Re:You can't censor away extremism or any other problem
by tablespoon on Friday March 12, 2021 @01:10PM
(#26438824)
>> Like most of these rants against "censorship" they skip over people's rights to restrict speech as a form of speech itself: there is no moral (or legal) right to give people you disagree with a forum or audience to express their view.
> Free expression is a moral right.
> And what is a platform anyway? A wordpress site? A twitter account? An IP address? A bank account? A megaphone? A street corner? A sign? How far are you willing to go to shut other people up because you disagree with them? ...
> By what principle is it wrong for the government to censor? Once you've answered that, please explain how that principle magically stops at the government.
Yeah, it's a moral right, but its implementation is more complicated than a lot of people want to acknowledge.
Is it censorship for you to refuse to wear a shirt that I give you with some slogan I agree with? No. Is it censorship for you to take down a yard sign with that slogan that I placed in your front yard? No. What if you allowed someone else to put up a yard sign that you agree with? Still no.
If literally one guy owns all the land in the world, is it censorship for him to control what signs get put up? Almost certainly.
No one's going to be able to give you a pithy principle that fits in an internet comment that tells you where the censorship/not censorship line is, given the huge grey areas between those extremes. This is an area where lots of interests need to be balanced, and where reasonable people can disagree.
> Free expression is a moral right.
> And what is a platform anyway? A wordpress site? A twitter account? An IP address? A bank account? A megaphone? A street corner? A sign? How far are you willing to go to shut other people up because you disagree with them? ...
> By what principle is it wrong for the government to censor? Once you've answered that, please explain how that principle magically stops at the government.
Yeah, it's a moral right, but its implementation is more complicated than a lot of people want to acknowledge.
Is it censorship for you to refuse to wear a shirt that I give you with some slogan I agree with? No. Is it censorship for you to take down a yard sign with that slogan that I placed in your front yard? No. What if you allowed someone else to put up a yard sign that you agree with? Still no.
If literally one guy owns all the land in the world, is it censorship for him to control what signs get put up? Almost certainly.
No one's going to be able to give you a pithy principle that fits in an internet comment that tells you where the censorship/not censorship line is, given the huge grey areas between those extremes. This is an area where lots of interests need to be balanced, and where reasonable people can disagree.