed to set whatever conditions they want to.
Re:Google deletes artist’s blog, a decade of his work by Karunamon on Monday July 25, 2016 @01:16AM (#12156604)
You can't force another person or entity to host your content

Which literally nobody here suggested that they should be obligated to do so. What's your point?

Re:Google deletes artist’s blog, a decade of his work by clevernickname on Friday July 15, 2016 @02:16PM (#12102829)
What use is the legal right to speech if your neighbors will bash your head in for it? Freedom of speech is not just the right, but also the idea of a society that tolerates it. This is what bothers me: Every time an internet corporation deletes someone's account for wrongthink, a herd of crypto-facists pops up to remind everyone that the First only pertains to government censorship (or even erroneously claim that only governments are capable of censorship). They are missing (and indeed proving) the point. The point is that they live in a society that encourages the limitation of expression, and that they are happy about this as long as they don't like the things being censored.
Re:Google deletes artist’s blog, a decade of his work by Grishnakh on Friday July 15, 2016 @04:04PM (#12103450)
In this (US) society, you can speak your mind just about all you want without worrying about the government sending jack-booted thugs to haul you away.

However, this does not mean that a private company is obligated to give you a free platform to disseminate your speech. You can go make yourself a sign and stand on a street corner if you want, but no one has an obligation to listen to you, or to help you spread your speech.

This is why the distinction about government censorship is so important. People like you seem to think that private entities have an obligation to host other peoples' speech. If some neo-Nazis knocked on your door and asked to post a bunch of their signs on your lawn, would you agree to it? It's only a problem when the government censors because there's only one government, and they have enforcers who can use deadly force. If a private party censors you by refusing to help air your views, you can go somewhere else, like a street corner, and you don't have to worry about going to jail or being shot.

Re:Google deletes artist’s blog, a decade of his work by Aaron1011 on Sunday July 24, 2016 @08:29PM (#12155717)
> It's only a problem when the government censors because there's only one government, and they have enforcers who can use deadly force.

I would add that it's also because the government can censor people when it otherwise wouldn't be involved - a person hosting a blog with a third party, for example. Ordinarily, only that third party gets to decide whether or not to provide a platform for your data.

Re:Google deletes artist’s blog, a decade of his work by paulcole on Friday July 15, 2016 @01:48PM (#12102677)
Just because it's reasonable doesn't mean it's not censorship.

Going a step further, there's nothing inherently wrong with censorship.

Re:Google deletes artist’s blog, a decade of his work by falcolas on Friday July 15, 2016 @02:31PM (#12102903)
> Going a step further, there's nothing inherently wrong with censorship.

So long as they're censoring the things you want them to censor. Of course, everybody would like something different to be censored, which is why it's better to err on the side of "no censorship". There's a reason librarians tend to fight against any form of censorship.

Re:Google deletes artist’s blog, a decade of his work by esrauch on Sunday July 17, 2016 @11:35AM (#12110474)
I think even the more politically minded librarians are OK with a private company deleting a blog that has child pornography images on it.
Re:Google deletes artist’s blog, a decade of his work by falcolas on Sunday July 17, 2016 @12:38PM (#12110714)
Unlikely, since if it was art (and not photographic porn), most of the librarians work in libraries with manga collections.
Re:Google deletes artist’s blog, a decade of his work by falcolas on Friday July 15, 2016 @02:39PM (#12102962)
Just because it's not mandated by the government does not mean that it is not censorship.

> Censorship: the system or practice of censoring books, movies, letters, etc.

> Censoring: to examine in order to suppress or delete anything considered objectionable

Re:Google deletes artist’s blog, a decade of his work by djsumdog on Friday July 15, 2016 @02:27PM (#12102887)
As a private company, yes they do. And the article even states people like the writer need to be educated about backing up their work and not trusting cloud storage alone.

On a side note though, if it's fictional stories and art involving under age people, that's actually legal (kinda/sorta/not tested often in court) in the US and Japan but not in most of Europe (including France).

For example: drawing of Bart fucking Lisa Simpson. Legal in the US (and if you argue it right, possibly not even a trademark violation under parody/satire -- depends on the judge really). In the UK, that exact drawing sent a man to prison and put him on the sex offender registry.

Re:Google deletes artist’s blog, a decade of his work by niroze on Friday July 15, 2016 @01:37PM (#12102600)
Exactly.