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GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the word 'retard'

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Re: GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the word 'retard'

#341

Post by return0 »

brandonmenc wrote: post #157
Zikes wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, in the literal sense it is censorship, being the suppression of materials deemed objectionable on moral, political, military, or other grounds. A bit like a (likely American) TV censor might "bleep" a word they don't want to expose people's delicate sensibilities to. I mean, that doesn't make it "evil", but a lot of people might say that censorship of any sort is a bit of a grey area. That whole "I disagree wit…

> "I disagree with what you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it" When it comes down to it, no one would really do this.

I disagree with what you said and i ask the moderators to hellban you and delete all your comments

Let's see if anyone jumps to defend you...

Re: GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the word 'retard'

#342

Post by _jgdh »

hhandoko wrote: post #237
CoryG89 wrote: post #40

For people who don't see what's wrong here. The issue is not about whether the word 'retard' is or is not offensive to anyone. You need to consider that GitHub currently hosts a large percentage of the web's open source repositories. This is censorship plain and simple, something that IMO has no place in open source. The issue is that there are plenty of things some people might find offensive on GitHub but you dont…

It sounds like entitlement to me. Just because it's an open source project, does not grant the author free pass to do whatever he/she likes. If I come and visit someone at their house, I make sure I observe their house rules. So GitHub makes it clear that this is unacceptable. Whilst their actions / decisions may sometimes look arbitrary, we need to remember that GitHub is not just one person. In addition, in a publi…

I know of one country that operates a web content filter to prevent its citizens from being exposed to offensive and objectionable content. The citizens of this country find it incredibly offensive that there exists instructions on how to circumvent this filter. However, github proudly hosts these instructions[1] in spite of repeated polite requests to remove it.

Now I'd like to know why the views of Bay Area SJWs is worth listening to, but not Chinese people. If we can censor words like this, why can't we censor content that actually harms (/s) a lot of Chinese people?

[1] - https://github.com/greatfire/

Re: GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the word 'retard'

#343

Post by Snesker »

PopeOfNope wrote: post #175
andylei wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what kind of doomsday scenario are you imagining? all the open source repos in the world slowly die as github starts censoring increasingly larger portions of the english language?

The worst that would happen is what's happening in GamerGate right now: a split along ideological lines. Those who want to judge the merit of a work based on its code and those who want to judge the merit of a work based on the political opinions of the author.

From what I understood the split is strict ethics v. politics. Gamergate never had anything to do with technical meritocracy, that's just the way users see the games. I can't help but think you're trying to perpetuate some false meme.

Re: GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the word 'retard'

#344

Post by hhandoko »

seivan wrote: post #268
hhandoko wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're not discussing about private conversation between two friends. I would be offended if a stranger said that to me. Wouldn't you? Of course, I can see that this is done for laughs, but not everyone sees that.

This repository doesn't belong to you. For all intents and purposes this is a private conversation in public. Not to mention going out of their way and report it to the Githapo to have them take it down. This is insane. I'm I the only one who sees the insanity of grown adults shitting their pants over vulgarity?!

It is a false analogy though.

If it's just a commit message, then I can see why you would think this construes as a `private` conversation (i.e. message between committers). But, it's also in the README which, by default, the first thing you see when you open up the repository.

The better analogy perhaps, is the author is standing with a signboard containing some offensive language in some corner of a public space.

Re: GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the word 'retard'

#345

Post by cryptoglyph »

DanBC wrote: post #334
deciplex wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Censorship does not require an act of Congress. Private entities are perfectly capable of censorship. How else could the term "self-censorship" have any semantic value?

Self-censorship only has value when people fear retribution by government. "I won't use the word retard in my project hosted on github because github's TOS prevents it" is not self-censorship in any meaningful sense of the word. (Just as "Github doesn't let me spam all these users" is not Github censoring people.) Nothing is stopping you from hosting the repo in a wide number of other places. "I won't insult my emplo…

This is nonsense. Self-censorship occurs whenever somebody censors himself. In polite conversation we might call it discretion (or valor). In a fiduciary or confidential relationship, we might call it adherence to the duty of confidentiality. In a contractual relationship, we would call it nondisclosure. In employment, on one hand we might call it professionalism—or self censorship on the other—depending on the context.

Regardless, the term "self-censorship" is not germane to or inherent in only citizen-government interactions.

Re: GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the word 'retard'

#346

Post by realityking »

golergka wrote: post #303
Animats wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"This isn't censorship of the type that is illegal or not allowed. It is a private company deciding a word was inappropriate." As a Github user, that kind of thinking worries me. Google Code went away, and Sourceforge started packaging adware and spyware with other people's projects. They could do this because "they were a private company". Now Github's management is starting to throw their weight around. We now need…

It is not a "kind of thinking", it is a simple statement. The word "censorship" doesn't work here. You may still argue that you don't like that Github behaves like that: the statement that you quoted doesn't oppose that view.

Censorship is not by defintion done by the government. It's perfectly correct to say "GitHub is censoring X on their platform".

Now censorship by the government is a much worse act, because you can't just go become a citizen of another country, but it's still censorship if a compay does it.

Re: GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the word 'retard'

#347

Post by Perseids »

DanBC wrote: post #334
deciplex wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Censorship does not require an act of Congress. Private entities are perfectly capable of censorship. How else could the term "self-censorship" have any semantic value?

Self-censorship only has value when people fear retribution by government. "I won't use the word retard in my project hosted on github because github's TOS prevents it" is not self-censorship in any meaningful sense of the word. (Just as "Github doesn't let me spam all these users" is not Github censoring people.) Nothing is stopping you from hosting the repo in a wide number of other places. "I won't insult my emplo…

Self-censorship as a term has value whenever people fear losing something that is important to them. With governments it might be their their career chances, personal freedom or even their life. With companies it might be your online identity, your data, your social contacts. Imagine being removed from Facebook/Google/Twitter/[your social network of choice] for writing the wrong post/email. While it is certainly orders of magnitude less threatening than being tortured by the secret police, it is still a deterrent.

Re: GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the word 'retard'

#348

Post by Kudos »

tracker1 wrote: post #150
thedz wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. This isn't censorship of the type that is illegal or not allowed. It is a private company deciding a word was inappropriate. 2. It seems like most in this comment thread agree that this action, as a singular act, is a good thing. The word was offensive. Github asked the repo to change it. They did. The end. 3. As for the larger context, the problem with the frequent use of slippery slope arguments and cries of "ce…

Github is itself using an offensive term... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git_(slang)

You're reaching, that term doesn't target any particular group.

Re: GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the word 'retard'

#349

Post by Sir_Substance »

DanBC wrote: post #252
kordless wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm imagining a nightmare scenario where, by some vauge unwritten and immature consensus mechanism, we rationalize even a slight amount of censorship as being OK.

The actual nightmare scenario is that people with learning disability are killed by doctors because those doctors think "retards have no quality of life". When people toss around the word retard they contribute to a culture that doesn't care about the high levels of violent hate crime experienced by people with a learning disability. And most posts seem to miss the point: their servers, their rules. No one is stoppin…

>The actual nightmare scenario is that people with learning disability are killed by doctors because those doctors think "retards have no quality of life".

Woah, that escalated quickly. How the hell did we go from offensive words to hospitals as state run eugenics labs in one sentence?

Re: GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the word 'retard'

#350

Post by ectoplasm »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #329
ectoplasm wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Can we police ourselves fairly and achieve a society that is not offensive? Absolutely not. Hacker News is a pretty nice place.

This thread, and almost any thread about social issues in technology, demonstrates that it has both nice and awful people hanging out on it.

Perhaps, but what makes it a nice place is the limits on how awful people can be.
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