Times are changing: do they want to censor our internet? No, social networks want to get rid of racists
When people talk about limiting freedom of expression on the internet, it sounds almost dystopian. I think everyone wants freedom of expression, but no one wants big corporations like Facebook to dictate what they can or cannot do. The idea of going to jail just for your opinion is also terrifying. But then it's time to face reality.
But anyone who has ever seen the average internet discussion knows that it is not worth clicking through the comments without first equipping yourself with a helmet, a nuclear bomb and a can of Xanax. The usual internet sages with the opinion "It's all Kalousek's fault, that's why I vote SPD!" are just the tip of the iceberg, an annoying and stupid, albeit harmless, variety of debaters.
Let's recall which posts were actually dealt with by the police. According to ČT24, these were five young men from Kroměříž who shared Nazi music videos and threatened Roma and Arabs with Zyklon B. Then there was the woman from Tachov who shared a photo of first-graders from Teplice, where Arab children also study, and expressed her wish to shoot them all. Otto Chaloupka, a former member of the Public Affairs Committee, was given a suspended sentence for making racist remarks about Romani people directly from a computer in the Chamber of Deputies.
Anyone with at least two brain cells will realize that this is not censorship. The same would happen to someone who wrote "Gypsies to the gas!" in chalk on the wall and signed his name to it. On social media, you don't even have to sign your name, the post is automatically attached to a profile with your name on it. And many people think that freedom of expression on the Internet is infinite, and it certainly does not stop at promoting movements aimed at suppressing the rights and freedoms of various groups of citizens.
By the way, it is also very interesting to look at the group of MPs who wanted to make deleting social media posts a criminal offence. For example, there is a handy utility for this, a site called jerk.online, which was created by Slovak programmers. With it, it is possible to keep track of how many different posts a user has deleted, either their own or the comments of others. So it seems that the author of the proposal, former ODS MP Václav Klaus Jr., would condemn himself, because very often on his page he deletes the opinions of other users, which remind him of some unpleasant facts.
Let's not mention the SPD's petitioners; the love of chairman Tomio Okamura for banning inconvenient opinions is well known. That is why you will find the Facebook page "Tomio Okamura banned me" in its several incarnations.
The impression that Facebook administrators would want to censor anyone is thus greatly mistaken. Given the recent passage of so-called "Article 13", which states that the operator of a website is also responsible for user content, it is not surprising that no one wants to run a network that is a nest of racists or fascists. Of course, there is sometimes a problem with insensitive deletion. Most of the time, however, it's the fault of the users themselves, who repeatedly report content they don't like before the network deletes it. This is what happened recently to the popular Oprásky sčeskí historje, for example, when Slovak admirers of the fascist priest and president Tiso apparently didn't like a comic strip that made fun of him.
Opinions belong on the internet, as does black humour, sarcasm, or all sorts of sniping. But one should know where the line lies. It doesn't have to be just because of "censors". Your employer is also watching what you write, what photos you share, and so on. And losing your job because of your own stupidity on social media, I don't think anyone would want that. I guess it's just common sense here, to conclude that sharing a video of you spinning around in your chair at work watching hockey is probably not the best idea. Nor is it smart to violate your employer's policies. Examples abound, such as the German lawyer specialising in transport law who, according to dTest, was fired by her employer for a photo of her sitting behind the wheel of a car with a cocktail in her hand.
LUI says: "Just don't be an idiot, then you can use social networks as you like."
