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Censorship in the form of moderation often makes sense for businesses seeking to maintain their properties. If I run a forum for car enthusiasts, I should be ab

Censorship in the form of moderation often makes sense for businesses seeking to maintain their properties. If I run a forum for car enthusiasts, I should be able to curate the community and limit discussions on locomotives. But what of the platforms that make my forum possible? The Cloudflares the protect from DDoS, the DigitalOceans that provide the servers, the ISPs that provide transit, the Facebooks that provide social media support? Should they have the freedom to decide they don't like my forum and kick me off? I've come to believe that the more general purpose a service is and the more communication it controls, the more harmful the business's freedom to censor is for a free society.

tremon 6y ago
Should they have the freedom to decide they don't like my forum and kick me off? Yes. Their infrastructure is still private property, and you're using it to provide your own service. Similarly, if you rent a shop space in a food plaza and start a car mechanic's garage there, the owner of the food plaza will kick you out. That the government has a hard-on for monopolies doesn't change the fact that you're still building your service on private infrastructure.
- neckardt 6y ago
  _ Should they have the freedom to decide they don't like my forum and kick me off?_ I would say the opposite: No. While it might be _legal_ for them to kick me off, I don't think a private company should decide what I say on their platform. For example, should my ISP block websites of competing ISPs if they so choose? What about posting on Facebook that Comcast sucks, should I get my internet disabled for that?
- read_if_gay_ 6y ago
  > Similarly, if you rent a shop space in a food plaza and start a car mechanic's garage there, the owner of the food plaza will kick you out. I think a better analogy would be getting kicked out for serving food that the plaza owner doesn't approve of.

tremon 6y ago

Should they have the freedom to decide they don't like my forum and kick me off? Yes. Their infrastructure is still private property, and you're using it to provide your own service. Similarly, if you rent a shop space in a food plaza and start a car mechanic's garage there, the owner of the food plaza will kick you out. That the government has a hard-on for monopolies doesn't change the fact that you're still building your service on private infrastructure.

neckardt 6y ago
_ Should they have the freedom to decide they don't like my forum and kick me off?_ I would say the opposite: No. While it might be _legal_ for them to kick me off, I don't think a private company should decide what I say on their platform. For example, should my ISP block websites of competing ISPs if they so choose? What about posting on Facebook that Comcast sucks, should I get my internet disabled for that?
read_if_gay_ 6y ago
> Similarly, if you rent a shop space in a food plaza and start a car mechanic's garage there, the owner of the food plaza will kick you out. I think a better analogy would be getting kicked out for serving food that the plaza owner doesn't approve of.