RetiredGySgt
Diamond Member
It's not censorship in any real sense.Being banned from a privately owned forum board isn't censorship. It's being excluded from private property at the whim of the owner(s). The person is still free to move on to any number of the billions of forum boards out there. He's even free to create his own. So, he's not been censored in any real sense.
Are you insane, read the definitions. If a person with authority BANS speech or the written word it is censorship. It is completely legal and acceptable on private property BUT it is still censorship.
Semantics, gotta love it. If you'll look back, you'll see I didn't initially address censorship, because I fully well know what the book definition is. Even the word filter on vBulletin forum board software is called a "censor." That doesn't mean it's in any way REAL censorship.
Only the government can violate your free speech. Networks can and do censor, because the government tells them they must. Owners of private property are doing neither when they kick someone out.
An example of a loon trying to change the meaning of words to suit his own delusional belief system. That is why we now claim blowing smoke in a terrorists face is torture. Or legally caring a gun in public is somehow intimidation. Words have meanings. YOU do not get to decide the level of when the meaning is unimportant. Censorship is censorship whether legal or not, whether right or wrong, whether done by the Government or a private individual on a message board. And it is censorship whether it effects anyone or not.