One of these is not like the others. Not saing something, is not the same thing as actively stopping something from being said.Malisteen said:The New York Times isn't practicing censorship when it chooses not to print a letter sent to it, you aren't practicing censorship when you choose not to forward a chain letter to 10 of your friends, I'm not practicing censorship when I choose not to scream every thought that comes into my head stream of consciousness style while I'm walking down the street, and Anita isn't practicing censorship when she turns off youtube comments on her videos.
Anita isn't just not posting misogynist rants against herself, but categorically bans the posibility of those rants being said by others in a cerain context
Censorship is not just a "freedom of speech" issue. Governments that allow freedom of speech, still practice censorship.Malisteen said:A definition of censorship that would apply to those situations is meaninglessly broad. Part of freedom of speech is the freedom to choose what you don't say, what opinions you don't express in your own words or your own publications or spaces.
While the opposite of "being censored" would be "being able to speak freely", the informal concept of being able to speak freely is not the same thing as the legal concept of "Freedom of Speech", which has it's limits, and these limits are what censorship enforces.
Just as the government can censor obscenity, or hate speech, because that way of speaking freely is not protected by freedom of speech, likewise, individuals and corporations can censor their forums because that isn't protected by Freedom of Speech either.
You imagine that as if it would work like this: North Korea doesn't have Freedom of Sppech, therefore North Korea has censorship. The USA has freedom of speech, therefore the USA can't have censorship. Posting comments is not a Freedom of Spech issue, therefore banning comments can't be censorship.
"Censorship" is not a meaningless word, just because it's not the legal opposite of Freedom of Speech, it's still a useful phrase for all cases of communication being forcefully silenced, with or without violating freedom of speech.