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There is a major difference between censorship and moderation though that is frequently conflated. Censorship is blocking/removing speech as judged by its cont
by headsoup 4y ago
There is a major difference between censorship and moderation though that is frequently conflated.
Censorship is blocking/removing speech as judged by its content.
Moderation is warning/removing participants based on their behaviour.
They're not mutually exclusive of course, but it's frustrating to see moderation projected as Big Brother, when it's actually an extremely useful and necessary too for civil discourse. Moderation can be very effective without making any decisions about speech content.
- xedrac 4y agoThe line between moderation and censorship is rather subjective to the moderator's own biases, don't you think? I'm not saying we should be free of moderation, just that it's very difficult to keep it completely objective, especially if there's any politics involved.
- headsoup 4y agoNot really. Perhaps slightly in how 'rude' you let people be, but none of that is censoring ideas or thoughts. This comes down to the moderator I guess, an assumption is that they know how to distinguish the two.
- cortesoft 4y agoThere are people who think any moderation is censorship. The problems usually are based around where to draw the line, and the categories of content that should be moderated. If you cuss someone out on HackerNews, you will have your comment removed. Some people call that moderation, some people call it censorship.
- JAlexoid 4y agoThere's literally censorship on HN, under your own definition. Also content moderation is quite literally censorship - deeming which expressions(which are actions) are appropriate and removing inappropriate.