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This note from my paper's EIC is an interesting deconstruction of online debating, and the role of an editor/mod in said debates.
And I wanted to emphasize this bit, because so, so, so many people who use message boards as soapboxes or places to pick fights need to understand it:
Olsen complains his free speech rights are being infringed, but I disagree. He can walk up and down Winslow Way to his heart’s content railing against the "eco-jihad" and "eco-KKK," and postulating any theory he wants about the arson and other crimes. He can write whatever he likes on his own blog. But this newspaper does not have to provide him the platform.
Emphasis mine.
Folks, the only "free speech" rights on the Net are the right to own your own space and say what you want on it. And that assumes that you own everything that allows your space to appear on the Net--server, connectivity/ISP, etc. Any private owner of any media, whether online, broadcast or dead tree, has a right to determine what appears there. A responsibility, actually.
So the next time you're tempted to whine about censorship for being kicked out of a forum somewhere--or, given the reasonable people who usually read here, the next time you hear someone whining about that--bear in mind that free speech rights end where private property--including Web spaces--begins.
And I wanted to emphasize this bit, because so, so, so many people who use message boards as soapboxes or places to pick fights need to understand it:
Olsen complains his free speech rights are being infringed, but I disagree. He can walk up and down Winslow Way to his heart’s content railing against the "eco-jihad" and "eco-KKK," and postulating any theory he wants about the arson and other crimes. He can write whatever he likes on his own blog. But this newspaper does not have to provide him the platform.
Emphasis mine.
Folks, the only "free speech" rights on the Net are the right to own your own space and say what you want on it. And that assumes that you own everything that allows your space to appear on the Net--server, connectivity/ISP, etc. Any private owner of any media, whether online, broadcast or dead tree, has a right to determine what appears there. A responsibility, actually.
So the next time you're tempted to whine about censorship for being kicked out of a forum somewhere--or, given the reasonable people who usually read here, the next time you hear someone whining about that--bear in mind that free speech rights end where private property--including Web spaces--begins.
