Quote:
Originally posted by denim
That's all true. The main issue about yelling "censorship!" is that it's only censorship if the government does it. For anyone else, it's "editing". 
There's an important difference here. Halx et al are not bound to allow anything at all. They're perfectly welcome, this being a private system, to withdraw and/or kick out anything and anyone for any reason at all, such as "It's Thursday" or "That shirt is NASTY!" or even "I like that shirt, so I'll remove it since I'm not worthy." That's the way life works in private life.
The reason it's really only bad/nasty/evil/wrong for The Government to do similar things is that the government is supposed to be there for us. We pay for it, its purpose is, at least in theory, to do our will. For it to censor is a way for it to gain the upper hand, which would not be a good thing.
I'm not explaining this well. 
(SecretMethod70: hey, my post could be used as a strawman, sure. No biggie.)
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The government can censor stuff. Just, the government promises not to. =) Well, except for... yada yada.
Same general idea in most other forums of discussion. However, unlike the government, the hosts of these forums often don't have as their professed ethical cause those doing the discussion. This changes it from a question of ethics to one of taste or preferences.
People still dislike arbitrary censorship. At the same time, there is a clear right to censor on the part of the forum hosts. What is permitted is not that which is not forbidden: while a forum you post on is not forbidden to arbitrarally censor your posts, you don't have to permit it by continueing to visit.
In other words, I agree completely, and here is a bunch of other words strung together that might make it make sense to someone!