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posted by cmn32480 on Wednesday August 16 2017, @06:49PM   Printer-friendly
from the it's-a-dirty-job dept.

Caitlin Johnstone writes in a blog post over at Medium that corporate censorship is ramping up while people are distracted by the menace of government censorship.

It is true that it is the most controversial and repulsive speech which is most severely in need of protection, and that a government which is granted the power to silence Nazis can be expected to use that power to silence political dissent. But there is no danger of this ever happening in the United States, because corporate censorship can be used to silence anti-establishment voices with far less pushback.

Egged on by the resurfacing of obnoxious and sometimes illegal groups, more groups are pushing for, and sometimes getting, full online silence from other voices. Those in power will have corporations do any of the dirty work that might generate push back.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 16 2017, @11:10PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 16 2017, @11:10PM (#555020)

    Could you point to examples of radical violent communist leftists being deplatformed by the right wing?

    Genuinely curious.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by hemocyanin on Thursday August 17 2017, @03:10AM (2 children)

    by hemocyanin (186) on Thursday August 17 2017, @03:10AM (#555102) Journal

    It's more the leftist views are being deplatformed to some degree by the Center-Right. It's right in TFA.

    In an article titled “Google Censors Block Access to CounterPunch and Other Progressive Sites,” CounterPunch reports that lefty outlets like itself and World Socialist Website have seen immense decreases in Google traffic due to the search engine’s new policies, as has the nonpartisan WikiLeaks.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 17 2017, @05:40AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 17 2017, @05:40AM (#555153)

      Maybe this daily stormer stuff is like a reverse "think of the children" by getting a nasty group to suffer the initial precedent. Then they can censor whatever and at worst say "woops, how'd that get on the list,just an oversight."

      • (Score: 2) by canopic jug on Thursday August 17 2017, @06:42AM

        by canopic jug (3949) Subscriber Badge on Thursday August 17 2017, @06:42AM (#555170) Journal

        Maybe this daily stormer stuff is like a reverse "think of the children" by getting a nasty group to suffer the initial precedent. Then they can censor whatever and at worst say "woops, how'd that get on the list,just an oversight."

        Yes. That was my interpretation of that article, too. However, as one who has been warning (elsewhere) of corporate censorship for about two decades, it's quite dangerous that we're leaving it for so late. With all the resurgence of Nazism, and its cousin Islam, the general public seems more blind than usual in this area.

        Some get it. Former politician Rick Falkvinge is another writer besides Caitlin Johnstone who sees the threat clearly. Actually it's not a threat any more it is materializing into actual harm already. A problemthe both note is that people seem happy to go along with corporate censorship even when the same level or targets would generate extreme pushback from governmnt censorship. He writes, When Europe outsources censorship to Facebook and Twitter, who upholds free speech? And where’s the outrage? [privateinternetaccess.com]. The key assertion many by corporate censors, and many fools, is that they claim it is voluntary association. Yes, in a perfect world it would be and people would walk away, voting with their feet and their wallets. However, here and now, for most people, it's not possbile to walk away and corporations like Faecebook can extort the population with impunity [theinquirer.net]. It will take large changes to get the corporations onto a proper leash.

        --
        Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 17 2017, @08:25AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 17 2017, @08:25AM (#555183)

    Not quite what you're looking for, but CPAC deplatformed Milo. I found that quite funny, because many of these people rightly complain when SJW morons get people deplatformed at universities, yet CPAC decides to do this to Milo because they found something he said offensive.