7 ms·

Microsoft Bans “Offensive Language” from Skype

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
the_trapper 9y ago
What is up with the sudden intense push for all of this Orwellian censorship lately? Between this, Facebook, Google, and reddit trying to censor anything they deem to be wrongthink and the very hard push to deny American citizens their Second Amendment rights, I may have to consider purchasing some tin foil headgear. It's become open season on the Bill of Rights lately. It's starting to get more than just a little bit scary.
- Khaine 9y ago
  I think it was the election of Trump. Everyone expected Clinton to win. Most people in silicon valley and most costal elites (i.e. journalists) lean more to the left. I think there collective shock at the election result, combined with the fact that their services (i.e. facebook scandal, or how the media reported on trump) may have contributed to it have resulted into a doubling down on purging wrong think.
  - kapauldo 9y ago
    This is flimsy.
  - Khaine 9y ago
    To add to this. More and more people are living in bubbles of ideological similarity[1]. There isn't really an exchange of ideas anymore between people who have divergent views. These days it is between moderates and extremists on the same side, rarely against someone who opposes an idea. So when something happens that goes so against the grain, that is so shocking it demands a response you see the results like "trump derangement syndrome". Where everything bad the president does is hyped up far more than was under previous presidents, and every effort is made to return to the status quo. Not to say that Trump is a good president, far from it. But Barack Obama banned people from travelling from the same countries as Trump and there wasn't massive outrage, protest and court challenges. Societies are becoming more fragmented. Less and less are believing in the American dream or its equivalent and this is the outcome. I hope this isn't the start of the decline and decay and slow slide to irrelevance of the West like it was for so many past civilisations. [1] http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/09/30/i-can-tolerate-anything-except-the-outgroup/ http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/09/30/i-can-tolerate-anything...
- tmikaeld 9y ago
  Even here in Sweden, we have a new law that the goverment is trying to push through that will severely limit free speech. https://www.thelocal.se/20180313/opinion-proposed-law-change-threatens-to-erode-swedens-press-freedom https://www.thelocal.se/20180313/opinion-proposed-law-change... A movement trying to stop it: https://www.stoppagrundlagsandringen.com/ https://www.stoppagrundlagsandringen.com/ (In swedish)
- apple4ever 9y ago
  Its an attempt at shaming and shunning "wrongthink". They can't get much done via laws, or they feel its not enough. So people who think the "wrong" things need to be punished and ostracized from society. Its not going to go they way they think it is.
- emerged 9y ago
  Death throes of a dying ideology.
- ropeadopepope 9y ago
  Population control. That's not the hard question. The hard question is: what's the endgame? Why does every country in the western world want their citizens mute and unable to defend themselves?
the_one_forever 9y ago
We need to wait and watch. Let us see what official statements come from their spokesperson.
zaarn 9y ago
People are still using Skype?
- dingdongding 9y ago
  Yes. Microsoft employees still use Skype
bjpbakker 9y ago
> When investigating alleged violations of these Terms, Microsoft reserves the right to review Your Content in order to resolve the issue. This is actually the most scary part of it. Not only you give up your freedom of speech when using their services, but you grant MS the rights to actively review all your data. That includes all your documents, emails, skype calls, etc. Basically you give up any remaining online privacy regarding MS services.
- tenpies 9y ago
  And anyone who has ever moderated a community knows how frequently people get reporting for having a contrarian or unpopular opinions. This is ripe for abuse and setting a path for MS to castigate thoughtcrime.
versteegen 9y ago
Couldn't believe the headline, but wow, it's actually an understatement. Sharing "inappropriate content" including "for example ... offensive language" is banned from all Microsoft services. But from the context, it seems that by "offensive language" they mean hate speech. Maybe. Or anything they want.
3chelon 9y ago
Seems like a reasonable guy. His rants on gun rights are very well balanced. "Gun-free zones don't work," apparently.
- the_trapper 9y ago
  Are you being sarcastic? I can't tell. He's right, gun free zones don't work. Every school shooting in this country was in a gun free zone.
  - 3chelon 9y ago
    Yes, I'm being sarcastic. Most of the western world is a gun-free zone, and there are very very few shootings, except in the US, where there are apparently more guns than people. Only in the US would it be argued that taking away guns would result in more shootings.
    - the_trapper 9y ago
      That's because the issue is a lot more complicated than that. I'm going to make the assumption that you are not from the United States. In a lot of ways the United States is not like the rest of the western world. The right to bear arms was so important to our founding fathers that it is the Second Amendment to our Constitution (right after the guarantee of freedom of speech, religion, etc.). The fact that American colonists were so well armed is probably a major reason for their success during the American Revolution. The idea was that so long as we retained the right to bear arms we would be able to keep tyranny in check. History shows that calls for sweeping gun control are often a canary for planned authoritarian infringements upon our other rights. A lot of the gun statistics that are reported are quite misleading. For example, more than 60% of gun deaths in America are suicides. [1] I would suspect that the majority of these individuals would simply choose another means of suicide. From everything I have read our suicide rate is no worse than other similar developed nations. We also have a massive inner city gang homicide problem. No matter how many gun control laws we pass, these individuals will continue to obtain guns through illegal means. There are wide swaths of this country that are very rural and very remote. The police response times are over an hour in some parts of the country. Self defense via a firearm could actually be life saving. Additionally, as the recent Parkland shooting demonstrates, law enforcement is not guaranteed or even required to intervene to defend anyone from homicide. [1] - https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/09/upshot/gun-deaths-are-mostly-suicides.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/09/upshot/gun-deaths-are-mos...
us0r 9y ago
I thought Skype was now encrypted?
- panarky 9y ago
  What you want is end-to-end encryption, not just encryption between Microsoft and the client. Skype was rolling out end-to-end encryption using the Signal protocol, I don't know if everyone has it now. In any case, it's only available for voice not video, and you have to know to request a "private conversation" since it's not e2e encrypted by default. https://www.wired.com/story/skype-end-to-end-encryption-voice-text/ https://www.wired.com/story/skype-end-to-end-encryption-voic...
tsaoutourpants 9y ago
Article author here. Thanks for posting! Happy to answer any questions, although Microsoft's terms are perhaps self-explanatory.
cstrance 9y ago
What happens if I am writing a book and save a draft with office online that contains an expletive that might offend someone, would I loose all my content and work?

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

What is up with the sudden intense push for all of this Orwellian censorship lately? Between this, Facebook, Google, and reddit trying to censor anything they deem to be wrongthink and the very hard push to deny American citizens their Second Amendment rights, I may have to consider purchasing some tin foil headgear. It's become open season on the Bill of Rights lately. It's starting to get more than just a little bit scary.

Khaine 9y ago
I think it was the election of Trump. Everyone expected Clinton to win. Most people in silicon valley and most costal elites (i.e. journalists) lean more to the left. I think there collective shock at the election result, combined with the fact that their services (i.e. facebook scandal, or how the media reported on trump) may have contributed to it have resulted into a doubling down on purging wrong think.
- kapauldo 9y ago
  This is flimsy.
- Khaine 9y ago
  To add to this. More and more people are living in bubbles of ideological similarity[1]. There isn't really an exchange of ideas anymore between people who have divergent views. These days it is between moderates and extremists on the same side, rarely against someone who opposes an idea. So when something happens that goes so against the grain, that is so shocking it demands a response you see the results like "trump derangement syndrome". Where everything bad the president does is hyped up far more than was under previous presidents, and every effort is made to return to the status quo. Not to say that Trump is a good president, far from it. But Barack Obama banned people from travelling from the same countries as Trump and there wasn't massive outrage, protest and court challenges. Societies are becoming more fragmented. Less and less are believing in the American dream or its equivalent and this is the outcome. I hope this isn't the start of the decline and decay and slow slide to irrelevance of the West like it was for so many past civilisations. [1] http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/09/30/i-can-tolerate-anything-except-the-outgroup/ http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/09/30/i-can-tolerate-anything...
tmikaeld 9y ago
Even here in Sweden, we have a new law that the goverment is trying to push through that will severely limit free speech. https://www.thelocal.se/20180313/opinion-proposed-law-change-threatens-to-erode-swedens-press-freedom https://www.thelocal.se/20180313/opinion-proposed-law-change... A movement trying to stop it: https://www.stoppagrundlagsandringen.com/ https://www.stoppagrundlagsandringen.com/ (In swedish)
apple4ever 9y ago
Its an attempt at shaming and shunning "wrongthink". They can't get much done via laws, or they feel its not enough. So people who think the "wrong" things need to be punished and ostracized from society. Its not going to go they way they think it is.
emerged 9y ago
Death throes of a dying ideology.
ropeadopepope 9y ago
Population control. That's not the hard question. The hard question is: what's the endgame? Why does every country in the western world want their citizens mute and unable to defend themselves?

the_one_forever 9y ago

We need to wait and watch. Let us see what official statements come from their spokesperson.

zaarn 9y ago

People are still using Skype?

dingdongding 9y ago
Yes. Microsoft employees still use Skype

bjpbakker 9y ago

> When investigating alleged violations of these Terms, Microsoft reserves the right to review Your Content in order to resolve the issue. This is actually the most scary part of it. Not only you give up your freedom of speech when using their services, but you grant MS the rights to actively review all your data. That includes all your documents, emails, skype calls, etc. Basically you give up any remaining online privacy regarding MS services.

tenpies 9y ago
And anyone who has ever moderated a community knows how frequently people get reporting for having a contrarian or unpopular opinions. This is ripe for abuse and setting a path for MS to castigate thoughtcrime.

versteegen 9y ago

Couldn't believe the headline, but wow, it's actually an understatement. Sharing "inappropriate content" including "for example ... offensive language" is banned from all Microsoft services. But from the context, it seems that by "offensive language" they mean hate speech. Maybe. Or anything they want.

3chelon 9y ago

Seems like a reasonable guy. His rants on gun rights are very well balanced. "Gun-free zones don't work," apparently.

the_trapper 9y ago
Are you being sarcastic? I can't tell. He's right, gun free zones don't work. Every school shooting in this country was in a gun free zone.
- 3chelon 9y ago
  Yes, I'm being sarcastic. Most of the western world is a gun-free zone, and there are very very few shootings, except in the US, where there are apparently more guns than people. Only in the US would it be argued that taking away guns would result in more shootings.
  - the_trapper 9y ago
    That's because the issue is a lot more complicated than that. I'm going to make the assumption that you are not from the United States. In a lot of ways the United States is not like the rest of the western world. The right to bear arms was so important to our founding fathers that it is the Second Amendment to our Constitution (right after the guarantee of freedom of speech, religion, etc.). The fact that American colonists were so well armed is probably a major reason for their success during the American Revolution. The idea was that so long as we retained the right to bear arms we would be able to keep tyranny in check. History shows that calls for sweeping gun control are often a canary for planned authoritarian infringements upon our other rights. A lot of the gun statistics that are reported are quite misleading. For example, more than 60% of gun deaths in America are suicides. [1] I would suspect that the majority of these individuals would simply choose another means of suicide. From everything I have read our suicide rate is no worse than other similar developed nations. We also have a massive inner city gang homicide problem. No matter how many gun control laws we pass, these individuals will continue to obtain guns through illegal means. There are wide swaths of this country that are very rural and very remote. The police response times are over an hour in some parts of the country. Self defense via a firearm could actually be life saving. Additionally, as the recent Parkland shooting demonstrates, law enforcement is not guaranteed or even required to intervene to defend anyone from homicide. [1] - https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/09/upshot/gun-deaths-are-mostly-suicides.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/09/upshot/gun-deaths-are-mos...

us0r 9y ago

I thought Skype was now encrypted?

panarky 9y ago
What you want is end-to-end encryption, not just encryption between Microsoft and the client. Skype was rolling out end-to-end encryption using the Signal protocol, I don't know if everyone has it now. In any case, it's only available for voice not video, and you have to know to request a "private conversation" since it's not e2e encrypted by default. https://www.wired.com/story/skype-end-to-end-encryption-voice-text/ https://www.wired.com/story/skype-end-to-end-encryption-voic...

tsaoutourpants 9y ago

Article author here. Thanks for posting! Happy to answer any questions, although Microsoft's terms are perhaps self-explanatory.

cstrance 9y ago

What happens if I am writing a book and save a draft with office online that contains an expletive that might offend someone, would I loose all my content and work?