The proper role of censorship

I believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers and magistrates, in obeying, honoring and sustaining the law. This may sound like counter populace thinking or even counter human rights – but hear me out – it isn’t.

Censorship is healthy, appropriate and good for business. Censorship is necessary and prudent.

Consider how we use censorship in marketing. We call it brand management and defend it vigorously. "Mr. Manager you can use these words, this font and these colors only - and if you have a problem with it and can't follow the guidelines - I'll just fire your little fanny and you can work somewhere else."

Companies commonly assert that resellers and business partners must follow their brand guidelines if another company wants to sell their products. They insist on their right to protect the standards of the brand and how the brand is associated with other products.

Maybe you've run crosswise of the brand police in your company...

Censorship frequently shows up in discussions about “customer experience”. We design customer experience into the store front, the web check out process and in the products that we choose to sell online.

If your company sells, Dora the Explorer products to children, you defend your right to censor the inclusion of Playboy, Bud Light or other products that you deem inappropriate to your customers. You apply censorship frequently and regularly in every path of communication that reaches your customers.

At home as a parent I regularly censor my children. If they threaten me or verbally assault me or my wife and the rules we have in our household - I censor them and defend my right to do so. I expect them to behave differently in my home - in my domain.

In the work place, IBM, Microsoft, Google and others censor their employees and defend their right to do so. It is common practice to have workplace rules against the distribution of pornographic material, political flyers and “hate crimes” materials. More examples include prohibitions on how to build a pipe bomb and blow up your boss or slanderous materials that are used against certain races of people.

So why is it that we don't support censorship on a much grandeur scale? Consider Google and their current flap with China. Why is it such a point of conflict for Google to submit to the censorship of China for content China deems inappropriate? China claims the right that Google, Apple, IBM and others claim within their own workplaces. What gives Google the right to impose their standards on China when they so vigorously defend the right to censor their own employees in the United States and in the workplace?

Censorship is appropriate and each entity has the right to censor according to their own defined standards within their own defined domai, whether that be at home, within an Internet property, in the workplace or within a nation.

Censorship when properly applied is used to edit, block, curtail and change content, products and contracts to fit the self-serving needs of kings, presidents, rulers and yes, even companies. It defines standards and protects brands.

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