The Power Of Intermediaries To Silence Speech Online
from the forget-big-brother,-look-out-for-the-corporations dept
While plenty of people worry about the possibility of government censorship online, some are noticing that the real issue isn't with government censorship but the fact that various intermediaries, in the form of service and application providers have the power to make content disappear online -- and they are often being pressured to do so, even if it's perfectly legal. This means that various hosting companies or other services, such as MySpace and Facebook often have tremendous power to hide content that it dislikes (or that someone else convinces them they should take down).While the really egregious examples of taking down content are often brought to light by people complaining, it is a reminder that you might not really control all the content you think you control. This can be true even if you think you "control" your own domain. If the content is hosted by a service provider, often it can be convinced to pull down your content. While this should lead to more companies who promise not to get involved, there really are only a few who promote themselves that way (and it often gets even more difficult with laws that require "notice and takedown" such as the DMCA in the US). While this might not be a huge problem for most people, it is worth remembering how much power these various intermediaries may have over what you consider to be "your" content.
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Filed Under: free speech, intermediaries
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Streisand effect
Word eventually gets out, even in china ....
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Google Does It!
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Re: Google Does It!
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Can I suggest you try Google Webmaster Tools to see where your issues lie (if indeed they're not in your paranoid little mind)?
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Don't know about the other ones, but we use ref=nofollow on links on Techdirt to keep folks who are spamming the comments from getting any Google juice.
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And get over your nutcase conspiracy theories. Your site isn't indexed because there are better ones out there. Google is anti-conservative? Check out what they show for scragged or newsbusters.
BTW, your site is crap. Learn something about building a website before you start going off about Google's shortcomings.
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Your kidding, right? I'm all for free speech, but hate mongering is the tool of the ignorant.
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Casting aspersions on a political opponent is a prime TOOL of the Loony Liberal Left. When they have no logical retort Name Calling is the preferred option.
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As a matter of fact, I think both side of political spectrum are loonies. Destroying civil liberties, war-mongering, setting up vast inefficient social welfare system, and providing monopolies are all the work of a government inhabited by these so called liberals and conservatives.
Good intentions? Yes. Good results? No.
Let me know when the government decided to move to small government, reviews and created a uniform system of law, and do other really good political reforms.(And no, election funding reforms doesn't count.)
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Re: Google Does It!
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webpagesthatsuck.com
Two resources that I think would help you understand why your site is seen the way it is by the rest of the Internet.
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Yep google does it
So what make this hate speech, the fact that it's the truth?
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free speech
The United States Constitution has been twisted, deformed, mangled, and misquoted for so long now that most Americans have no idea what the bill of rights says anymore.
We can all thank the ACLU for protecting rights that don't exist by convincing the courts that they do. We can thank the ACLU for not fighting for the rights of those in the minority and only going after high profile cases.
Posting a photograph is NOT FREE SPEECH! It's POSTING A PHOTOGRAPH!
Please stop adding things to the bill of rights! Stop changing the definitions! But most of all, stop the damn crying because someone didn't like your stupid ass picture.
Grow the hell up ya damn sissy!!! (free SPEECH in action)
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free speech
My opinion is that speech should be protected absolutely. Anything short of that will be abused. Speech almost never hurts people, unless it is an immediate and direct endangerment or threat, and even then if there is an opportunity to counter it, it should be protected. That includes hate speech. That includes illegal pornography. And yes, it includes violent images. As long as they are not forced upon you, and you can block them, and refuse to look at and listen to them, they should be allowed.
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blurry lines
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Re: blurry lines
Those who have free speech have printing press still ring true. So get yourself a webhost or something. Than you can have rave and rant all you want.
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They all do it and it all has to do with the bucks involved...
With affiliate programs such as Google AdSense or even a "smaller" program driving the vision of creating a direct a stream of income available to all willing participants, pages generated by algorithms, spreadsheets or whatever else people use to divert pay-per-click traffic their way do not have a place on the Internet...
except to serve up a whole slew of clutter designed to divert portions of pennies, nickles, dimes or whatever in such a flat manner that anyone wanting to enforce the policies involved with maintaining a fair Pay Per Click Profit Program...
IF these affiliate programs truly want to keep intact their credibility with the advertisers in the first place...
And IF these various search engines want end-users to keep turning to their portals to perform searches...
They are obligated by their own desire to raise their corporate value to keep their servers "clean."
And whether or not there are algorithms grading political dissention via recording systems even TechDirt employs to ensure its not being used to abuse the masses, there are too many people jacking the stakes up higher and higher with the stuff that has nothing to do with political tension.
There are so many intermediaries because everyone wants to catch a penny or two being thrown into this particular fountain of funds while doing the least amount of work to maintain the flow of such a stream.
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