I wrote an article back on Thursday, January 14, 2021 with the title Unruly Passengers Face Up to $35,000 In Fines and 20 Years of Imprisonment: Federal Aviation Administration which quoted Steve Dickson — who is the current administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States — and also featured an official video of him…
What Did I Write That Required a Disclaimer on Twitter?!?
…but when I viewed this message on Twitter which contained a link to that article…
https://twitter.com/Joan_1951/status/1349964971145195522
…I found a disclaimer which warned that “The following media includes potentially sensitive content. Change Settings”…
…and only when I clicked on the word View was I able to view the link to the article which I wrote.
I repeatedly read the article to find out what it contained which earned it that disclaimer. I was unsuccessful. Perhaps the nature of the content is so obvious that it is hiding in plain view from me?
Summary
According to Lexico — which is powered by Oxford — the definition of censorship is “The suppression or prohibition of any parts of books, films, news, etc. that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable, or a threat to security.”
That disclaimer does not apply in this particularly specific situation, of course; but although social media in one way gives billions of people a chance to freely broadcast their voices to be heard by a potential audience worldwide — especially if their messages became “viral” — it also gives those who own or operate its various channels greater power to control what messages are permitted to be sent…
…and the possibility that errors can occur pertaining to the control or censorship of the veracity of the message — and that can be potentially dangerous with regard to freedom of speech.
To be clear, I am not declaring any affiliation, support, or opposition to the person who decided to “retweet” the link to my article, as that was her choice to do so.
I have never been a member of most social media outlets — such as Instagram, TikTok, or Snapchat — simply because I really had no reason to do so; and I reluctantly became a member of LinkedIn and Twitter but am not a prolific user of them…
…but I have to question in which direction social media is going — and if we as a society should be concerned about censorship and restrictions in the foreseeable future…
Photograph ©2020 by Brian Cohen.
