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A comment on UK government’s plans to regulate the internet are a threat to free speech. Parent comment

Re:UK government’s plans to regulate the internet are a thre... by pjc50 on Thursday September 17, 2020 @12:13PM (#24506445)
> Can you imagine a successful doctor or a business owner being seriously offended because someone on the Internet called them a bad word?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Chiropractic_Associati... : a journalist questioning some of the "alternative medicine" claims of chiropractors got them so offended they tried to sue him into silence.

https://nypost.com/2019/12/31/alex-jones-to-pay-100k-in-sand... : as a father, would you describe the fathers of the Sandy Hook victims as "insecure"?

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Re:UK government’s plans to regulate the internet are a thre... by john_moscow on Thursday September 17, 2020 @12:18PM (#24506531)
I think, it would be fair to distinguish actually being offended, vs. using it to get a tangible financial gain.

To answer your last question, as a father I wouldn't be offended by someone spreading misinformation. I wouldn't try to police random 4channers talking whatever they want. But I would consider it just morally wrong for someone to profit from spreading it and, I would use the legal system to stop them, if it makes any sense.

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Re:UK government’s plans to regulate the internet are a thre... by pjc50 on Thursday September 17, 2020 @12:22PM (#24506574)
> distinguish actually being offended

... how?

(There's the "reasonable person would find this offensive" test, which appears in various places, but libel is specifically about reputational injury)

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Re:UK government’s plans to regulate the internet are a thre... by dlkf on Thursday September 17, 2020 @01:16PM (#24507275)
OP said "successful doctor", it's unclear how chiropractors are relevant.
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Re:UK government’s plans to regulate the internet are a thre... by nybble41 on Thursday September 17, 2020 @06:09PM (#24510582)
OP also said "or a business owner". The "alternative medicine" types may not be credible doctors but at least some of them do know how to run a successful business. (And just to be fair, some chiropractors are proper doctors specializing in musculoskeletal issues and not trying to push chiropractic treatments as cure-all alternatives to mainstream medicine. As they say, it's the 99% that give the 1% a bad name….)
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Re:UK government’s plans to regulate the internet are a thre... by yakshaving_jgt on Thursday September 17, 2020 @02:05PM (#24507909)
Quacks can be wildly successful too.
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Re:UK government’s plans to regulate the internet are a thre... by idle_zealot on Thursday September 17, 2020 @03:31PM (#24508918)
It's the "doctor" part that's missing.
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