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A comment on UK bans fake reviews and sneaky fees. Parent comment

Re:UK bans fake reviews and sneaky fees by cjs_ac on Sunday April 06, 2025 @06:52AM (#43600469)
The public square has always been controlled by private interests. Before the internet, public discourse occurred in newspapers and magazines. Coffeehouses and pubs were always privately-owned, and their proprietors and clientele-at-large determine what conduct and conversation is acceptable within.

Free speech absolutism isn't a real thing, you know: everyone has a set of ideas that they're not willing to listen to.

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Re:UK bans fake reviews and sneaky fees by like_any_other on Sunday April 06, 2025 @08:10AM (#43600864)
Coffeehouses and pubs weren't remotely as consolidated as social or traditional media, nor did they have as much power to regulate the speech of its patrons - not everything the patrons said was overheard or written down by the owner.

The nature of public discourse contained in newspapers and magazines hasn't changed. What has changed is that more and more of person-to-person communication is mediated.

> everyone has a set of ideas that they're not willing to listen to.

Yes. But are they choosing what they will listen to, or are they forced by law to have that choice made for them by a government-approved corporation?

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