Don’t panic, I’m not about to argue that you have to like it when it’s done. Or that you can’t complain about it; vigorously if you want. But whilst you can be against Censorship, broadly speaking, I suspect most of you probably aren’t actually against self-censorship (unless you’re insane: please read on).

I was quite surprised to find that the conclusion that many readers of my article yesterday, regarding Cartoon Network’s decision to censor it’s show Steven Universe, was that we should never self-censor. This was despite what I thought was a pretty simple example of why self-censorship can be okay.

I typically swear a lot, but I don’t think I’ve ever sworn in the presence of my Gran. We can choose to modify our behaviour and speech to reflect a certain setting and there should certainly be analogous scenarios in media.

you’re saying that they can never be allowed to have secrets

This is not to say that I don’t fluctuate between mildly-irritated and utterly-enraged when I see examples of self-censorship. I think that people often self-censor for the wrong reasons, that self-censorship can empower some of the worst people, and that self-censorship is often done out of fear rather than a rational assessment of the situation (turning it essentially into simple out-and-out Censorship). But you have to support a right to self-censor and here’s why: if you say that people shouldn’t self-censor then you’re asking them to always tell to truth and to always express themselves both fully and honestly. In other words, you’re saying that they can never be allowed to have secrets or choose to withhold.

…but I need to eat so I change it to some leather-dom fetish so as not to freak too many people out…

Allow me to explain. Lets say I want to make a game where I’m the main protagonist (narcissistic I know). I want them to have a love interest and I want it to reflect what I would look for in a partner. I write them exactly as I’d like in terms of personality, and also, they’re furry, and male, because I’m down with that (this is obviously fiction…). But I realise that my target market hates furries. I can’t make the game I want but I need to sell games so I can eat, so I change it to some leather-dom fetish so as not to freak too many people out and hopefully get more customers. I have self-censored, albeit a fairly minor omission. But I have to be free to make that choice. I have to have the power to say what I need to say as well as what I’d like say, if I so choose. A claim that I should never self-censor would doom me to failure in this obviously purely imaginary scenario.

If your first instinct is to explain to me how exactly I could have marketed a game for furries: you’ve missed the point. I need to be able to constrain my own speech as well as to express it. I think it should be clear that I’m against the self-censorship of things like the Steven Universe for example. I’m also completely against capital “C” Censorship across the board. But self-censorship is necessarily different and very difficult to pin down. It can represent a change of the speaker/creator’s view, a genuine respect for the views of others (in spite of disagreement), a desire to protect the wishes of others, a desire to protect yourself, or even simply a desire to do less work (amongst many many other reasons).

Freedom of Speech also means never being compelled to speak

In some cases, as I suggested above, self-censorship can result from fear, in which case it starts to look much more like “actual” Censorship (or it just is). Many times I think people are trying to make exactly this claim, particularly regarding the removal of sexualised elements from games (or even not releasing them in certain places at all – Archive). And none of the above means that you have to agree with any specific example of self-censorship even if it really is just literal self-directed-censorship. As I said in the Steven Universe post, I think we as people have an obligation to call out examples that we think are inappropriate. But I also think that an important part of protecting Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Expression is protecting the right to withhold if you so choose and to never be compelled to speak. In that sense, I think we have to accept that people have the right to self-censor even if we still strongly disagree with their decision to do so.

Respecting these facts makes calling out “bad” decisions to self-censor all the more important.