Censorship

Jonathon McIntosh, @radicalbytes, tweeted today: "A helpful list of things that are not censorship: criticism, boycotts, petitions, activist campaigns, civil disobedience, demanding change."

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) would beg to differ. The ACLU defines censorship as "the suppression of words, images, or ideas that are 'offensive,' [which] happens whenever some people succeed in imposing their personal political or moral values on others. Censorship can be carried out by the government as well as private pressure groups."

McIntosh's indifference to the truth is reminiscent of the acclaim from the gay mafia after forcing Brendan Eich's resignation from Mozilla for donating in favor of California's Proposition 8. Censorship, we were told, was only when the government illegally infringed on a person's freedom of speech. Mozilla, acting as a corporation, was free to censor, censure or fire Eich as it saw fit.

In the United States, this right of expression is protected by the First Amendment to the Consitution. Other countries may not have this explicit protection, but they acknowledge that this is a natural right. For example, New Zealand retailer The Warehouse Group has announced that they will stop selling all R18 games and DVD's. This will effectively remove Grand Theft Auto 5 from store shelves.

Target Australia has followed suit and banned just the one game. In the opinion of ThinkProgress, this was because the game promotes violence against women. This is factually untrue. The game portrays violence against women. Nevertheless, these corporations have the right to sell what they please. Indeed, it may be said that both Target Australia and Mozilla are exercising their right to political speech with their said actions. Mozilla's actions are analogous to the actions of the New York Times when they write an editorial, endorsing a political outcome. And both are protected speech just like that which is produced by Citizens United.

The corporations mentioned above also have the moral obligation to maximize shareholder value. Their ability to maximize shareholder value is impaired by the imposition on them of the morality of the social justice warriors. Forcing a retailer to submit to one's particular ideology is on much shakier moral ground. We have been advised by the sages to "let those who are without Sin cast the first stone."