Freedom of speech is apparently under attack.
Actually, it isn’t. But there are certainly a number of people in Thunder Bay who believe it is and are convinced I’m the one attacking it.
Let’s rewind: Over the past couple of weeks a number of stories posted to our Facebook page led to comment threads that were less than civil. Racist comments, some veiled and some blatant, were most concerning.
Given that the page is on Facebook and our moderation controls are limited there, we typically respond to issues on a per-complaint basis. A couple recent posts, however, required a lot of attention.
So we did what we thought we had to do – ban certain users from our page. Not every user who made inappropriate comments were banned. Some comments were hidden, others deleted. The most inflammatory comments put a few users on our permanent ban list, meaning they will no longer be able to view or comment on anything we post on our Facebook page.
One day after the banning, another story featured a couple comment threads that took an ugly turn. We decided a banning was the necessary response. This time, however, we made a post to our Facebook page letting everyone know that some of the comments we received had led us to ban users. We added that more bans were likely pending.
This is when freedom of speech was declared under attack.
But the declaration that freedom of speech is somehow a victim only shows how little people understand what that freedom really is.
Freedom of speech has limits. Yelling “fire” in a crowded theatre, or posing as an elderly person’s grandchild to defraud them of money, are both cases where freedom of speech cannot be used as a defence. Freedom of speech is also a poor defence when facing accusations of defamation.
In a less extreme example freedom of speech gives you the right to post whatever opinion you may have on a Facebook page, however that freedom doesn’t take away the page administrator’s ability to use the moderation tools at their disposal.
And this seems to be the biggest misunderstanding –freedom of speech comes with an immunity from consequences. It does not.
Libeling someone is not protected by our freedom of speech. Certain extreme opinions may also be considered hate speech, which is not protected either.
I also don’t have any real power to limit freedom of speech outside of the Facebook page and website I administrate. This fact makes the accusation a bit over the top.
While I may be able to prevent some people from commenting on our Facebook page and our website’s comment section, my silencing power ends there. The people who find themselves banned from our site and Facebook page can continue to post their opinions elsewhere.
They can even post their opinions on their personal Facebook page. But remember, freedom of speech doesn’t protect you from being unfriended.
Disagree with our position? Send us your opinion and we'll publish it.
