Steem is still censorship resistantsteemCreated with Sketch.

in steem •  6 years ago  (edited)

One of the biggest problems we're currently facing, in general over the world but especially in cryptocurrencies, is: Fake News.

Some of this fake news is being shared with the knowledge of it being not true, but sadly, quite a lot of people are sharing fake news, because they don't know any better.

Now, you might have seen it already - there is currently a small sh*t-storm brewing, because people on the internet believe that the recent action from Steemit Inc to censor @thedarkoverlord on Steemit.com, means that Steem as a blockchain is not censorship resistant.


steem_apps.png


Which is the farthest away from the truth as you can get.

Steem is a censorship free blockchain, which has multiple UIs that you can use to interact with it.

One of them, Steemit.com, decided that the said user is violating their ToS and decided to take action. That's their right. That's what Terms of Services are for. Steemit Inc has legal liabilities. I'm saying this without judgement.

But since Steem, as the blockchain fundament is censorship-free, you can either get the data directly (for example by running a local version of Steemit.com, called condenser) or by using other interfaces. Luckily, we have a few of those:

https://steemapps.com/type/interface



Now, I'm also writing this post, because a few minutes ago, I saw a tweet by a relatively big blogging site, called https://cryptoslate.com/, which tried to argue that Steemit was the most meaningful UI and them censoring an account, would mean the blockchain is also failing "its purpose".

Which again, is completely wrong!

And because I stand to that belief, I tweeted them:



I'm not sure if I get anything back or if they are too stuck up in their belief that they won't accept anything else. But that's not why I wrote it in the first place.

I tweeted to them, because I believe we need to take a stance as people who know better about Steem. There is simply too much negative news about Steem, which is often times not accurate and if we don't do anything - the negative stigma will only become bigger.

So my call to action is the following:

Call To Action

If you see wrong statements or facts about Steem and you're able to say/write something about it, then please take action. Often times, the people making these statements are doing it because they don't know any better. And it's our task (nobody is forced!) to let them know what the truth is.

If we all do this, as one of the biggest crypto-communities, we will be able to have an impact!

We are Steem!

All the best,
Wolf


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I found the subject of censorship wonderful a few days ago when I and @ crypto.piotr talked in my post along with over fifty people about censorship and privacy on Steem. I have always said that there may be censorship at the front-end level but never in the blockchain, because for this, it is necessary to change the blocks with the information and remake them to the last mined block, thus creating a totally impossible case.
Steem's blockchain remains an uncensored site, but we need some solution to the centralized server environments, which I believe is the reason we have the single point of failure.

Censorship and moderation are hot topics. The steem bot wars of 2017 made it clear there are issues that need to be discussed and some sort of consensus reached. I feel that there is a place for moderation but like the NSFW option its good to hide or discourage certain content that doesnt resonate with the values of the community. Its a slippery slope. Best of luck to all Steemians with altruistic intentions in 2019. Even those self serving Steemians should still strive to do what is right for the overall benefit of the platform since the financial incentive is there.

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Exactly, like Steemit Inc was getting covered about the 70% layoff after Steem was ignored for years. The moment something bad happens it's all over the place and even then usually gets misinterpreted.

Censorship will always be exposed, whether who expose it fool or wise man, always the freedom of speech changed people's lives, as G. Orwell once said,"In time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary action."

Im in Action for days now! At least in the german community.

I also often have to explain why flagging is no censorship and really a useful and important tool.

Anyways. Thanks for your words :)

This has probably nothing to do with flags in this case. I believe that the banned had distributed or referenced the hacked leaks here and this violates the guidelines by steemit.

I saw the same kind of FUD on Twitter, which was especially jarring because haters were replying to a link to an article that clearly explained the difference between Steemit.com and the Steem blockchain. Of course I tweeted about it. This was a rare case where I decided it would be useless to reply to criticism from biased people directly.

I thought is was a bit unfair that the account page is shown as one that does not exist... it does... just not on steemit anymore.

Transparency is the only way for people to regain trust in STINC. Normally it is considered common courtesy to leave a public comment when you flag a post. You would think a similar courtesy notice would appear when someone's account suddenly disappears publicly. That's my two cents.

Other than that, I tend to agree. We are still a censorship free blockchain, and I think that's awesome. If people want to cause drama and flag everything, I don't really have to care. I can still upload all my content, and I feel it's much more free than posting to google or facebook that might sue me some day for stealing my own content, or more likely charge me a fee or sell it to others without my permission.

People spread the false reality and we need to take action to tell the truth.

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This type of call to action is the one we need to rally steemian. Protec STEEM!

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Great points. The community definitely needs to help people realize there's more to Steem than steemit....

How can this guys write an article without knowing the main difference? I guess i could become one as well, inventing fake shit just to maintain the audience? I'm part of croatian group that share informations about cryptos and blockchain in general, and trust me, many of them(who are btw well informed) think of steemit as steem... I explained them the difference and ecosystem but obviously they can't get it. So frustrating.

This is why we must also continue to demonstrate that Steemit is not Steem as they continue to drive the perceived value of the protocol lower. That is the real campaign that will be fostered. I will give it a retweet shortly!

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although its shit, sometimes bad news is good news. people are talking about steem more and if people at the same time are saying that the fake news is wrong then it should combat the initial bad press.

I will follow you on Twitter @therealwolf so that I can support the comments you make like this.

It might help to create a website for "Smartmobs" so that we can organize ourselves, and support each other by advocating for Steem.

An example would be creating a site with a list of Tweets, Facebook posts, etc. That should be "liked", shared and supported by the Steem community @therealwolf.

If we can organize like that, the Steem community will take the cryptocurrency market and even society by STORM!

Let's close the steemit.com website. It makes people confused what Steem and Steemit is.

Same here, been seeing lots of FUD about censorship on twitter... been correcting most of them with no responses 😂

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This post has been included in the latest edition of SOS Daily News - a digest of all you need to know about the State of Steem.



Whatever you say, wolf. The fact remains, action was taken to reduce the chances of the content being seen. It is the same as flagging and maniupulation of metrics in order to favor the exposure of some content over others. These are just the sort of dishonest shenanigans and flaky cover up narratives I have come to expect from certain whales here at steemit. It does not suprise me at all.

I dunno man, Steemit is the main interface people use to view steem, whilst there are other options available most new users that I know use Steemit.com. We really need to find a way to make people realise steemit isnt steem but at this point for the most part the two are so intertwined to everyone outside the community that is going to be a hard task,

Ideally, the most decentralized way to access the Steem blockchain is to use a local app developed anonymously, not a website which will be subject to regulation. Unfortunately this requires more technical sophistication because downloading anything that involves finance without being able to check the source, reputation or check the hash is asking for trouble.

A lie travels half way around the world before the truth gets its boots on - Mark Twain.

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Yes fake news spreads fast.