PayPal has been getting some (IMHO well deserved) flack recently for leaning on publishers of erotica to clean up their act. Just how PayPal wormed its way into this mess is a bit murky--but more murky is why the company is just now getting upset about it. The Wall Street Journal presents a nice summary of the current situation, click here to read it.
We all know Apple does not allow nudity or erotica in materials consumed via its technology. I guess that is fair--after all, it is their printing press (uh, digital delivery platform), but even that makes me a little edgy when it comes to thinking about the freedom of the press down the line.
If the companies that provide the delivery platform and the companies that process the payments object to certain types of content, that makes me nervous about the rights of liberty. And don't tell yourself it is okay not to worry because they are just talking about the publishers of erotica. As Pastor Martin Niemöller expressed it in his well-known poem:
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
