banjo's avatar
banjo 1 year ago
This has been the historical arguement for censorship..."hey, there are 'things' that we all agree should be censored" (e.g., child porn). But historically that has always been the "nose under the camel's tent" - it leads to more and more censorship, and pretty soon we're back where we started. And it's faulty logic to say "well if you don't want censorship, then you're for child porn" (or something similar). That's simply a way to silence an opposing view via personal attacks... Make no mistake-this is a VERY complicated and nuanced topic. But we're now on the precipice of totalitarianism in the world PRECISELY because we began to allow censorship, and feeling that "some" censorship is "ok".... Consequently, I am passionate about Nostr--it is our last hope for free speech. We MUST proceed with extreme caution, not take the "easy" way out, and CERTAINLY we must not repeat our historical mistakes .

Replies (2)

If you want absolutely no ability to filter any content whatsoever (censorship) to exist for users and relay owners, then you by extension do want to subject people to child porn and other unwanted content. That is literally what you are saying. Your argument is faulty. You can't have freedom and also tell others what they must allow on their relays, networks, and devices. I am not "silencing" your viewpoint. I'm simply laying out what your point of view is and disagreeing with it. You can run your own relay and so can the spammers. That's the historical difference that you're leaving out. You guys can have it! That doesn't mean the rest of us want to be involved and it certainly doesn't mean we must sink our ships just so you can be on it. I even stated in my post that different relays and clients would disagree on where the lines are drawn and people would thus need to be somewhere else. You're not off the network under that model. You just may not be on my screen, where you seem to think you have an inherent right to be. You don't.
WE must not do anything. YOU must. That's literally my whole point. You don't have to censor spammers or child pornography (or whatever else) on your relays. I don't want to associate with those sorts so I (not we) want the ability to choose not to. It seems as though @jb55 agrees on spam at least. Freedom of association is an often forgotten aspect of free speech