RE: Is steemit going to censor free speech?
Yes and no, because FIRST, yes, things are removed or hidden or blocked off Steemit.com, as Steemit is an application of Steem.io and Steemit is an American company. By the way, in a website, normally, the ".COM" in the URL address is short for COMpany (COM) in the Steemit.COM address. @Ned Scott said in a video that Steemit.com is an American company that follows copyright laws. Now, is hate speech included in copyrights, patents, etc, for American laws in the United States of America (USA)? These are great questions. We should DEBATE these questions more and more.
BUT AT THE SAME TIME, It is better when we try our best to follow the rules and laws and regulations and everything of the states and countries we may live in, even if that includes maybe bad laws, etc. So, I want smaller government. I want better laws. But we kind of have to follow laws maybe, even if the laws are wrong or bad , etc etc....
SECOND:
But STEEMIT.COM is not Steem.io, the blockchain root core foundation platform for the whole blockchain network. Ned Scott said things may be removed from Steemit but not Steem.io or the blockchain itself. So, when you post on Steemit.com, for example, the post is uploaded to the blockchain and is THEN shared to and on and through Steemit.com and Busy.org and other APPLICATIONS of the blockchain. The different application may only show certain posts as they may go through filters. For example, Dsound filters in sound posts, music posts. And Dtube filters in video posts. And Steemit.com is an American company that probably has to abide to American laws maybe, I'm guessing. According to many people on how blockchains work, things are NOT taken off the blockchain, the platform, but may be hidden off certain platforms. So if something is hidden off Steemit.com, then maybe you can see it on Busy.org or other applications of Steem.io or so the theory seems to say. Yes, the USA has too many laws and we got to vote and get more involved politically to get rid of bad laws maybe.
This was exactly the way that I've come to understand it over the last 5-6 months I've been on here. I wouldn't be shocked to find out Steemit Inc has the power to remove or alter the blockchain... Very shocked, and dismayed.
And I totally agree that as a company potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars, maybe one day billions of dollars, they have to follow the rules, lest they get slapped around senseless by the government. (Actually, since all of their wealth is in Steem, maybe they could afford to be illegal and just hide their keys really well, the fiscs probably couldn't confiscate their assets... But I understand Ned doesn't want to cross the US government lol...)
I'm not sure if you were saying that us common people though have to follows laws that are wrong or bad... I personally think following laws that are wrong and bad is evil, and I try to limit how evil I am...
I think as common people there's actually a lot of leeway for us to bend the rules when the rules are ridiculous, and to break them when they are darn right unacceptable...
Everybody has to make up their own mind about what they are willing to do.. Anybody breaking a rule has to be willing to deal with the consequences of breaking that law... But are they free and blessed to do it if they feel its the right thing to do?
Absolutely
Anyway, bit of an unrelated tangent... I think you're absolutely right about how Steemit works, and yeah, hopefully we can have laws that do make sense and do work for the majority of people, and for Steemit and free speech in particular, in this case :3