Posts tagged “censorship”
I don't like 4chan, but AT&T has no right to censor it. Starting with a cesspool is shrewd -- it won't find many defenders -- but this is an opening shot in the network neutrality war. AT&T is a pipe. It should act like one, or face my lost business and a lawsuit.
I spent the weekend being antisocial and exhausted. Also, I posted an "illegal" number: 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0. The MPAA is trying to suppress it, Digg revolted, and I explore what happens when you empower users enough to destroy your own site.
Holocaust denial laws are misguided. Jailing David Irving for 17-year-old statements he already retracted highlights the absurdity: we're criminalizing specific speech rather than racism itself. You can't selectively ban one form of hate speech without appearing hypocritical, especially given our defense of the Muhammad cartoons as free expression.
The Bush administration is going after porn, which surprises no one who remembers Ashcroft covering naked statues. My response: enjoy this portrait of Ashcroft made from pornographic images. Also, Wonkette is great and the Republibloggers criticizing it for gay jokes really need to check their irony detectors.
Right after I asked why geeks instinctively favor freedom of information, ESR published his hacker ethos confirming exactly that. Convenient. His proposed hacker logo leaves me cold though -- we need a cute, malleable mascot, not a corporate emblem. The glider pattern is clever but soulless.
Responding to Bob's comments on censorship: we can't make value judgements about information because we lack the context to predict what will prove useful, or to whom, or when. The SARS cover-up illustrates my point perfectly. Allow free flow of information; punish misuse instead.
I'm pulling the best comments from this censorship debate onto the main page where Google can find them. We're getting 1000 hits a day from people searching for "Carlton Cole rumours," and the conversation about freedom of information, slippery slopes, and gossip-as-virus is too good to hide.
I'm ambivalent but increasingly convinced we should attack Iraq now, before Saddam gets nukes. It's not about the reasons Bush gives (oil), and yes, innocents will die, but stopping a greater evil before it's inevitable seems worth it. I just hope Iraq can govern itself afterward.
The US government is now censoring scientific information to placate anti-abortion and pro-abstinence lobbies, on top of spying on citizens and trampling their rights. It's too horrifying to embellish. Land of the freaking free, indeed.
US networks are suppressing bin Laden's statement at White House request while simultaneously broadcasting counter-propaganda. That's state censorship, plain and simple. There's no obviously good outcome to any of this. War is such shit.
