
The Fight Over Free Speech Online – The New Yorker - ehudla
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/08/28/the-fight-over-free-speech-online
======
nxsynonym
>Smith claims that his activism wasn’t doxing. “If these people are so proud
of their beliefs, then they shouldn’t have a problem with their communities
knowing their names,” he said last week.

I understand the need for justice, and I believe people do this with
(initially) good intentions - but it's witch hunting. The problem with trying
to dox/shame people it that things get out of hand very quickly and it's hard
to separate the truth from the justice mob mentality. The reddit/boston
bombing situation is a good example of this.

I also take issue with the need to expose peoples identities because of a
disagreement on political views. The people that demand exposing these
protesters in the name of justice are the same people who are paranoid about
big tech selling their private data without permission, and otherwise champion
privacy.

------
DarkKomunalec
"When private companies take down Web pages, it isn’t a First Amendment
violation, but it does enrage many on the right."

The right, and anyone who still remembers
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Akre#Whistleblower_lawsui...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Akre#Whistleblower_lawsuit)

But I'm sure the _current_ corporate gatekeepers of speech would never do such
a thing as silence reports they don't like.

Whoops: [http://gizmodo.com/5882102/mythbusters-was-banned-from-
talki...](http://gizmodo.com/5882102/mythbusters-was-banned-from-talking-
about-rfid-chips-because-credit-card-companies-are-little-weenies)

Well, 5 years is a long time to change their ways.

Whoops again:
[https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/06/business/media/cartoonist...](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/06/business/media/cartoonist-
fired-from-farm-news.html?mcubz=0)

But hey, I guess the people listening thought they were assholes, and showed
them the door: [https://xkcd.com/1357/](https://xkcd.com/1357/)

~~~
ehudla
Isn't there a world of difference between, say, blocking someone from
commenting on your blog, or even booting someone off twitter, and blocking
domain registration?

