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Censorship not related to government always strikes me as just complaining. Private entities, whether they be individuals or businesses should be free to determine what is an acceptable uses of their services, and what is not.

Do you allow any form of speech in your house or is your house a platform that censors speech?




I think comparisons between trillion dollar companies, counties, and houses make for weak arguments.

Counties can imprison or kill you for speaking incorrectly.

Companies? Only have the power to cause me trouble when they are oligopolies, e.g. big tech right now. It can be quite severe trouble, even if it isn’t literal imprisonment.

A house? I am aware that poverty (and being a minor) forces some people to live with abusive persons who can give them a choice of silence or homelessness. That kind of evil doesn’t scale up to affect everyone (perhaps if it did we might try harder to fix it?)


I think this specific case is a bit different, as Google sold the house (i.e. phone) to me, yet they want to retain control as if they were the owner.


The Play Store is not really part of the phone. The phone just has a client that connects to it.

If they deleted the apps already installed on your phone, then I'd agree.


A home is not a platform at all, let alone a public one open to everyone, anonymously and without needing an invitation. It's a personal and intimate place.


Most service platforms are not public, either, requiring, at minimum, a way to identify the content creator, even if only to the admins. While consuming the content may be anonymous, production is not. The platform itself is only acting as a publisher. In this specific instance, Google is n the wrong.

4chan, being the obvious exception, since content can be created anonymously.


Irrelevant nitpicking. So it's pseudonymous, there is no practical difference.


There’s a huge difference. The government has to let you speak. The corresponding duty on your part is that you won’t do harm (eg., shouting Fire, etC.)

That right, and duty, does not exist on a private platform that you don’t own. You are limited by the TOS and license that you, like most, willfully skip over. A private, non-government platform can tell you to STFU and Get Out and they don’t even need a reason, because it’s their platform.

You can easily set up your own free speech platform, but nobody is required to listen. That’s the main attraction of social media, a more-or-less guaranteed audience. At least until someone tells you to GTFO if you’re not hosting.


You must have replied to the wrong comment.




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