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Comment by function_seven | Hacker News Reader

Posts on the Internet may be pure data, but that doesn't give support for why they should never be removed.

IRL analogy: the dog shit that my neighbor throws onto the sidewalk is pure matter. Just atoms and molecules and such. Should it not be removed?

EDIT: Not that I agree with the 100 sacrificial removals for each good one. I don't. But the "pure data" argument doesn't work for me.

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If you support bad posts being removed from the internet, do you also support bad text being removed from people's hard drives? What about bad thoughts being removed from people's minds?

It's an enormous leap in logic to go from things removed from public forums to private hard drives, let alone one's mind. The fact that creating boundaries is a difficult and messy business does not mean they're not worth creating, even with the flaws.

You sound like things are in absolutes, black and white, it’s not.

Would you remove child porn off the internet? How about a rape victim’s photos and videos? If you could delete something that would cause people to commit suicide, would you?

Why remove when you can show only to specific audiences, ie. police etc. that can do something more than delete the content.

You can delete it and share the information with the proper authorities. In fact that is probably what's done.

Your bizarre, logical, absolutist view of the world is not one the majority of people share. There is a difference between removing the sort of terrible posts that show up on Facebook and thoughts in people's heads. Most people can see the difference. If you can't, I suggest you take some time to consider why other people might see a difference.

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