While open source is often regarded synonymous with free (as in freedom), this is not always the case. Some Mastodon clients have implemented censorship in the way of hard-coded domain blocking, by forwarding Gab users to a RickRoll video instead of allowing them to log in. While this is allowed in GPL, it is clearly against the spirit of free software, making applications employing such...
I presented a paper titled ‘Hate speech recognition AI – a new method for censorship?’ (Heimo, Naskali & Kimppa 2018) at Ethicomp 2018 this Monday. The paper looks at the problems of modern governmental censorship using AI. In it we argue that there is no major ethical theory in which the censorship itself is justified, and that the use of AI in censoring hate speech is an immoral act in...