No Free Speech at Apple
from the censorship dept
Article in the Standard about how Apple erased negative postings to their comment board, and whether or not this is an appropriate way to act. Brings up some interesting issues for corporations in dealing with critics. Of course, if something like Third Voice takes off and lets people “deface” web pages with no recourse from the website’s owners, this whole discussion might not matter.
Comments on “No Free Speech at Apple”
didn't you sign away your rights already?
Apple’s Discussion Forums are explicitly stated in their instructions as a way for Apple users to share their ideas/problems amongst themselves with
intermittant help from Apple employees who have too much free time. The instructions also clearly state that off-topic posts will be discarded. Isn’t
this how most newsgroups with moderators work? You’ve signed away your 1st amendment right in the fine print when you agree to post… But
maybe I’ve missed the point of the article? ie. Apple should have thought up a “different” slogan…. I hope this post makes it past the keen
censorship of M^2…. 🙂
Re: didn't you sign away your rights already?
Hey, Apple, as a private corporation has the right to do whatever the hell they want to. I think what interested me was how they chose to wipe that particular incident away, while it is a good question. And, the comparison to the other company which allows people to speak freely. I’ll admit, it’s probably human nature to immediately delete things critical, but maybe there’s some advantage in leaving them up.
As for Techdirt, I’ve only deleted a comment once, and that was simply because it was completely pointless, and basically just a string of obscenities posted for no reason.
Re: Re: didn't you sign away your rights already?
Look at the time… Well, mike, I’ll just add one last comment. I’ve posted to and sometimes read the Apple discussion forum. There’s plenty of Apple-bashing that doesn’t get erased because it’s mixed in with some valid on-topic complaints. If Apple really didn’t want to have people complain about Apple products, they wouldn’t have created the forum in the first place. Being a mac-fan, I’m inclined to side with the pro-mac conspiracy-theorists who believe Apple is simply trying to comply with a secret government agreement not to encourage the development of G3->G4 upgrades to protect national security… Ok, I don’t really believe that. But that’s probably at least part of the reason why Apple didn’t make a G3->G4 upgrade readily available in the first place.