[nailer]

We don't allow businesses to ignore other ethical responsibilities - private companies theoretically aren't allowed to discriminate against or assault people. We shouldn't allow private companies - especially companies that effectively act as common carriers - to shape the messages we're allowed to see.

If your ISP refused to carry, eg, The Guardian because of the fake Duggan headline, would you be pissed off? I would.

[radley]

Strawman / slippery slope.

This isn't an ISP blocking free speech, discriminating against minorities, nor assaulting anyone. It's an ad network that stopped doing business with a company that violated policies.

[nailer]

They're both common carriers. And I don't think there's a policy that's been violated - if there is please let us know since it's likely to be applied to a lot of sites on both sides of politics.

[grzm]

Genuinely curious: do you know precedent that supports the idea of an ad network considered a common carrier? I've seen people claim the same of websites like Facebook or Twitter, but I haven't seen evidence for this either. I've looked for some, but admittedly not extensively.

[nailer]

Was actually thinking of Twitter and FB rather than ad networks. Sorry, I appreciate original article was discussing ad networks, however same argument (no moral expectation of speech for private businesses) is always used to allow Twitter to inconsistency ban accounts that don't meet SF political mores.

[grzm]

Thanks for clarifying. It's still not clear to me that a website is a common carrier. Do you have a reference I can look at regarding the "no moral expectation…" argument?

[nailer]

Re 'no moral expectation of speech for private businesses', a frequent argument made against free speech is that free speech is only required to be enforced by the government, the first amendment doesn't apply to private companies. This is true, but assumes there is no moral imperative to compel private companies to enforce free speech.