Another Apple Falls From the WikiLeaks Tree

[kster]

ABC NEWS/ Technology

First Amendment Limits Government's Power to Force Companies to Remove Content
At the same time, our First Amendment strictly limits the power of the government to force companies to take down content.

Under this system, Internet platforms and the companies that support transactions (such as payment companies) often enforce their terms of service to take down content and cut off customers. Sometimes, where the content is plainly illegal, there is broad consensus that a particular type of content (such as child pornography) should be taken down.

But in the main, each player in the Internet environment enforces its own terms of service, often driven by complaints of users and reports of abuse. Sometimes those decisions make sense and sometimes they do not, but we muddle along because the system is better than government content controls.

That's what makes the corporate cutoffs associated with WikiLeaks so difficult to unpack. On the one hand, the Internet has flourished based on this system in which companies may adopt and enforce the terms of service they deem appropriate for their business.

Companies Should Not Ignore Public's Right to Know
On the other, when terms of service are used by a growing set of companies to justify cutting off controversial political speech that few believe is illegal for a third party to host, it is right to ask whether these policies are being applied in a consistent and transparent manner. However, when a takedown is justified on the grounds that a government official said the content is illegal, it is right to be alarmed. You don't have to side with WikiLeaks to see the dangers ahead.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/apple-falls-wikileaks-tree/story?id=12469417&page=2

[Uncle Joe]

1. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kster.

[cutlassmama]

2. k&r

[Wednesdays]

3. K&R

:kick: