South Africa: Groundup Op-Ed – a Stealthy Attempt At Censorship

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Freedom of speech is a fundamental right recognised in our Constitution. But that doesn't mean everyone has to allow that speech anywhere you want to make it. By KEVIN CHARLESTON for GROUNDUP.

You can stop your drunken uncle from uttering his racist rants at your festive dinner table. Commercial enterprises have the right to limit "speech" on their communication platforms if they feel that content is going to harm them, their customers or their investors.

Internet service providers (ISPs) give us a connection to the public internet. For most of us, who cannot afford to host our own web-servers, they also provide shared web servers or hardware. In exchange, we pay them to provide us with a communication platform so that we can exercise our freedom of speech. This is particularly important for activists and critics who might not otherwise have access to places where their points may be heard.

And that's where things get a bit messy.

Dr. Harris Steinman has published his CamCheck website on Hetzner South Africa's shared website hosting platform since 2009. This website focuses on false and exaggerated medical advertising claims. Since almost all public advertising of normal medicines is heavily regulated (and thus there...

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South Africa: Groundup Op-Ed - a Stealthy Attempt At Censorship