Moderating the news

is becoming censorship of our views.

There is a piece in this morning's state newspaper. It has been written by the President of the Law Society and, in it, she expresses her views about the removal of the right to comment on social media.

She, rightly, points out that there is no "right" to "free speech" in Downunder. Such a right really doesn't exist anywhere. It would allow an incitement to violence and that is simply unacceptable.

But that is not the way in which moderation of the news and our views is being done. We are increasingly finding that it is "wrong" and "unacceptable" to hold certain views. These are views that were once acceptable, indeed in some cases, those were the legislated views. 

When I was very young same sex relationships were held to be "wrong". There were penalties imposed for the crime of living together. People went to prison.That is no longer the case.  Now it is held to be "wrong" to oppose same sex marriages. To even state your opposition can lead to penalties. 

There are plenty of similar issues that can cause the same sort of difficulties - sex, gender, religion, race, vaccination, refugees, climate change and more all lead to heated "debate". The problem is that there is no real debate about these issues. We need debate, real debate. There are strongly held views but all too often only one side is considered to be "correct". Balanced information is not being disseminated because one side has control of the issue. "We are right. You are wrong." 

If you want to change people's opinions it is important to withhold information. It is still very difficult to do but "Moderation" by the media can help. Sites which allow "comment" are usually moderated. People believe that this allows fair and reasonable comments to be made in a civilised way. The reality however is very different. It really allows control of a debate. It prevents "unacceptable" views gaining any sort of following. Anyone who holds an unacceptable view will find their comments either not being "approved" or, if approved, then they are subjected to a flood of disapproving comments.

We are being told that all this is for our own good, that it does not allow the worst of human nature to be freely displayed on social media pages or in the media itself.  Perhaps that is true but it is also reducing our capacity to think for ourselves.