Are you getting tired of the blatant corporate censorship on this website?

Question

My answer to this question was marked as a "violation" and deleted. But I saved it, and I am going to re-post it, right now. The original question was:

"Do you worry about the brainwashing power of the media?"

My answer was (exactly) this:

"Please, everyone, turn off your TVs and go outside. Spend time with your families. Start talking to your neighbors.

Anyone who does this will be a happier, more interesting and better-informed person within a few weeks."

So what part of the Y!A TOS did that violate?

I've recently seen several questions about censorship on Y!A that were deleted as I tried to answer them. In addition, my friend recently had her account completely terminated... she believes it was because she was asking too many [perfectly legitimate] questions about "sensitive" topics.

Now, I could be wrong - maybe I just offended 3 or 4 hardcore TV-lovers with that particular answer, but I sincerely doubt it.

When privately owned companies are in control of the exchange of information, what guarantee do we have that they will not filter or manipulate communications?

Private corporations are not bound by the 1st amendment, and our government does not care about it. So what recourse do the People have?

Your thoughts?

Answer 1

Be thankful that you can express yourself in this or any other media.  You would be locked away or worse if you lived in China.  The fact that some of your ideas scare people and some of your postings have been removed doesn't surprise me.  You have a right to express yourself but Yahoo isn't required to give you a free platform to make your point.

Answer 2

The admins are not happy with the truth. They will delete your account if you talk about real criminals who are "Big Brother" and "The Man". It is OK to talk about small fry criminals like coke dealers, rapists, Bin Laden, and Kim jong Ill.

Answer 3

The violation procedure seems pretty haphazard and inexact. It doesn't take much to get something marked here.

I think that's much more likely than corporate interference.

Answer 4

It's frustrating not to know whether you are being censored by the staff, the victim of program glitches, or the target of troll types.

Answer 5

I have just had a answer removed concerning 911, in which I point out a few defects of a Debunker.com!

Well I guess for some the answers must stand as they wish them to stand however silly they are!

As silver has pointed out, it has got so bad here that you can't trust anybody not to be a reporter troll, well almost anybody!

Now I am starting to sound really paranoid, but But as I have just written in an email to silver!

what do you do if they don't have any q and a's.

  I have come to the conclusion that at best (some users) suffer from a mild form of multiple personality disorder and at worst they are playing some sick game to get inside the contacts, as well as the heads of the users here, once in people like this will do all they can to twist thing to there little plan!

Look it is already working I am starting to talk in a paranoid manner ;-))

Yes we all need to free our minds a little from the constant bombardment of mind warping concepts and start to see the true values which exist in life.

Answer 6

Hmm...that's strange and that was my question!  Sorry about that--maybe Y/A doesn't want people to get out and talk because maybe they're start to conspire and protest or something, lol!  There wouldn't be any reason for anyone to want to report it, so I think it's probably Y/A.  I just got a violation today for no reason--sometimes I get things deleted without an email or losing any points!  It was a good answer, though--thanks. : )

Answer 7

Violation was not necessary and seems like censorship.  So yes to your question.

Answer 8

I have seen entire Questions removed on a regular basis here at Y!A.  I have also had a couple of questions suddenly revert to voting status after my answer was already chosen as best by the Asker.  It happens far too often to be coincidental.  The questions that are consistently removed are almost always from the Politics section, and usually involve ideas which  oppose the Main Stream.  I rarely hear of a question like, "Who likes the new Batman Movie?" suddenly disappearing.  It is conscious and deliberate censorship on the part of Yahoo.  Yes, Trolls are often involved, but only Yahoo can make the ultimate decision to pull the plug on a question, or a person's account.

Yahoo certainly has a right to do whatever the h**l they want on their site, but that's not the point.  Censorship is immoral regardless of any "property rights" involved.  Excuses of legal precedent are meaningless when you look at the bigger picture.  Also, if they are going to censor users, then Yahoo should have the guts to man up and state that this is what they intend to do, instead of giving vague web notices and then deleting people's questions.  Its the same thing with Corporate News; they are still performing a public service, which is the dissemination of information.  Just because they own the station that they are broadcasting on, doesn't mean they should be allowed to lie, or censor the truth.

Answer 9

Dude, you were not the only one. My answer got deleted to a question for saying this, "LOL that was funny pamela". I'm still wondering why. So yes, I think there is some questionable censorship, either due to Yahoo's errant programming or there's someone at Yahoo who is doing this intentionally. If it's the latter, I would like to bleep their bleeping bleep!