GaneshaFish.com » censorship

Silly Redneck

jfischer1975 — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 13:36:57 +0000

Anyone with a law school education knows that state action is required before anyone can whine about having their free speech rights taken away. Well, okay — you can whine about it, but that’s about it. You can’t get a court to step in and fix your problem, unless some government entity is involved. Not to go too far off track here, but this is the whole idea behind the Constitution. It’s a big long list of the things that government isn’t supposed to do, and a really short list of what it *may* do.

Enough 1790′s background; let’s talk 2010. If you’re a redneck (this is not necessarily a requirement, but it helps), and you decide to publish a “newspaper” (not sure what else to call it) that describes your political ideas, don’t get all uppity if the local KFC won’t let you put it on the take-one-free rack, between the Auto Trader and the Keels and Wheels. It’s not a constitutional issue.

The scary part of this story is that you have to wade two thirds of the way into this Fox News article before they reveal that little tid bit to the reader who isn’t in the know. How many of those readers have the kind of attention span necessary to make it that far? More than likely, the majority start seeing red after reading the headline, and three sentences in, they’re sputtering some nonsense about “they’re ruinin’ are country” and clicking over to something more soothing. Gold star for journalistic integrity to Fox News on this one!

This article was originally posted on The Legal Satyricon

Facebook proves that its terms are not Free Speech friendly

jfischer1975 — Tue, 12 May 2009 11:44:52 +0000

Facebook has confirmed that they have removed two group pages belonging to holocaust deniers after receiving pressure from members of the public, including attorney Brian Cuban (brother of entrepreneur Mark Cuban).

A Facebook spokesperson explained that “if the discussion among [a group's] members degrades to the point of promoting hate or violence, despite whatever disclaimer the group description provides, we will take them down. This has happened in the past, especially when controversial groups are publicized.”

As a private organization, Facebook is certainly entitled to take these actions. It is unfortunate, however, that they find it necessary to do so. The “marketplace of ideas” is capable of labeling the members of these groups as asshats and rejecting their hate speech. Freedom means ignoring viewpoints you don’t agree with, not censoring them.

This story was originally published on The Legal Satyricon.

Obama Art Unveiling Suppressed

jfischer1975 — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:20:29 +0000

Artist Michael D’Antuono was scheduled to publicly unveil his painting (pictured below) in New York’s Union Square Park this morning, to commemorate Obama’s 100th day in office. However, due to “thousands of emails and phone calls; online blogs and other public commentary received in the first 48 hours following its release”, the event was canceled. (source)

Should this speech be suppressed? What do you think?

This story was originally published on The Legal Satyricon.

Protesting Censorship Down Under

jfischer1975 — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 21:00:15 +0000

Hackers hijacked Australia’s official online censorship board website to protest that agencies practices of filtering web content that hasn’t been ruled to be obscene. (source)

In case you can’t read the tiny text pictured above, here’s the message:

This site contains information about the boards that have the right to CONTROL YOUR FREEDOMZ. The Classification Board has the right to not just classify content (the name is an ELABORATE TRICK), but also the right to DECIDE WHAT IS AND ISNT APPROPRIATE and BAN CONTENT FROM THE PUBLIC. We are part of an ELABORATE DECEPTION from CHINA to CONTROL AND SHEEPIFY the NATION, to PROTECT THE CHILDREN. All opposers must HATE CHILDREN, and therefore must be KILLED WITH A LARGE MELONS during the PROSECUTION PARTIES IN SEPTEMBER. Come join our ALIEN SPACE PARTY.

This story was originally published on The Legal Satyricon.