Guild Wars 2 Writer Fired Over being a complete idiot on twitter, Gaming "press" defends her xD

[Azuren]

vivster said:

Azuren said:

When someone enters a relatively public space, maintains that public setting rather than changing it to private, lists their name and their employer, and discusses work on said platform then they have effectively forfeited their privacy in that situation, and they have become a public representative for their company.

 

As far as a law preventing speech in any capacity: hell fucking no. Speech laws need to refrain from anything that does not bring physical harm with it (threats or inciting violence). The moment you allow the government to arbitrarily decide what subjective language is "dangerous" is the moment you forfeit tthecountry to whoever happens to be in charge at the time, because suddenly dangerous language is any language that the people in power disagree with.

Speech can be physically dangerous even if it doesn't incite violence. Speaking lies is what got us the Brexit and a certain sentient Orange in the White House. Lies cause physical illnesses in the form of unvaccinated children. Lies give power to corporations that will continue to harm the environment and the people in them. Lies about history will recruit cult members and neo nazis that will hurt other people. Lies are a propaganda tool and will never lead to anything good. Spreading lies on a public platform should damn well be sanctioned because they lead to fucking harm.

You're not really thinking the idea of speech laws through very carefully. Dictating speech is a slippery slope to an authoritarian state. What you know to be fact might be publicly denied by the government. What happens when the government says "No, this was the truth and you are the one spreading lies"? Are you going to tell them they're the liars while they put you in jail?

 

Speech laws are never a good thing, because if you put the power to determine what is and isn't a lie in the hands of the government, they will abuse it. And no one will even be able to speak out, because they'll be arrested. Speech laws are the fastest way to give up your freedoms.