Is flagging censorship? I know that in previous posts I have referred to flagging as censorship, but then I stopped to think about it for a bit.
Censoring is removing or deleting data so that it cannot be seen by others. See Merriam-Webster's definition:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/censoring
What happens when you flag a post? It is the following:
- A little red flag appears on the right hand side.
- The post may become grayed out and images will not be displayed, making the post somewhat less visible.
- If the reputation of the flagger is higher than that of the poster, then the poster will take a hit to reputation proportional to the steem power of the flagger.
- The money that post might make is reduced by an amount depending on the steem power of the flagger.
Let's take a look at each one of these and see if it amounts to censorship.
First, the flag icon, whether it's red or clear with some number in it. This does nothing to censor the post. It doesn't delete the post or any of it's contents, if anything, the flag icon might help the post, giving it an edgy air making the post seem more interesting and enticing the viewer to read it.
For the second point, the graying out of the text and hiding of pictures is purely a function of the interface. Steemit.com is only one interface into the underlying block chain. There are other interfaces now, and more can and will be made later. For example, one could write "Pornit.com" which takes all the "nsfw" posts and makes them very viewable, regardless of whether the post was flagged, or making money, or the poster had a low rep.
If you take a look at steemd.com, you'll see that all comments and posts are equally visible, regardless of their status. Even links to the "hidden" images can be seen, and the images viewed by those who really want to.
On the third item, yes the effect on reputation is very real, and it's a part of the block chain. It is good to have a higher rep and I'd hate to lose it,....but again, what does a low rep do? The posts and comments of a negative rep user become much less visible. Their posts become grayed out by default and their comments are hidden. Like I've said above, this is purely a function of the steemit.com interface. Another interface could be written such that all posts and comments are equally visible, and again, you can see this in steemd.com.
The final point concerns money. Yes, flagging will reduce the money that a post makes, and this is fundamental to the block chain. Using different interfaces doesn't change this, if your post gets flagged, it will be making less or possibly no money at all. While losing money is bad and may deter some posters, is this really the same thing as censorship?
If you think denying money to a post is censorship, then I guess every post made on reddit.com is censored. The reddit system does not award any posts or comments with money, so all the material on reddit must be censored, if one used this logic. Clearly this is a silly path to take, denying funds to a post isn't censorship, and if your only goal was to get the word out, then having your post flagged shouldn't be a deterrent.
Conclusion: flagging isn't censorship.
I'm not saying having your posts and comments flagged is a good thing, and I don't want it to happen to me, but don't call it censorship, just call it..well.. flagging.