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While Everyone Frets About State Censorship, Corporate Censorship Tightens The Noose

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

canopic jug writes:

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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Original Submission

• Re:How do we make the internet robust? Re:How do we make the internet robust? (Score: 3, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Thursday August 17 2017, @02:58AM (3 children)

  by hemocyanin (186) on Thursday August 17 2017, @02:58AM (#555094) Journal

  I disagree with your sentiments on the whole cake thing (*) but I modded you up. In the sphere of free speech, I'm hardcore pro because once we allow those we hate to be silenced, it is inevitable that our own haters will silence us.

  (*) When you use public services to run a business, you serve the public. Period.

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  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+1
  Insightful=1, Total=1
  Extra 'Insightful' Modifier		0
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		3

• Re:How do we make the internet robust? (Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Thursday August 17 2017, @09:50AM

  by Magic Oddball (3847) on Thursday August 17 2017, @09:50AM (#555200) Journal

  I agree. I think that a lot of people are forgetting that unlike conservatives, the fragmentation of "our" (American liberals) side means that it rarely manages to rally together enough to effectively pressure companies into things, and Big Business of any type tends to lean liberal for very long... Which means that any precedents being set now can and will be used in ways we won't like at some point in the future.

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• Re:How do we make the internet robust? Re:How do we make the internet robust? (Score: 2) by mcgrew on Thursday August 17 2017, @02:07PM (1 child)

  by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Thursday August 17 2017, @02:07PM (#555310) Homepage Journal

  Indeed. If a baker wishes to not bake gay wedding cakes, he should stop selling wedding cakes. Simple. If you don't like your boss' censorship, well, unemployment is pretty low right now. Changing jobs is a lot easier than moving to a different country.

  --
  Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience

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  • Re:How do we make the internet robust? (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 17 2017, @05:30PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 17 2017, @05:30PM (#555448)

    All wedding cakes are gay.

    Parent