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this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2023
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Malicious Compliance
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This is free speech. They get to say what they please. They are not free from the consequences of those words however. I, as a private citizen and not a governmental actor, can censor them.
I disagree, free speech means the right to express any opinions and ideas without censorship or restraint even if you find them offensive.
You said you will remove any comment that is transphobic and ban if "you make an egregiously off colour comment".
That is not free speech, and it's ok. Your instance, your rules.
They can say what they want without restraint or restriction. They are not free from the consequences of their words.
They can say what they like. We can ban them if we don't like it. That's how free speech works in a consequentialist society (modern Western society is a synthesis of consequentialism and contractualism).
Censor and banning opinions and ideas you don't like is anti free speech.
You were allowed to say it. I'm allowed to remove it. Welcome to the world. Don't like it? Leave.
But also: nobody in the world actually likes the idea of absolutist free speech. The founding fathers certainly didn't believe in such an idea.
Friend, I appreciate your mod efforts, and I support 100% what you're doing here.
Having said that, I think there is a misalignment in terms of free speech definitions.
What I think you're saying is that people are free to express themselves, and the government (in the U.S., Italy, Argentina, wherever) will not censor you for that. However, a consequence of that is that you can ban them. Fair enough.
But people are not referring to the free speech in the country, region or whether. They're specifically referring to the exercising of free speech in the community you are moderating. You're saying that "there is free speech here," then it follows that transphobic comments should be allowed (something I wouldn't like because fuck transphobes.) But since you remove comments that don't align with the community, then the community doesn't have free speech - and that's okay. I'm just referring to the contradiction: "you're allowed to say what you want, but I will ban you if you say this or that" - welp, that just means that "this or that" is not allowed.
I think that's what the other commenters are saying. They're not criticizing you for removing comments. They're calling out that removing comments (as a consequence of speech) and claiming that there is free speech, well no, technically it isn't.
Well yeah, but they expect people talking nonsense to get pummeled in the court of public opinion