• howrar@lemmy.ca
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    2 days ago

    These kinds of small wording differences are one of the most common ways for news outlets to intentionally spread misinformation. If you already know what the current laws are, you’ll know what actually happened. Otherwise, “declines to block” tells you that there exists pressure to prevent something that is currently allowed. “Allows” tells you that it wasn’t previously allowed without their approval and they granted that approval.

    It could either allow or disallow […]. There isn’t an in-between.

    So in summary, there are exactly four "in-between"s.

    • It was previously allowed, and it is still allowed
    • It was previously allowed, and it is now not allowed
    • It was previously not allowed, and it is now allowed
    • It was previously not allowed, and it still not allowed

    Which would map to each of the following respectively

    • “declines to block”
    • “blocks”
    • “allows”
    • “declines to allow”

    What you’re saying is that it should map to

    • “allows”
    • “blocks”
    • “allows”
    • “blocks”

    Which, besides being inconsistent with how those words are used in every day English, also reduces how much information you receive.