PROJET AUTOBLOG


Richard Stallman's Political Notes

Site original : Richard Stallman's Political Notes

⇐ retour index

Forcing censorship

jeudi 15 juin 2017 à 02:00

France and the UK both want to force tech companies to impose censorship according to their specifications. This time the specific target is Islamist ideology, but the use of words such as "inflammatory" shows they aim to suppress more.

They also want to work together to abolish privacy of communications world-wide.

Once privacy and freedom of speech are rejected as principles, what target will be next? Corbyn? Quoting Aneuran Bevan? Will saying that global heating is likely to kill billions of people, and that the victims have the right to fight to prevent killing them, be forbidden too?

There could be one good effect. Since global heating denial promotes mass murder, that too could be censored. Austerity policies kill far more people, in the US and UK, than terrorism. (It may not be true in France because it is not so right-wing — but Macron may establish that.) If publications arguing for austerity and neoliberalism were banned, it might become more difficult to radicalize people to become Tories or Republicans.

Even so, I am still opposed to censorship. Respecting freedom of speech includes letting people say things that we despise.