Comment 'Not Censorship': Confusion with First Amendment (Score 3, Insightful) 262
Many (American) people believe that because the First Amendment only restricts Government censorship then there is no such thing as 'private censorship'. They're wrong. 'Censorship' by a private company remains censorship, it just isn't unconstitutional...
As various posters have pointed out, the word censor basically means something along the lines of: 'to examine books etc for the purpose of suppressing parts deemed objectionable on moral, political or other grounds'.
Thus, if in my ISP's chatroom, I criticise the company and its level of service, and that company deliberately deletes my posts, then I have been censored.
The fact that this is probably entirely lawful under my terms of service does not alter the fact that it is censorship.
The fact that this is not absolute (I can repost my comments elsewhere) does not alter the fact that it is censorship. (Censorship is almost never absolute. Texts censored by the Soviet Union would still pop up, printed and distributed illegally.)
This has been a brief digression on the subject of private censorship. I make no comment on the google-adwords thing (because I can't access the freakin' website as it's been slashdotted (but not censored)).
Nick
As various posters have pointed out, the word censor basically means something along the lines of: 'to examine books etc for the purpose of suppressing parts deemed objectionable on moral, political or other grounds'.
Thus, if in my ISP's chatroom, I criticise the company and its level of service, and that company deliberately deletes my posts, then I have been censored.
The fact that this is probably entirely lawful under my terms of service does not alter the fact that it is censorship.
The fact that this is not absolute (I can repost my comments elsewhere) does not alter the fact that it is censorship. (Censorship is almost never absolute. Texts censored by the Soviet Union would still pop up, printed and distributed illegally.)
This has been a brief digression on the subject of private censorship. I make no comment on the google-adwords thing (because I can't access the freakin' website as it's been slashdotted (but not censored)).
Nick
