I have seen it time and time again and you probably have to.
Some idiot goes on a forum or a Facebook page or just the comment section from a blog and starts being a dick.
Like a massive dick. Just trolling and saying the most hateful things possible often with personal attacks.
So they get blocked, or their comments get deleted or they don't get published at all and they cry censorship.
Now a lot of people respond with "That's not censorship! It's like coming into someone's house and calling them names."
The comeback is often about how it's not private at all it's a public space and it is censorship.
Well there is an element of truth in the comeback.
It's still not censorship, but it's not someone's house, but that doesn't make it public either.
Here is a better analogy. Imagine a restaurant. You go in and you don't like the service or you don't like the food. What you can do is complain to the management and maybe even fellow diner at your table.
What you don't have the right to is 1. Disturb other people and 2. the right to stay inside.
What trolls often do is the equivalent of standing in the middle of the restaurant and screaming about how shit it is, or in other examples repeatedly being a creepy stalker to women in the restaurant. Now here's the thing; If you did that management can and would kick you out and maybe even ban you....and in the real world they would probably call the police if you kept trying to get in and be a creepy jerk. You have the right then to go to another restaurant and be a creepy jerk there...but probably the same thing would happen. Hell if you were following say a group of women having a conversation on the street you would probably have the police called on you. No one will physically stop you from saying things, but you will have consequences for saying them. Now if you said them in your house or your own restaurant no one would be able to do a damn thing about it (but if you were being a creepy jerk in your own restaurant you wouldn't get a lot of women coming back).
You can argue that deleting comments or threads is different because it's wiping out everything you wrote but that's a childish argument. This is the internet. There is a record of everything it isn't censorship it's more like....if you put graffiti on the restaurant the restaurant can clean it off but it knows that wouldn't have prevented anyone from taking a picture of the graffiti...but just because you put it up doesn't mean it has an automatic right to stay on their page forever. Basically if you can't get away with certain behaviour in a restaurant then you're not going to to get away with it on the internet.
Hell lets take an example of a real public space like a park, there are still rules. If you follow someone around the park screaming abuse at them you will get arrested. If you repeatedly follow and either harass or just follow like a creep a person you can get an injunction. If you graffiti an area it will be cleaned up and you may be fined. If you flash people on the street you will get arrested etc etc.
The point is censorship is only when the government is preventing you from speaking or writing about specific things even in the privacy of your own home. You are free do whatever you want in the real world but there are consequences and there are rules and there are other people who have the freedom to decide they don't give about what you want to say.
So lets stop comparing it to a home and compare it actual places in public like a restaurant. It's more accurate and maybe will get the point across better.
Some idiot goes on a forum or a Facebook page or just the comment section from a blog and starts being a dick.
Like a massive dick. Just trolling and saying the most hateful things possible often with personal attacks.
So they get blocked, or their comments get deleted or they don't get published at all and they cry censorship.
Now a lot of people respond with "That's not censorship! It's like coming into someone's house and calling them names."
The comeback is often about how it's not private at all it's a public space and it is censorship.
Well there is an element of truth in the comeback.
It's still not censorship, but it's not someone's house, but that doesn't make it public either.
Here is a better analogy. Imagine a restaurant. You go in and you don't like the service or you don't like the food. What you can do is complain to the management and maybe even fellow diner at your table.
What you don't have the right to is 1. Disturb other people and 2. the right to stay inside.
What trolls often do is the equivalent of standing in the middle of the restaurant and screaming about how shit it is, or in other examples repeatedly being a creepy stalker to women in the restaurant. Now here's the thing; If you did that management can and would kick you out and maybe even ban you....and in the real world they would probably call the police if you kept trying to get in and be a creepy jerk. You have the right then to go to another restaurant and be a creepy jerk there...but probably the same thing would happen. Hell if you were following say a group of women having a conversation on the street you would probably have the police called on you. No one will physically stop you from saying things, but you will have consequences for saying them. Now if you said them in your house or your own restaurant no one would be able to do a damn thing about it (but if you were being a creepy jerk in your own restaurant you wouldn't get a lot of women coming back).
You can argue that deleting comments or threads is different because it's wiping out everything you wrote but that's a childish argument. This is the internet. There is a record of everything it isn't censorship it's more like....if you put graffiti on the restaurant the restaurant can clean it off but it knows that wouldn't have prevented anyone from taking a picture of the graffiti...but just because you put it up doesn't mean it has an automatic right to stay on their page forever. Basically if you can't get away with certain behaviour in a restaurant then you're not going to to get away with it on the internet.
Hell lets take an example of a real public space like a park, there are still rules. If you follow someone around the park screaming abuse at them you will get arrested. If you repeatedly follow and either harass or just follow like a creep a person you can get an injunction. If you graffiti an area it will be cleaned up and you may be fined. If you flash people on the street you will get arrested etc etc.
The point is censorship is only when the government is preventing you from speaking or writing about specific things even in the privacy of your own home. You are free do whatever you want in the real world but there are consequences and there are rules and there are other people who have the freedom to decide they don't give about what you want to say.
So lets stop comparing it to a home and compare it actual places in public like a restaurant. It's more accurate and maybe will get the point across better.
No comments:
Post a Comment