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Internet Filters - Libertarianism is Hate Speech?
John Deere asks: "Just went live with a libertarian web-based discussion site a few days ago and today one of our members posted that our news and political discussion site has been listed as a 'Hate Speech' site by SurfControl ("details)
Needless to say, some of our slacker members are now unable to access the site, due to blocks at their places of employment. Now, I don't mind our site being blocked by employers who want to keep their employees working instead of arguing objectivism vs. utilitarianism. It does concern me, however, that it appears to be quite easy to be listed as a 'Hate Speech' site, and not have much recourse. My questions are, has anyone been successful in changing the categorization of their site by one of these filtering services, from negative to neutral or positive? How much pressure was required and how long did it take?" It would be interesting to note how many GOP and Democratic sites are also listed under the same tag at SurfControl. I have a hard time seeing political discourse being listed as hate speech, but maybe this is a case of a single comment or post getting the entire site banned. Has anyone been able to negotiate a change of status with the various filtering services out there? If not, is there any legal way such changes can be forced by some form of arbitration or legal action?
"www.libertyforum.org/ is in our list and categorized as Hate Speech"
Seems like it's in there...
Ok ... assuming this wasn't an attempt at tongue-in-cheek humor ... please pay attention to the formatting.
The submitter, "John Deere", who is the libertarian and is quoted in italics, did not ask for legal recourse.
Cliff, the /. person who actually posted the question and in normal non-italicized text, mentioned legal action.
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Note that Cliff also mentioned arbitration, which might appeal to some libertarians as a non-governmental solution (though many libertarians rail against the term arbitration since it has come to be synonymous with "mandatory arbitration" as is used in many legal contracts to revoke a contractor's rights).
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Most Libertarians I know (and if I were to classify myself, I would probably be a moderate Libertarian ... but that in and of itself is an oxymoron to most people) are against government interfering in private life but are quite willing to have government be involved in law enforcement and regulating business. So even if "John Deere" had asked for a legal resolution, it would not have contradicted his Libertarian views.
See libertarian.org for more information. A very generalized summary would be:
Liberal = left-wing social and economic views
Libertarian = left-wing social views, right-wing economic views
Conservative = right-wing social and government views
Authoritarian = right-wing social views, left-wing economic views
Of course each group has moderates and radicals.
It is more productive to voice thoughtful opinions (reply) than to judge (moderate) others.
As an ex-SurfControl employee, let me tell you that the database engine doesn't list sites as blocked/unblocked depending on where you come from- but... (and this is why I'm posting anonymously) the servers are down more than they're up, and the data isn't always synchronized.
Thought you'd like to know.
Of course, it's only slander or libel if it's not true. Given that this site engages in holocaust denial and can't make up its mind whether Jews use the blood of gentiles in their baking, it's not at all clear that the site doesn't properly fit in the category `hate speech' on a voluntary, independent rating system.