managingcommunities.com — Patrick O'Keefe rebuts Associated Press article aimed at Community Managers: “‘Public’ online spaces don’t carry speech, rights.” Site publishers should determine policies, no "free" speech on private websites.
Jul 8, 2008 View in Crawl 4
bnpositiveJul 8, 2008
Interesting look at impact of moderation of communication and censorship. Is it the same thing? Is there a difference between publicly and privately owned space? Should there be?
beleyJul 8, 2008Submitter
Censorship is a part of life. We don't let our kids go to school with obscenities on their clothes. We don't allow nudity on broadcast television or profanities on the radio. All of that is government censorship. What a website owner does with their OWN website should be up to them. If they do not want to allow certain types of discussions, or certain words, it should be fully up to them to decide. There ARE places where profanity and nudity are allowed, so they are not completely censored by the government. It is just important to understand where it is okay for the government to step in and where they should leave well enough alone. I do not think it is the government's business to regulate how private business owners operate their businesses, so long as they are not violating existing laws.My kids don't have a choice when they go to school, and I don't want them seeing vulgar slogans or nudity while they are there. But they have a choice to visit a website (and I have a choice to block it). Website owners should have the freedom to allow or censor/restrict content at their discretion.