School critics face censorship effort

With stories like this, I feel like I'm back in the days of the Internet's initial rise - when the policy of "free speech for me, not for thee" was more explicit than ever before.

A supporter or employee of a private school is demanding that Google yank a group because it criticizes the school. He says the group "has been purely devised as a way of striking back at the school for an expulsion decision."

Too.

Damn.

Bad.

Last I checked, nothing in the Constitution guarantees freedom from insult for schools. Yet this guy wants Google to exercise prior restraint over its groups feature?

It would be different if someone defamed an individual and Google wouldn't delete the post. Yet - without fail - those who support deleting a group criticizing a school are the same ones who defend attacking individuals as free speech.

Of course, if there was a group criticizing a school on Yahoo!, Yahoo! would probably just go ahead and delete the group - considering Yahoo!'s record of censorship.

I'm unfamiliar with the school in this story. But one thing is for sure: Censorship is one of the most virulent tools elites have to stockpile power and keep you down. Not just today, but throughout the history of communications.

Today, Internet gatekeepers support stifling criticism of private schools. In the early 20th century, Ohio banned pro-labor movies for the same reason: to keep elites in power. Surely, this pattern goes back to even the first time a book was banned.