I understand what you're saying. I'm saying there's no fundamental "right" to speaking freely in a corporate space. This space exists at the sole discretion of the business entity. The business entity can definitely do so out of a sense of morality, but it's not a fundamental right.
Being able to speak freely is one of the most fundamental of rights. Do you automatically lose all rights when you're in a corporate setting? Or just speech?
You definitely surrender your right to free speech in a corporate setting, yes. There's no legal penalty for Facebook, reddit, or Snapzu to delete what they consider offensive language. They have no legal requirement to justify it to any form of authority. You also lose a slew of other rights when you're in a corporate setting... For instance, when you're in a store you're on private property, and they can evict you (i.e. restrict your freedom of movement) however they damn please. Ditto with the right to bear arms in the U.S.
As much as I respect corporations that wish to grant their users or consumers complete freedom to speak their mind, I don't think it's an ethical imperative for them to do so.
For instance, Facebook clearly believes that creating a "safe environment" for its users is more important in an absolute sense than freedom of speech. That's their decision and I don't see it as unethical per se. If you allow total freedom to speak one's mind, you run into, say, hate speech, which carries its own ethical repercussions.
That being said, saying "freedom of speech is something I believe in and i wish for my business to carry this value" is perfectly fine, even admirable. It's just not an ethical imperative.
I think we're going to have to agree to disagree on this one. "Remaining true to a promise" is totally an ethics issue for me.
I understand what you're saying. I'm saying there's no fundamental "right" to speaking freely in a corporate space. This space exists at the sole discretion of the business entity. The business entity can definitely do so out of a sense of morality, but it's not a fundamental right.
Being able to speak freely is one of the most fundamental of rights. Do you automatically lose all rights when you're in a corporate setting? Or just speech?
You definitely surrender your right to free speech in a corporate setting, yes. There's no legal penalty for Facebook, reddit, or Snapzu to delete what they consider offensive language. They have no legal requirement to justify it to any form of authority. You also lose a slew of other rights when you're in a corporate setting... For instance, when you're in a store you're on private property, and they can evict you (i.e. restrict your freedom of movement) however they damn please. Ditto with the right to bear arms in the U.S.
I'm not talking about what's legal, I'm talking about what's ethical.
As much as I respect corporations that wish to grant their users or consumers complete freedom to speak their mind, I don't think it's an ethical imperative for them to do so.
For instance, Facebook clearly believes that creating a "safe environment" for its users is more important in an absolute sense than freedom of speech. That's their decision and I don't see it as unethical per se. If you allow total freedom to speak one's mind, you run into, say, hate speech, which carries its own ethical repercussions.
That being said, saying "freedom of speech is something I believe in and i wish for my business to carry this value" is perfectly fine, even admirable. It's just not an ethical imperative.