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Are you a censor if you own the platform?

You can't come into my print shop and print Nazi literature. Could you print it yourself? Sure. So I'm not preventing you from printing it - I'm preventing you from printing it on my equipment.

I.E - No, that's not censorship.



It is censorship, it's just that not all censorship is bad, and people should care more about the details than that the definition fits for a word they have knee-jerk reactions to.


"Censorship" always has a context.

When a government censors, it is (generally) saying "You may not say or print this in our society".

When a parent censors a child, they are generally saying "You may not say this within our family".

When a particular social group censors a member, they are saying "You cannot say this within our social group".

When a social media platform censors someone, they are saying "You may not say this (or anything else) on our platform".

One of these things is not like the others.


The parent and the government ones are similar because the censored individual can’t easily switch government or switch parents.

(And when the social media platform (google) owns not just the video site but also the search engine and the browser - it starts to move closer to the government/parent example.)


I'll grant both points. But ...

We traditionally grant children less rights (at least as far as self-determination) than adults, so this aspect is really in keeping with broader cultural norms.

And sure, the google.com/YT/chrome empire does move closer to the government example, but how much closer is a matter of some considerable debate. I'd argue not by much, but I know others would disagree.




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