(C) Alec Muffett's DropSafe blog.
Author Name: Alec Muffett
This story was originally published on allecmuffett.com. [1]
License: CC-BY-SA 3.0.[2]


Irregular Verbs for Censorship

2025-01-10 11:08:09+00:00

One of the greatest moments in British political comedy is from 1986’s Yes Prime Minister:

Bernard: That’s one of those irregular verbs, isn’t it? I give confidential security briefings. You leak. He has been charged under section 2a* of the Official Secrets Act

It’s a pressing issue that we lack clear terminology for censorship, because “only the state can censor”.

Perhaps we could use:

I publish blocklists of overt or suspected fascists and the people who follow them

You ban users for discussing particular topics, even without malicious intent

We downrank content that is potentially harmful, even if not actually illegal, in order to meet regulatory obligations

They censor criticism of the government and communication with, and descriptions of the oppression of, vulnerable peoples

The challenge is that there are so many diverse activities that are isomorphic to censorship nowadays. 🙁

[*] although it seems like the citation ought to be “Section 2 Part 1(a)”… but close enough.
[END]

[1] URL: https://alecmuffett.com/article/110856
[2] URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

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