Censorship

[lolajax]

We should be outraged that Sephora censored an influencer due to her support for Trump. Free speech is a right in this country and half this country voted for him.  Let Sephora know we do not approve of this cancel culture!

[itscarin]

@lolajax I'm not outraged and here's why:

“We were recently made aware of concerning behavior by Ms. Ensing on her social platforms. Most recently, she made light of the violence and tragic loss of life at our nation’s Capitol last month. For this reason, we made the decision to cease all programming with her indefinitely, including having the video she created through an external vendor, taken down,” said a statement from Sephora. 

“Any claim that this decision was made on the basis of political or religious beliefs is inaccurate, we respect each individual’s right to have their own perspectives and freedom of expression. However, Sephora reserves the right to terminate any partnership we deem inappropriate for our brand,” Sephora said in statement.

Just like Amanda Ensing is free to express herself, Sephora is free to express itself by saying they do not want to be associated with Amanda based on her actions.  Amanda could've tweeted that she likes puppies, and Sephora could terminate their contract with her if they decided "puppy-lover" was not aligned with their values.  Everybody is free to do whatever they want. 

Censorship is defined as: the suppression or prohibition of any parts of books, films, news, etc. that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable, or a threat to security.  Sephora doesn't have any control over any type of modes of communication.  Amanda is still free to be herself and do whatever she wants.

Furthermore, you need to understand that there are LIMITS on free speech.  Free speech is not a blank check to do whatever you want.  There are 6 main exceptions to freedom of speech: Incitement; Fighting Words; Obscenity; Defamation; Commercial Speech; and Cases in which freedom of speech is outweighed by an even more compelling interest.  Amanda's tweets fall into the incitement, fighting words, defamation, and cases in which freedom of speech is outweighed by an even more compelling interest.

Check out Amanda's tweets from Jan. 6:

So no, I'm not upset that Sephora extricated themselves from this messy woman.  I'm upset that this messy woman is tweeting qanon conspiracies, promulgating lies about the election meant at undermining our democracy, and defaming people.

[quspork]

@lolajax This is not a free speech issue. Free speech pertains to the the government restricting speech. Private companies are not forced to do business and partnerships with anyone they don't agree with (on any subject). And again, because it's been stated multiple times by many people here, the partnership between Sephora and Amanda wasn't ended because she's a conservative, because she supported the former president, or because she's a Christian. The partnership was ended because of her support of an armed insurrection against the government of the United States.