Mackinnon

The Mackinnon readings made me realize that there are two different kinds of censorship, both of which she discusses, but which she doesn't quite do justice in separating in my opinion. I feel that their is a huge difference in a company like Apple censoring its App store to help its image, and a government censoring entire sections of the web to help its image. Apple is a private company, not government owned (though government regulates all companies), and as such has the option to censor whatever they want especially if they feel that it would harm their companies profits. Being publicly traded and partially owned by shareholders, Apple has an obligation to do things (like censor) that will help make its shareholders more money. If this means taking down apps like an app I heard about some time ago, the "baby shaker app"(more or less what it sounds like, an image and sounds of a baby crying appear and you shake it to get it to stop)then more power to them. If people want to complain about it, then they are in essence complaining about capitalism, because if a company is doing something in its best interest to make money, then there is nothing illegal about censoring certain sections of apps. Just like a grocery store is only going to carry certain brands of groceries, "censoring" in a way what people see and have the ability to buy. This is simply a tool to make money. Government censorship, however, is in my opinion almost always a bad thing. Unless national security is threatened, I feel that the government should not have the right to censor anything that people may want to see published, drawn, written, or filmed. That governments like China censor certain news media simply hides the fact that they are struggling to keep a hold on their people. Fortunately, while this censorship worked for a few years, the coming of the Arab Spring and the overthrow of numerous dictators in the Middle East has shown that government censorship can only hold back a society pushed to the brink for so long. The government should work for the people, and if it has stopped working to protect the people and make their lives better, than the people can and often do overthrow that government to emplace a new one that better serves their needs. And censorship has rarely been successful in preventing the overthrow of governments that need to be overthrown.