J. P. Messina, "Private Censorship" (Oxford UP, 2024)
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What is private censorship and why does it matter today?
Welcome to the New Books Network.
Hello, and thank you for joining us for this episode of New Books and Philosophy, which is part of the New Books Network. I am Robert Talese. I'm professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University. I co-host the program with Carrie Figter, Malcolm Keating, and Sarah Tyson. My guest today is J.P. Messina. J.P. is assistant professor of philosophy at Purdue University. He specializes in moral, legal, and political philosophy, where he addresses fundamental questions about freedom, authority, political legitimacy, and the like. He also works on topics related to technology, particularly the ethics of data science. His new book has just been published with Oxford University Press. It's titled Private Censorship.
Now, when we think about censorship, our minds might turn to state agencies exercising force to silence dissent. However, contemporary concerns about censorship can arise in contexts where non-state actors are suppressing expression and communication. There are subtle and often not so subtle forms of interference that come from social groups, from employers, from media corporations, and even from search engines. Should these new forms of censorship alarm us? Should we assess them in the ways that mirror our typical views about state-enacted censorship? And if not, how should we think about non-state modes of censorship? Now, in the book Private Censorship, J.P. Messina takes up these broad questions.
He examines a series of emerging sites of non-state censorship, what he calls private censorship, and sorts through the normative, political, and legal issues. In many ways, the book is the beginning of a philosophical conversation about these new modes of censorship. Now, as usual, there's a lot to talk about, but we normally begin with our author and our guest, and we'll do that today. Hi, JP. Hey, Bob. Thanks for having me. Yeah, no problem. Good to talk to you. How have you been? I've been well. Weather's getting warmer in Indiana, so things are good. That's fabulous. You know, we normally begin with, you know, the author saying a few things about himself. Why don't you kick us off that way?
Yeah, sure. So I grew up in central Massachusetts. I ended up in philosophy through sort of a non-traditional path. When I finished high school, I was working as an EMT and I had no real interest in going to college. I was what you might call a bad student in high school. And so it was only because I had parents that I trusted who hadn't gone to college who told me that I was making some sort of a mistake. that I ended up there. I ended up in a physician assistant program, which required me to take a medical ethics class. After taking that class, I found myself sort of hooked. And though it wasn't new for me to neglect my studies, now I was neglecting my studies for different kinds of reasons. And so I ended up
Sort of applying to a master's program and a couple PhD programs, getting into Georgia State. I did my graduate work at UC San Diego with Eric Watkins and Dick Arneson. And then I went to Wellesley College for a year to take up a postdoctoral research position. I spent three years at the University of New Orleans and have landed in central Indiana at Purdue University.
Well, that's fantastic. It's always interesting to hear professional philosophers who have a mixed academic past. I'm one of them as well. So there's some deeper story to be told there. It's unclear how to tell it though. Well, good. So let's begin talking about your book, which I really enjoyed. And let's begin at the ground floor. You know, I suspect you'll agree that the vocabulary we deploy in talking about issues pertaining to what we in the States think of as sort of First Amendment concerns is fraught. And so when writing a book about censorship of any kind, and I guess especially perhaps when seeking to analyze what you call new forms of censorship, some of the conceptual terrain looks like it needs tidying up.
So you're interested in talking about cases where there's censorship, but it's not enacted by
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is private censorship and why does it matter today?
0:01–11:10
2
How does Messina distinguish “new” private censorship from traditional state censorship?
11:10–27:49
3
What philosophical definition of censorship does the book propose?
27:49–42:54
4
Why are workplace and employer‑driven censorship cases ethically significant?
42:54–50:09
5
How does private censorship affect the press and editorial independence?
50:09–56:33
6
What are the key challenges of regulating social‑media platforms as public squares?
56:33–1:04:49
7
How might search‑engine algorithms act as tools of private censorship?
1:04:49–1:07:08
Speakers
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