NZ Privacy Commissioner John Edwards condemned the Twitter and Facebook bans on the White House abomination.
“These are arbitrary, cynical, unprincipled and further evidence that regulation of social media platforms is urgently required.”
First; what on earth has this to do with privacy issues? Edwards will say he was commenting in his private capacity but knows full well that if he were Joe Blow, his remarks would be ignored. The only reason they were reported was because of his public office.
But on the salient issue, surely Edwards is familiar with the old “shouting fire in a crowded theatre” qualification when it comes to free speech and censorship and to equate it with book burning is infantile.
Far from being cynical and unprincipled the ban on Trumpian poison and its track record of awful consequences was pragmatic and honourable.
Edwards bureaucratic mentality in calling for regulation is ludicrous.
Every day the media in all its forms make decisions on publishing individuals’ opinions, be they letters to the editor, cutting off talkback callers and so on. That includes government agencies such as Radio New Zealand.
They have no legal or moral obligation to provide platforms for views they consider obnoxious or harmful. It’s called private property, something Edwards seemingly has anathema for. It’s noteworthy that his protests have been echoed elsewhere with the same simplistic arguments.