Disturbing censorship on Huffington Post

[MissDeeds]

I read the Huffington Post regularly, but have never posted a comment. Today, however, there was an article about George Zimmerman shopping for a firearm, and I felt compelled to chime in. I posted the following, which I hope is permitted here, and within an hour, had thirteen likes/favorites. Not only were my comments scrubbed, but so were the likes/favorites of other posters and their comments. I am shocked, and feel that we are truly experiencing a new world order. If the DU mods allow this to remain, please let me know what you think, and what might have been so volatile as to warrant deletion. Thanks.


Posted on Huffington Post regarding George Zimmerman shopping for firearms:

"Despicable. This creep is lower than whale poop. If he had any conscience, he would never go near a gun again. Apparently he is emboldened since he got away with killing an unarmed teen in cold blood - it's only a matter of time before he kills again. It is a tragic miscarriage of American jurisprudence that he is free to walk the streets - and buy more weapons."

[NYC_SKP]

1. Nothing wrong with that comment here on DU.

Huffington is odd.

I had a comment removed seven or eight years ago and it made no sense, so I just stopped posting and now I don't even visit the site.

[MissDeeds]

2. I am really shocked

- not just for me, but for the other posters who felt the same and hit the "favorite" button. Damn - is freedom of thought and expression
really in jeopardy? OMG WTH???

[railsback]

3. I get comments scrubbed all the time there

Mostly when I comment on Ariana. That's a no-no unless you lick her toes. I'm not quite sure about the standards, either. So, I'm not surprised.

[MissDeeds]

4. Glad I'm in good company

[winter is coming]

6. Dick Morris must be a god there. n/t

[pennylane100]

5. I think is is because you said the word "poop"

[Neoma]

7. Is that word not allowed?

[MissDeeds]

8. I'm on a mission here

this evening. If they keep deleting me, I'm going to say a lot more than "poop". F' me, I hate censorship of free speech! Thank God for DU. Even if we disagree, we can voice our opinions!

[markpkessinger]

9. HuffPo is pretty notorious for arbitrary censorship . . .

. . . It all depends on the particular moderator. I used to post there fairly frequently, but rarely do these days.

[Supersedeas]

12. exactly, depends on the mod

[markpkessinger]

15. The truly obnoxious thing about it is . . .

. . . that they will block posts that do not, in any way, appear to be in violation of their TOS, and then will not, under any circumstances, explain the decision to block the post.

[SamKnause]

10. Huffington Post

There is no rhyme or reason as to what stands, or gets deleted at the Huffington Post.

They do not permit curse words, but sometimes they even sneak through.

There is no flow of conversation because the blogs take forever to post.

[watch the sky]

11. why I stopped posting there three years ago

no rhyme nor reason to their heavy-handed moderation. I think your post was a little dramatic, but there was nothing wrong with it at all. Don't worry about HP, those people are ???.

[Recursion]

13. A private website cannot engage in "censorship"

HuffPo will keep what they want on their own site, and delete what they don't. Don't take it personally.

[DeSwiss]

14. You are clearly a victim......

...of the whale poop and vomit lobby.

- They don't like it when others make fun of their excretions.

[iBoy2G]

16. Huffington Post is the most censored site on the internet.

Huffington Post needs to be exposed big time. They are literally removing comments based on the MODERATORS POLITICAL BELIEFS. I am a super-user on the site and have hundreds of fans and thousands of favs yet today, I just today got banned (they did not tell me why, but I assume it is because I constantly repost the comments they choose not to publish). Which comments are removed is dependent on the mod you get. Almost every comment is "checked" before it is published, and as a Moderate, I have views on both sites of the isle. I have had pro-ObamaCare comments removed as well as anti-gun control comments! The censorship got so bad that I began posting the comments that Huffington removed on Washington Post, and not one of my comments has ever been removed from WaPo. Plus, it is not just me who is being censored either, they are doing it to everyone. If Huffington Post has removed your comments or banned you, tell someone. submit it as news to a real news site like Washington Post. We need to expose them. I think a lot of the major news sites will be more than willing to publish an article about one of their major competitors censoring people based on political beliefs.

[Malonius]

17. It's insane

I made my HP account in May 2012, and at first hardly anything I said didn't make it to post. Now it's 50%. And that's not counting what they delete, just what doesn't get published. Like you, I am kind of rogue, with points that of view that are all over the place, not just simply left or right wing. And it's only getting worse now that they implemented their new system. I truly hope, like you, that a competing news agency makes a stink out of it someday. It wouldn't be hard to do.