Recently the server staff received an e-mail telling them to moderate the Discord server and the server chat on what they deem to be “appropriate.”
Below is a message from owner of the server.
Free Speech Under Attack
Dear friends, I don’t often post announcements of this sort, but I feel it’s very important for you all to know what’s currently going on.
From the very start, over 15 years ago, one of the key founding principles of MinecraftOnline has been free speech. What started out as an uncontroversal, common sense policy, has proved to be a cornerstone of this increasingly unique community. As time has passed and Western society has wavered back and forth in its political leanings, free speech has repeatedly come under attack for political reasons. It has now become common to see arrests for posts on social media in countries such as Britain and Germany, in the name of political control, which have overtaken the numbers even of traditionally totalitarian countries such as China and Russia - a truly dystopian nightmare for freedom of expression and personal liberty.
Throughout this decade and a half of change, MinecraftOnline has held steadfast to its libertarian principles, and remained an oasis of freedom and openness in an increasingly closed and controlled internet. That is, until now.
Microsoft, through their subsidiary Mojang, have issued an ultimatum to MinecraftOnline. We have been told to do away with our free speech policy (which long pre-dates Microsoft’s acquisition of Mojang), within 7 days, or face a a permanent block. If that happens, nobody will be able to play on MinecraftOnline again, and the 15-year history of this beloved server will come to a sudden and bitter end. The full email we have received today, signed facelessly only as “Mojang Enforcement”, is included below.
The email makes extremely vague claims about “harmful interactions” and “harmful comments”, and we are asking Microsoft to clarify what specific interactions and comments they consider harmful. In the meantime, please spread the word, share this info on social media. Defend free speech.
-SlowRiot
It’s become really hard to tell what something like this actually means. Does free speech mean being able to speak out against authoritarian power structures? Or does it mean throwing slurs and hatred around? Because one of those things is something worth defending, while the other is a pretty reasonable expectation for a service provider to want to limit.
The fact that they just typify it as having a free speech policy without qualifying what that means makes my skeptical.
In my experience this sort of defense of the concept of unqualified free speech is universally a beacon for bigots to gather around and harass minorities to the greatest extent they can think they can get away with for sport.
Yeah, that’s the conclusion I came to after reading their wiki. It doesn’t make me think it’s a very nice place to be. Like they explicitly only disallow Nazi symbols in the areas covered by German law.
Disregard the binary “free speech” label. Focus on “freedom of speech” instead, since it’s easier to see what goes on with it.
Nobody has full freedom of speech, but you can have more or less of it. It is desirable, and you want to maximise the freedom of speech of everyone.
There’s a catch, though: sometimes enabling more freedom of speech to certain actors means you’re removing freedom of speech from other actors - by forcing the later to leave, by silencing them, by preventing them from reaching a willing audience, etc.
With that in mind:
It’s become really hard to tell what something like this actually means. Does free speech mean [being able to speak out against authoritarian power structures]¹? Or does it mean [throwing slurs and hatred around]²?
It’s both. However:
- #1 is about giving more freedom of speech to a lot of people who barely have some
- #2 is about giving a few individuals freedom of speech and silencing the target of their slurs and hatred
So if you want to maximise freedom of speech, you need to allow #1 and disallow #2. Or like you correctly said, it makes #1 worth defending and #2 reasonable to limit.
The fact that they just typify it as having a free speech policy without qualifying what that means makes my skeptical.
They qualify it in the wiki, and it includes #2:
[…] You will not be banned for anything you say, aside from spamming. This includes but is not limited to: // Swearing; // Personal attacks; // Racial or cultural insults; // Asking to be banned.
Intentionally being insulting or offensive will be treated as an open invitation to PvP, and as such will not be protected by rules against PvP “bullying”, since you will be considered to have invited it. So long as you continue being offensive, other players are free to respond with PvP.
libertarian
Now this is a completely uninformed statement regarding this specific matter, but I hear libertarians calling for free speech in Minecraft and I assume there’s a high chance child grooming is involved. Would love to know more specifics if anyone actually knows.
Child grooming is definitely possible, but I’d say it’s probably more of an “I want to use the n-word!” type thing.
I dunno about child grooming, but certainly something unsavory. The child grooming is more on Roblox these days.
It could just mean they are stupid!
Is this an onion article? Why do they care so much about a Minecraft server?
Corpos value control above even money. Microsoft corpos especially seems to relish in having control over others even if it hurts their market share.
While I do criticise MinecraftOnline policies regarding free speech as short-sighted, enabling hate, and making the world overall a worse place, this is the minor issue here. The major issue is that you got a corporation bossing you around on what you can/can’t do with the copy of the game you bought, including dictating which servers you’re allowed to use it with.
Don’t get me wrong - my issue aren’t the “I wanna spam slurs lol” muppets being silenced, it’s that Microsoft has that power. And it will use that power to silence things you might want to say, even when moral and reasonable to do so.
Remember: if crushing puppies is profitable, you’re bound to have corporations crushing them, and then silencing people who defend puppies as “anti-puppy-crushing terrorists”. Specially given we’re dealing with Microsoft, that is in hot beds with fascists (including Zionists).
