This is not really a discussion about Steemit, but more like a discussion of the way we communicate on the internet as a whole, and how very Americanised many things are.
For the time being I am trying out the Akasha alpha, and read a guy writing what I have also experienced on the federated twitter-clone Mastodon/GnuSocial (and also a few times here on Steemit) that there had to be some kind of moderators to prevent porno and terrorists. And he is not alone. There are many new users that demand moderation of the content. It worries me a little that even on free, commonly owned networks people are demanding the BIG MOMMY to look over them, without really questioning who this entity actually is.
And it might just be easy to forget when you live in a country that set the standard for what is allowed. But what if you are Norwegian and takes a picture of your lovely wife on the beach... and she is topless? The thing about NSFW, when you think of it, is that it simply follows US morals.
If we imagined a system that was intent on securing that nobody was offended, we would have to remove images of female hair and bodyparts... some Muslims for example would prefer that.
In Scandinavia we have childrens film with naked men jumping around in snow (Ronja Rövardotter), and we are proud of our naked bathing culture!
A good example is a court- and press-case in Denmark: A group of elderly men used to have dinner every year in a summerhouse on a small island, In the morning after the dinner they used to bathe naked in the sea. But in 2013 there was another family on the beach and the family father found that the old men offended his fourteen year old daughter, so he filmed the incident to use on Facebook and as as proof. But then the case flipped on him. Not many on Facebook had sympathy with his cause, and then the tabloid-paper Ekstra-Bladet got hold of the story and the Danish people judged him - and not the old men. In this the people was well in sync with the law, and the father had to pay a fine of about 1000$ to the old men for indecent exposure. (later he got money from the state to take it to a higher court and was allowed not to pay.) So the case ended with nothing really, except for a lot of bad sentiments pointed at the family father. (I think he was a jerk too :)
But had the case been in the USA or Saudi Arabia I believe that the old men would have had to pay... and dearly in Saudi Arabia.
So the NSFW-tag is not for us, and not for people in Indonesia - The only ones whose limits really are respected are US Americans.
So I do prefer an open social network without censorship and moderation. There will of course be discussions. But I see that as much more fertile than a central body of faceless Facebook moderators.
It's religious morals I feel over U.S. morals, but then I am painting an issue with a broad stroke in the same wrong way I think you are on this one. Plenty of decent religious folks, plenty of decent U.S. citizens, it's just ignorant leading ignorant by bad examples and fear no matter of race, religion, etc. I think this is an issue that is past any one culture, this is a world wide issue, ignorance and being satisfied with it. We are all born naked, yet so many fear it.
Yes, I agree. USA is such a big country with a variety of people. I am only talking about that the general consensus when it comes to such matters are very influenced by the strong religious groups in the US, and that it does influence the general way US companies censor. So I belive that you can discuss these matter s of cultural differences based on a generalized view.
It does not necessarily draw a just picture of the culture as such and definitely not its population, but you can discuss how rules and consensus is applied in a country.
Nudity does not have to be sexual. I've been naked swimming in Germany where nobody took offence, as they were mostly naked too. It can be an issue on-line as attitudes vary so much around the world, but you can always look away
Indeed!
"So I do prefer an open social network without censorship and moderation. There will of course be discussions. But I see that as much more fertile than a central body of faceless Facebook moderators."
Rather then being without any censorship I'd like a censorship, which can be freely choosen on every account.
Like add different filters, what for example nsfw means for that account and every post within these filters is tagged as nsfw or banned..
I think you can already both ban nsfw and hide users that you don't want to see... but I am not really sure. If not I guess it will be a feature in the future. But I wouldn't call voluntarily avoiding things for censorship.
No matter what none of these things will not work 100% sureproof for you. If people does not tag themselves you could be exposed to bad, bad things anyway - you need a protocol and a surveillance -staff to prevent such things.
One person's filter is another person's treasure. I used to think just a general NSFW toggled in everyones backend settings would be enough, but now I think the ability though needs to be there where you can filter out any hashtag. If people start abusing that I think that is where flagging and reporting posts will take care of these issues naturally.
How the times have changed :)
A very good point, well made. We are an open community, and are quickly becoming a global one; so cross-moral standards will become an even bigger issue.
I'm all up for a nude bathing culture myself! :-D
Cg
Haha, yes, me too, but that's kind of easy to say for a Dane :)
Yeah, I wish we'd lighten up a bit in the UK :-)
Cg
Sadly the first Brexit-laws you will get is internet censorship and a ban against going to Denmark to make the nude dip in 17° C cold water.
:-)
Censorship is the offensive act in an open ecosystem such as the one here on steemit.
Removing important expressive choices, is onerous and burdensome, especially for creative artists and photographers.
Censorship can chop off part of an artist's vision. Artistic license means the freedom to truly express, by revealing the spices added to our creative projects
The choice is ours, dear steemians, right on the settings tab.
I have never been afraid that information, things you can only see or hear should harm anybody, but I am afraid of the people that believe that you can be harmed by such things.
A good point @katharsisdrill. People that believe that you can be harmed by such things are fear not reality based.
It is best to respect all so nsfw should be a place for those who want to self censor. It is a win win situation for all. Self regulation is best model.
i like the 2nd photo white butt hahaha
be nice if you could switch it off and on in settings i guess.
Yes, agree, but as I wrote this is not really about Steemit.
NSFW is not about Americans. It's about American company Steemit that must obey US laws. Government have laws of censorship. So, to avoid being censored you must become anonymous. There is Understeem that's supposed be without censorship.