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The worst thing about censorship is..*censored*

Every now and then I can’t resist it. I know I shouldn’t, but I am a weak, fallible human. Sometimes I just cannot resist the temptation to post an online comment on some news story or another. I know I am really only going to be read by other politically obsessed loonies like me. I know I’m likely to be censored, but still I do it. Sometimes the results, even of the censorship, can be quite amusing. I now make a point of taking a screen shot when my efforts are rejected. Here are some recent posts of mine that have been judged by the Al Gore-rhythm has deemed too dangerous to be posted. 

The first is a very brief comment making the point that the BBC doesn’t recognise its own bias because its bias is culturally ingrained. This, oddly, was judged to be “profanity”. 

Next, I commented on a story about a demand for the return of the body of an Abyssinian/Ethiopian prince who was brought to live, and spent the rest of his short life in Britain, after the remarkable Abyssinia campaign of 1868. I was merely remarking that the Ethiopian royal family are the ones with a real claim on his remains. This, it seems, was “hate speech”. 

Next, comes an American example. I was moved to post what I thought was a rather ordinary joke about a story referencing Michelle Obama’s fruit juices. It turned out this, also, was hate speech.

I did manage to post that I’d tried to post a joke, and that it had been censored. Someone else replied that he doubted the article’s own headline would get past the Al Gore-rhythm. So I tried it out and cut and pasted the headline into a comment, without any other addition, sure enough…

At least I could be sure it wasn’t personal animus driving the censorship. Still, it does show the sheer lunacy of the “freedom of speech” allowed on MSM sites. 

Finally, an example of sheer fantasy. I was moved to comment on a story about the plans to (again) lower the standards of the legendary “Knowledge” that those who wish to get a licence to drive an iconic London Black Taxi must pass. They used to have to learn 468 “runs”, or routes from one place to another in central London, that was dropped to 320 a while back. There is talk of the bar being lowered again. I thought this might be a suitable story for my little fantasy of London as Mordor, and so I posted this…

“Bullying and harassment”? Who was I bullying and harassing? The whole population of the God forsaken boil on England’s bum that is London? All 9 million of them? Well, I take a perverse pride in that.

I’ve played this for laughs, obviously, as is my habit, but there is a real serious point here. If views and opinions can be rendered invisible for giving such microscopic offence, the the whole public debate is skewed.

6 replies on “The worst thing about censorship is..*censored*”

I think they are now just blocking anything you write that isn’t yes, I agree.

I get their algorithm doesn’t even look at the sentence. Just picks and chooses. Any comment about Ethiopians is probably flagged to start as potentially racist, just because.
And as far as the headline being flagged when you typed it, well the rules only apply to the pee-ons not the pee-ers.
Do you ever get anything through the door?

I do get probably more than half my posts through. I did used to edit a post to see if I could get it through, without changing the meaning. I have found Yoda speak can be helpful. I don’t do this so much now, I’m a bit more fire and forget. I do often post that I’ve had a post blocked, as do many others.

Thanks Davey, that was amusing. It’s pretty clear from your examples that the site isn’t really trying to hold down inflammatory speech. They’re just blocking anything at all that in someone’s wildest interpretation might not be supportive in any way of their Leftist agenda.

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