Should OpEdNews, a progressive news and opinion site, publish articles by right wingers?
Should a progressive site help right wingers get out their message and expand their reach, possibly giving them added credibility, especially for outright dishonest or extremely prejudiced viewpoints. Should a progressive site publish claims that are unsupported and hateful?
Some people will argue that refusal to publish such content is censorship. I give those people no shrift. Censorship is not applicable to publishers. It is applicable for government and I'm coming to believe that censorship also applies to venues that are supposed to allow all voices. That includes major monopolist or oligopolist megaplatform sites like Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Apple (like iTunes) and other similar sites. It also includes most Universities.
The way I see it, publishers have the right and responsibility to curate their content. Readers expect content curation. They expect editors to exercise some influence over what content is published. Here at OpEdnews, we generally won't publish pro-gun articles. We won't publish articles that are anti abortion. Why? We don't want to give those messages any support. We don't want to help the messengers. That's our right as a publisher.
But it's different for the megaplatforms. it is not their job to curate or censor. It is their job to be open platforms, with the exception of clear cut cases of hate.
It's also different for Universities, especially public universities. They are supposed to be open places for ideas, even ones abhorrent to one ideological side.
It is dangerous to freedom of speech when megaplatforms or universities engage in censorship.
It is normal and natural for publishers to curate content selectively.
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