Another day, another successful de-platforming campaign, but when the Internet Archive purges its eponymous cache of the offending texts, a different kind of slight on one’s natural rights is taking place.
In the first instance, those who own or otherwise control the machines that serve up the apparition unmistakably have the moral and legal right to kick out a guest, though naturally subject to rights under an orderly eviction. In the second case, ostensibly professional archivist organizations are choosing what portions of online history are worth preserving and which should be banished to the flames, according to some opaque and invariably ideologically driven principle.
However, a happy fact about technology is that we can use it to free ourselves from total preoccupation with political or philosophical questions.
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