Is Hive/Steem the right solution if you want to blog without censorship? Or is a private Wordpress blog the solution? My own experience!

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Yesterday, I noticed a little discussion in the comment field in which @deathcross, @crypto.piotr, and @streamingnews were active. It was about censorship, and in it, Deathcross was very happy about having his own Wordpress blog, as he has full control of it, and doesn't have to worry about censorship (which he feels he really has to worry about here on Steem/Hive).

So, based on several years of experience and testing many platforms, I just want to share some thoughts about censorship. This might be boring information for many, but I believe it can be considered useful as well. So, let us get started!

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Censorship on Steem/Hive

By default, you can write almost anything on Steem/Hive. But, due to the recent conflict, one should be careful about uttering strong opinions about the platforms themselves. That can lead to censorship, big downvotes, and other stuff. But, in general, if you want to write about other topics that don't involve Steem or Hive, you can write most anything without having to worry about censorship.

Censorship on YouTube

YouTube is a video portal that is censoring quite a lot of stuff. They are taking very good care of the rights of content owners, which means that including 1 second of a video without the rights to do so can cause trouble. They are also censoring content which they deem to be harmful. I have often received strikes from YouTube for small video clips in which I have included a few seconds of content from trailers and clips. In general, if they like the video you present (like my articles on what's new on Netflix and more), they don't mind. But, if I take the same seconds and include them in a video that they don't like (how to watch the TV series online on Netflix using a VPN), then they will often give you a strike for the video, which might cause trouble.

Censorship on Medium and Reddit

Medium and Reddit will let you publish content, but if they don't like the content, they will simply remove it and not even give you a warning. In other words, you will not receive any sort of information, and when you visit the pages, you will see your content present. But, other users will not see the content, as it has simply been removed from the platforms.

Censorship on a Wordpress blog (which you have on any blog)

I have a blog about Netflix and how to access different Netflix content. It can be found at http://netflix.fromabroad.org/. At one time, I woke up and discovered that the page had been taken down and went offline. I was told to contact my host, and they told me that they had received a complaint from a company working with Netflix issues. Due to the complaint from a high level, they immediately had my page go offline.

I had to go several rounds with them before the page was opened again, but it gave me a clear message that a blog isn't really safe just by owning your own domain.


If you want to bypass this, you better register your domain and host it in a country that doesn't care much about such complaints. That might be a safer solution, but then once again, you don't know in what way you can trust such a provider in a country that you don't really visit and know anything about.

Is there something to worry about?

If you just want to write about roses, small bugs, or your opinion about the football match between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munchen, you can do so anywhere. Nobody cares. But, if you are going to publish somewhat compromising or debated articles on topics that might cause trouble or unhappy people, then it is worth thinking once again on the topic of censorship and where to publish.

Is censorship such a bad thing?

In a way, censorship isn't really that bad. After all, I wouldn't want just anyone to be able to find out how to create a nuclear bomb or how to create and join a terror cell by searching YouTube. So, in a way, censoring isn't always bad... but, sometimes it is.

What do you think? I just wanted to share my thoughts and insight on the topic. I would love to hear from you!



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27 comments
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I think the best thing is something you own like having a crypto tld where you own the domain, you can "back up" your content there so even if its taken down on the main domain or blog it can still live somewhere censorship-free

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Havent read much about the TLD domains yet, but sounds interesting, maybe something for the future. Might take a closer look at it soon! Thanks for the idea.

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Censorship may start with best intentions and reasonable justifications, but it usually never ends there.

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That is a valid point... Could have been a quote valid for the politics in Hungary as well...

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For day one, I have never love censorship as it does not give that individual this sense of peace over his or her content and wonder why some people are still on the Reddit and medium though where hive can be acceptable for them

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Reddit and Medium are great platforms, it is easy to get an audience and very good domain ratings for both
But, if ypu have something controversial stuff to say, then they are most likely not the best platforms.

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I first thought that blockchain is censorship resistant but seeing the recent events made me lose faith in blockchain as a whole.

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I wouldn't give up on blockchain because of the Hive/Steem war. But, politics always makes things more complicated, and that is what we have seen here recently!

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(Edited)

I think one of the key use cases for open blockchain projects is censorship resistance. If a blockchain project does not provide that then I will typically stay away from it.

If you believe in free speech and the freedom of expression then censorship is obviously a bad thing. On the other hand, if you believe the authorities are censoring to protect the masses then it may not be a bad thing. Ultimately, it all goes down to personal beliefs.

@tipu curate

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Yeah, I have got to agree with you there. The current situation in which YouTube is censoring information from "scammers" about the coronavirus is another point which can be discussed. Is it good to "quiet" the voices of those spreading that kind of information?

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It was now the two-year anniversary of my registration on Steemit.com. Very early, I accidentally found traces of authors who were still expelled and silenced in 2016. Since then, I know that in terms of censorship, the blockchain is no, or hardly better than other platforms. Many times it doesn’t matter that there is no trace of something left; or there’s a trace of something, but no one notices.

I know a politically extreme, often law-breaking European website, I don’t know if Wordpress-based or anything else. The team maneuvers so tricky between secret servers, different hosting countries, and other lines of defense that they haven’t been able to silence them for about 15 years. Of course, there may be huge supporters as well in the background.


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Did you get the error message above as you tried to visit the website right now???

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I checked again, antivirus software is blocking it.
"Reason:
URL listed in database of phishing URLs; 05/27/2020 13:30:08"

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Man, which antivirus program are you using? I need to have it removed from that list. No phishing at all happening there... ARGH! Haven't had such trouble before... Thanks a lot for helping out!

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I have just moved the website from one server to another, and didn't update the name server entirely (with the IP address of the new server), so maybe it can have influenced the thing... hope it was just that. Fixed the problem now, so maybe that will fix it, or maybe not... But, it doesn't sound logical really for that to cause the problem.

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kasperskyClipboard01.jpg

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Man, just looked around, and all website scanners claim the site to be clean, except for Kaspersky... Have no clue why :) No matter what, you have been of great help!

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Man, I think I managed to fix it together with Kaspersky yesterday. Would you mind checking again, http://netflix.fromabroad.org/ - just to see if it is actually working! Million thanks! :)

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No errors or warnings, this time, the site is nice and shows all the pictures.
I just started using Netflix a week ago, so I bookmark it.

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Thanks a lot once again. If you want Netflix news, I also suggest you check the posts in the Netflix & Streaming community here: https://peakd.com/c/hive-118364/created

Posting quite a lot of news about movies and TV shows and Netflix related stuff there!

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Tip received from unbiasedwriter

Thank you.

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Censorship is needed to drive people right, recently @berniesanders account on steemit send dirty pics to my friend @intellihandling without any reason and he was censored as normal social, anarcky never pay!

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