Ok, since someone from metaquotes will probably come over here in a bit of a huff
I posted a quote from red_silk_robe on the whole community/deletion drama here.
I would imagine that the quote ticked a few people off. I don't know, because I did not enable comment emails. (Thank you members of academics_anon for showing me that shutting off email on potentially touchy topics is a good thing).
So in the interest of answering those pissed off, and to give my usual readers an idea of what someone who studies what I do as a specialty might think of the issue, I will make a few comments.
1. red_silk_robe is exactly right."The First Amendment of the Constitution does not, in any way, shape or form, guarantee you the right to say anything you want, anywhere you want, any time you want, in any form you want. It very specifically says that the Government will not make laws abridging the freedom of speech or of the press. That the Government regularly abuses the First Amendment on it's own is a completely different point."
2. She is also right in noting that this is a spectacular example of poor planning on LJ/SixApart's part. If one were to look at this from a policy perspective, one would find the problem identification and issue framing portions of adopting this policy to be poorly conceived. (To say the least) The implementation was even worse. Suspend now, ask questions later is not a wise strategy. On the upside they did not delete now, ignore questions forever. Undercutting their own abuse people, is really not good, and the PR approach they took should be in every marketing textbook as an example of ineptitude.
3. The vigilante group that may or may not have started the whole thing (I suspect they did but have no useful documentation to state this as fact) is to say the least, disturbing. How bad? I have seen Perverted Justice cited as a "reputable group" by many, in comparison to this group. I never thought I would see Perverted Justice cited and "reputable group" in the same sentence without it being sarcastic. (Yes Yes for the record I am anti-pedo, kiddie porn etc). From my perspective, vigilante groups are pretty much uniformly bad things... and cyber ones are worse because they are so damned hard to hold to any accountability. Add to that the ties to way the hell out there right wing groups (come on admit it, Texas secessionist groups are a bit out there) and yeah I am not personally comfortable with them having much success at lobbying much of anyone to do anything.
4. Frankly, the "innocents" in this probably should have seen it coming. I add quotation marks to "innocents", because frankly, I can understand why a corporate entity would be uncomfortable hosting ageplay, incest, pedo or whatever fic or RPG material on their servers. Is corporate censorship what we would like to have in a free society? No, but one can understand self preservation on a company's part. Obviously there were real innocents impacted and thankfully their journals are being restored. LJ/SixApart had no legal duty to do that, but it was a wise decision.
5. Do I think the protesters should STFU? No. Good for them learning some lessons in civics and collective action. I would encourage this sort of thing. Dissent is healthy. On the other hand they also need to realize that not everyone who disagrees with them are a bunch of fascists intent on oppressing free speech.
6. So who is to blame? LJ/SixApart for massively poor design and implementation of a TOS crackdown, and Communities and users who made themselves targets and didn't back up their stuff.( If you are going to flirt with the borders of A TOS you have to be prepared to get burned ) Pedos are of course responsible for their part.
The scary redneck moral police? Nope. They have a right to seek TOS enforcement in this case. I may not like it, but they played by the rules...
Last. Be nice to the poor abuse people. Yeah I know LJ abuse does not have a spotless record, but no abuse department does. I did abuse at a few net companies and it is a brutal thankless job. You really have zero discretion, just like the LJ abuse people are saying... so please, these folks were almost surely blindsided with this, and are not on a mission to make you miserable... be patient and polite... please
I would imagine that the quote ticked a few people off. I don't know, because I did not enable comment emails. (Thank you members of academics_anon for showing me that shutting off email on potentially touchy topics is a good thing).
So in the interest of answering those pissed off, and to give my usual readers an idea of what someone who studies what I do as a specialty might think of the issue, I will make a few comments.
1. red_silk_robe is exactly right."The First Amendment of the Constitution does not, in any way, shape or form, guarantee you the right to say anything you want, anywhere you want, any time you want, in any form you want. It very specifically says that the Government will not make laws abridging the freedom of speech or of the press. That the Government regularly abuses the First Amendment on it's own is a completely different point."
2. She is also right in noting that this is a spectacular example of poor planning on LJ/SixApart's part. If one were to look at this from a policy perspective, one would find the problem identification and issue framing portions of adopting this policy to be poorly conceived. (To say the least) The implementation was even worse. Suspend now, ask questions later is not a wise strategy. On the upside they did not delete now, ignore questions forever. Undercutting their own abuse people, is really not good, and the PR approach they took should be in every marketing textbook as an example of ineptitude.
3. The vigilante group that may or may not have started the whole thing (I suspect they did but have no useful documentation to state this as fact) is to say the least, disturbing. How bad? I have seen Perverted Justice cited as a "reputable group" by many, in comparison to this group. I never thought I would see Perverted Justice cited and "reputable group" in the same sentence without it being sarcastic. (Yes Yes for the record I am anti-pedo, kiddie porn etc). From my perspective, vigilante groups are pretty much uniformly bad things... and cyber ones are worse because they are so damned hard to hold to any accountability. Add to that the ties to way the hell out there right wing groups (come on admit it, Texas secessionist groups are a bit out there) and yeah I am not personally comfortable with them having much success at lobbying much of anyone to do anything.
4. Frankly, the "innocents" in this probably should have seen it coming. I add quotation marks to "innocents", because frankly, I can understand why a corporate entity would be uncomfortable hosting ageplay, incest, pedo or whatever fic or RPG material on their servers. Is corporate censorship what we would like to have in a free society? No, but one can understand self preservation on a company's part. Obviously there were real innocents impacted and thankfully their journals are being restored. LJ/SixApart had no legal duty to do that, but it was a wise decision.
5. Do I think the protesters should STFU? No. Good for them learning some lessons in civics and collective action. I would encourage this sort of thing. Dissent is healthy. On the other hand they also need to realize that not everyone who disagrees with them are a bunch of fascists intent on oppressing free speech.
6. So who is to blame? LJ/SixApart for massively poor design and implementation of a TOS crackdown, and Communities and users who made themselves targets and didn't back up their stuff.( If you are going to flirt with the borders of A TOS you have to be prepared to get burned ) Pedos are of course responsible for their part.
The scary redneck moral police? Nope. They have a right to seek TOS enforcement in this case. I may not like it, but they played by the rules...
Last. Be nice to the poor abuse people. Yeah I know LJ abuse does not have a spotless record, but no abuse department does. I did abuse at a few net companies and it is a brutal thankless job. You really have zero discretion, just like the LJ abuse people are saying... so please, these folks were almost surely blindsided with this, and are not on a mission to make you miserable... be patient and polite... please