Unshelved by Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum
comic strip overdue media

Saturday, February 05, 2022

Tired of seeing this misused

I was perusing the news this morning and found several opinion pieces regarding the removal of music catalogues from Spotify (one called Neil Young's actions 'righteous censorship' but also Spotify's removal of about 100 Joe Rogan podcast episodes. All referred to these as censorship.)

I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding of the word censorship in this country.

Censorship is the action of the GOVERNMENT to remove information. An example is when elected officials such as those serving on a local school board vote to ban books at the public library, or a body of government votes into law a bill that does basically the same time.

Do you know what censorship is not? An artist's use of his control over his own product so that a platform whose actions he does not agree with does not profit from his work. Censorship is not when a business chooses to distance itself and remove content when it violates its terms of conditions. Censorship is not the removal by a private business of customers who violate those terms of conditions, such as Donald Trump being banned from Twitter. Censorship is not when subscribers or customers leave or boycott something to do with a business because they do not agree with some action or aspect of the business. For example, the CEO of Jimmy John's is within his right to go big game hunting. However, I do not want him to use even the small amount of money I might contribute to that activity for something I feel strongly is wrong (I have no trouble with hunting if it's for food, etc. But hunting endangered animals for sport is reprehensible, in my opinion. I just wouldn't hunt, say, deer myself.) So I don't go to Jimmy John's. Just like I don't go to Hobby Lobby or Chik-fil-A due to some of their practices regarding employee treatment, and in the case of Hobby Lobby, the purchase of illegally obtained artefacts. That's a matter of personal choice, but it's part of a free marketplace and supply and demand. Companies do not have a right to profit.. People spewing hate do not have a right to have a platform. Artists should have control over their work. Simple as that.

No comments: