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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'

#461

Post by palmer_eldritch »

DanBC wrote: post #391
ectoplasm wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You're offended? So what. Not my problem, step away from the computer. Fortunately, you don't own GitHub.

The cognitive dissonance of people downvoting comments when they are complaining about censorship is baffling. The hypocrisy is weird.

Downvoting isn't equal to censorship. The content remains available for anyone with an account.

The commit history of this project remains available too... however, they forbid the authors to use the word in the live version if they want their project to be hosted on github. Now, I guess it's their prerogative to set the rules for people using their service. But I think it's also fair to say that being the facebook of programming it feels like they're kind of bullying the authors into compliance...

I'm pretty sure it's a really a non-story. Someone at github overreacted when a complaint was received. Big deal. If they started blocking accounts for reasons like this on a regular basis, many people would move somewhere else. It's not like they don't have competitors with equally good solutions. Their only advantage is their large userbase.

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

#462

Post by Cthulhu_ »

huu wrote: post #445
sklogic wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's about using a word that causes harm Words do not cause harm. It's a slippery slope to total censorship and thought policing to think otherwise.

Imagine you're a parent who happens upon a repo that uses the word "retard" as a replacement for "stupid person" or "idiot". You also happen to have a mentally disabled child. Perhaps you would have contributed to that repository and now you won't. That seems materially harmful to me, to reduce the sum total of people contributing to open source. Compare that to the potential of falling down a slippery slope to "tota…

You do know "stupid person" and "idiot" are equally offensive, right? I mean the three are pretty much synonymous with each other.

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

#463

Post by [deleted] »

paulhodge wrote: post #103
niuzeta wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because "retard" may not be the last time, but the first. A precedence would be set that a repository may be shut down due to an arbitrary(not the word I'd use here, but for the sake of argument) reason.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slippery_slope

[deleted]

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

#464

Post by jackweirdy »

Mikushi wrote: post #364
kentonv wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it offensive? Yes. Does Github have the right to take it down? Yes. Is it unethical for Github to take it down? Not at all. But should they? I don't know, I don't think I would have. It's kind of scary to use cloud services where it's hard to tell if your content might be judged in violation of some rule and might suddenly disappear as a result. If the offensiveness were more extreme (say, a repo dedicated to maki…

>Is it offensive? Yes. Can we stop saying this as a universal truth? You find it offensive. I and millions other people don't. You deal with it.

No, the people who run the website find it offensive, it's their house, so you deal with it or leave.

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

#465

Post by protomyth »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #446
grkvlt wrote: post #374

So, why on earth are similarly 'offensive' repositories like https://github.com/meh/retarded (may be NSFW based on language) still available? This seems either a very selective policy, or there is something else going on beyond the mere use of the word 'Retard' here. I found the example above with a simple Google search, and I'm sure there are many more that can be picked out, depending on the choice of obscenity or…

Like every site, GitHub acts under safe harbour. It can't and doesn't police every piece of content uploaded. But it can respond to reports. That's what's happened here.

"GitHub acts under safe harbour."

This has nothing to do with a copyright or trademark violation so has nothing to do with any safe harbor provisions.

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

#466

Post by [deleted] »

warkid wrote: post #449
DanBC wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to be careful in the way you use nigger or retard on HN. Calling other people a those will probably result in a comment killed by user flags. Repeated use will result in a shadow ban. Casual use of the word retard (not in the context of mechanisms) might see a few downvotes to poke people into more creative insults. Most people don't want to use such words and are glad they aren't used in normal conversation…

> Most people don't want to use such words and are glad they aren't used in normal conversation. They don't miss cross-burnings; they don't miss similarly violent words. Most people don't have this tradition of "cross-burning" in their past and therefore don't attach any negative/violent meaning to the "n-word".

[deleted]

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

#467

Post by Cthulhu_ »

Lazare wrote: post #105
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…

Github is not a public service; they're a private company. > Who decides what is and is not appropriate? Github does. That's how that works. If you prefer you could try and lobby your government to set up some sort of national source code repo. Maybe you'd find the rules on such a thing more to your liking. (Note: You really, really wouldn't.) Alternatively, you could host your own source code repos, and then you can…

>> Who decides what is and is not appropriate? >Github does. That's how that works.

I don't think "github" does it; it's lobbyists either within or outside of Github - the SJW's, what used to be called the PC Police - that push agendas like this forward. Same happened / is happening with Reddit, to some degree - again the slippery slope mentioned above.

Now, the problem isn't these policies forbidding certain behaviour or language; the problem is that they're measuring with different sticks. In Reddit's case, it was banning subreddits making fun of fat people, whilst keeping racist and corpse-fetish subreddits around. In Github's case it's banning one 'offensive' word, while "git" itself is offensive and they should really censor themselves first before demanding their users do it to their own work.

AFAIK there's no official list anywhere of "Words You Shouldn't Use" on github either - which makes the enforcement of this thing completely arbitrary.

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

#468

Post by Cthulhu_ »

crimsonalucard wrote: post #433
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…

We view this type of censorship as offensive because the word "retard" doesn't carry much weight. Nobody would be fighting for this man's freedom of speech if he littered the code with the word "nigger" or "lynching" One of the executives probably has a son or daughter who is a retard. Makes sense why such censorship can occur. When you own a product, your bias will inevitably saturate into the product. Having a son…

I have a son (or daughter) who is a git - I am offended by *hub and demand they change their name to 'basebornhub' or 'intellectuallychallengedhub'

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

#469

Post by DanBC »

sklogic wrote: post #393
DanBC wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your first line is wrong. This is not about swearing, it's about using a word that causes harm. > Then they came for me, and there was none left to speak out. ...apart from the vast majority of people, because most people don't feel the need to use words like nigger or retard in their open source projects.

> it's about using a word that causes harm Words do not cause harm. It's a slippery slope to total censorship and thought policing to think otherwise.

Words do cause harm. It's a failure of imagination to think otherwise.

When you use the word retard you dehumanise people with LD. You contribute to a culture where it's okay to deny those people work; to segregate them in specialist housing; to deny them medical treatment; to kill them with lack of medical treatment.

It's a slippery slope to eugenics and genocide to think otherwise.

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

#470

Post by MatthewWilkes »

grkvlt wrote: post #374

So, why on earth are similarly 'offensive' repositories like https://github.com/meh/retarded (may be NSFW based on language) still available? This seems either a very selective policy, or there is something else going on beyond the mere use of the word 'Retard' here. I found the example above with a simple Google search, and I'm sure there are many more that can be picked out, depending on the choice of obscenity or…

'retarded' in this sense could easily be due to someone's poor command of English. In this case, the use of 'faggotry' in commits makes it clear that it's not but it's not obvious from first glance.

It's clear that GitHub aren't embarking on a mass censorship campaign (probably because it's expensive), but "WebM for retards" and "you retard" aren't open for interpretation, even from a brief glance.

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