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I’m sure our intrepid freedom of speech crusaders will be along to decry this any moment now!

deogeo 7y ago
I'll decry it - for the growing surveillance state that shows how difficult it's getting to anonymously protest, for the corporate-skewed use of police resources (I'm sure more serious crimes went under-investigated while they were busy doing DNA analysis on every piece of trash from the protest), and for the chilling effect of prosecuting on the mere basis of presence at a protest. There's always a chance protests will get out of hand, and few people would attend if merely being there resulted in being prosecuted for everything the protest as a whole did wrong. I also cried "censorship!" when 8chan got kicked off Cloudflare, when Facebook banned white nationalism, and when a cartoonist was fired from a rural newspaper after criticizing agribusiness. I hope this helps you to a less strawman-like view of free-speech crusaders.
- fzeroracer 7y ago
  The problem is that what garners the attention of said free-speech crusaders tends to be wildly unbalanced. The issues of FB banning white nationalism and 8chan being kicked off of cloudflare incited a massive thread and attention here on HN. Then you have stories like this one with the government itself engaging in very selective measures in attempt to censure people and it doesn't gain nearly the same amount of attention as it should. I've posted various similar stories here on HN and there is a very obvious slant towards what 'violations' of freedom of speech invoke a larger response here on HN or across the various tech communities.
  - deogeo 7y ago
    Are you sure they didn't get more attention from free-speech crusaders simply because they got more coverage in the media? Speaking for myself, I see stories of government prosecution used to stifle speech extremely rarely (unless we count every instance of the cops getting too rough with protestors). Which is not to say it happens rarely, it's just not reported on much. There's another aspect to this, I think. Cops have been arresting protesters for centuries - we've reached equilibrium there. But censorship by globe-spanning private companies is new, as is the growing share of communication controlled by them. Which makes it scarier, and harder to predict if it'll get much worse in the coming decades.
dang 7y ago
Please don't post ideological flamebait to HN. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
LMYahooTFY 7y ago
This response seems ridiculously low effort, and doesn't even try to conform to HN guidelines. Can you elaborate any more on "free speech crusaders" and why whoever you think they are deserve only your disdain and dismissal? I'm actually not clear on why it's relevant.

I'll decry it - for the growing surveillance state that shows how difficult it's getting to anonymously protest, for the corporate-skewed use of police resources (I'm sure more serious crimes went under-investigated while they were busy doing DNA analysis on every piece of trash from the protest), and for the chilling effect of prosecuting on the mere basis of presence at a protest. There's always a chance protests will get out of hand, and few people would attend if merely being there resulted in being prosecuted for everything the protest as a whole did wrong. I also cried "censorship!" when 8chan got kicked off Cloudflare, when Facebook banned white nationalism, and when a cartoonist was fired from a rural newspaper after criticizing agribusiness. I hope this helps you to a less strawman-like view of free-speech crusaders.

fzeroracer 7y ago
The problem is that what garners the attention of said free-speech crusaders tends to be wildly unbalanced. The issues of FB banning white nationalism and 8chan being kicked off of cloudflare incited a massive thread and attention here on HN. Then you have stories like this one with the government itself engaging in very selective measures in attempt to censure people and it doesn't gain nearly the same amount of attention as it should. I've posted various similar stories here on HN and there is a very obvious slant towards what 'violations' of freedom of speech invoke a larger response here on HN or across the various tech communities.
- deogeo 7y ago
  Are you sure they didn't get more attention from free-speech crusaders simply because they got more coverage in the media? Speaking for myself, I see stories of government prosecution used to stifle speech extremely rarely (unless we count every instance of the cops getting too rough with protestors). Which is not to say it happens rarely, it's just not reported on much. There's another aspect to this, I think. Cops have been arresting protesters for centuries - we've reached equilibrium there. But censorship by globe-spanning private companies is new, as is the growing share of communication controlled by them. Which makes it scarier, and harder to predict if it'll get much worse in the coming decades.

dang 7y ago

Please don't post ideological flamebait to HN. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

LMYahooTFY 7y ago

This response seems ridiculously low effort, and doesn't even try to conform to HN guidelines. Can you elaborate any more on "free speech crusaders" and why whoever you think they are deserve only your disdain and dismissal? I'm actually not clear on why it's relevant.