The Terrifying Power of Internet Censors

Re:The Terrifying Power of Internet Censors by flowctrl on Wednesday September 13, 2017 @04:28PM (#15242275)

Hate speech is a special category of speech, and is treated as such in the legal systems of many countries (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech). It has and does lead to violence toward the groups to which the hate speech is directed. The legal system in the USA fails to acknowledge this fact, and one of the consequences is racial violence.

Cloudflare, ISPs, and other companies or non-governmental entities should not be obligated to enable or allow hate speech via the services that they provide. Haters should have to bear the full cost and social consequences of propagating their message.

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Re:The Terrifying Power of Internet Censors by MSDOStoevsky on Wednesday September 13, 2017 @04:38PM (#15242382)

As is evidential within that wikipedia links's first paragraph, there are different definitions of "hate speech," and its difficult to properly regulate. Above that, the US has a long tradition of upholding the liberal values of philosophers John Locke, and John Stuart Mill. And the latter even argues that it is unethical to limit things considered as hate speech. Its not necessarily a failing, it is by design.

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