Censorship by intimidation

Topics: Civil Liberties
10 Sep 2010

From: Ervan Darnell

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Craiglist's recently removed their "adult services" section, apparently
because 17 state Attorneys General threatened them [1]. Never mind
Craiglist had the law on its side, the chance of losing, the (unfairly) bad
press that would result, or merely the cost of litigation cowered them into
surrender.

It's a sad day as yet another common carrier is censored and others will
likely fall as well.

Obviously, the AGs get to force you to pay their salary while they run
around harassing the innocent. So, the game is unbalanced from the start.

But more seriously, how do we hold accountable government prosecutors who
ignore their oaths by using intimidation to achieve outcomes likely
unavailable to them by direct legal process?

What happens when we combine this reasoning with campaign censorship (i.e.
"finance reform" as advocates disingenuously label it)? Currently that's
limited to corporations, but if common carriers are implicitly held
responsible for the content they carry, then private political blogs are
jeopardized as well.

-----------------------------

[1]
http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/10/all-you-did-was-weaken-a-country-today/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=FaceBook

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Craiglist's recently removed their "adult services" section, =
apparently because 17 state Attorneys General threatened them [1]. =A0Never=
mind Craiglist had the law on its side, the chance of losing, the (unfairl=
y) bad press that would result, or merely the cost of litigation cowered th=
em into surrender. =A0=A0

It's a sad day as yet another common carrier is censored=
and others will likely fall as well.
Obviously, the=
AGs get to force you to pay their salary while they run around harassing t=
he innocent. =A0So, the game is unbalanced from the start.

But more seriously, how do we hold accountable governme=
nt prosecutors who ignore their oaths by using intimidation to achieve outc=
omes likely unavailable to them by direct legal process?

What happens when we combine this reasoning with campaign censor=
ship (i.e. "finance reform" as advocates disingenuously label it)=
? =A0Currently that's limited to corporations, but if common carriers a=
re implicitly held responsible for the content they carry, then private pol=
itical blogs are jeopardized as well.

-----------------------------
=
[1]=A0 country-today/?utm_source feedburner&utm_medium feed&utm_campai=
gn Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content FaceBook">http:/=
/techcrunch.com/2010/09/10/all-you-did-was-weaken-a-country-today/?utm_sour=
ce feedburner&utm_medium feed&utm_campaign Feed%3A+Techcrunch=
+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content FaceBook





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