Be advised: LJ deleting journals based on interest listings
Per theemdash, xerahanadu and mellanen:
What started out as a rumor now appears to be true: a group calling itself "Warriors for Innocence" or some such nonsense decided that the best way to combat pedophilia on the interwebs was to harass LJ into deleting journals of pedophiles and "potential" pedophiles. Not based on their content- that would require too much work, evidently- but based on their interest lists. Yes. So, if your interests contain words that WfI, in their infinite wisdom, have decided mark you as a pedophile, you are at risk of having your journal "permanently suspended" in lj-speak. (See a list of some of the suspensions here.)
LJ is saying they are concerned that the ability to search by interest makes them liable if pedophiles are using their search function to meet up and is claiming that listing something illegal in your interests violates TOS based on the batshit legal theory that you are "encouraging" an illegal activity by listing, say, "incest" as an interest. WfI is apparently saying they are harassing LJ's advertisers and succeeding; I might buy that theory, given that LJ was apparently stalwart for several days before they started the delete-a-thon.
In any case, if I wasn't so exhausted I would be intensely pissed about the whole thing. Really, the queen jewel in this crown of horseshit is that this little bunch of nitwits, which has not even the slightest stain of legitimacy (as liz-marcs asks: where are their law enforcement connections? and what exactly are they accomplishing besides driving pedophiles underground and punishing thought crime?) have appointed themselves the LJ police...and LJ is just letting them. It's sickening.
Don't get me wrong; the world will not come crashing to a halt over this. But something needs to happen. LJ needs to tell them to fuck off, or we need to stand up and protest loudly enough that somebody notices. I mean, who is more important, a dozen or so little busybodies or the millions of people who use LJ every day?
What started out as a rumor now appears to be true: a group calling itself "Warriors for Innocence" or some such nonsense decided that the best way to combat pedophilia on the interwebs was to harass LJ into deleting journals of pedophiles and "potential" pedophiles. Not based on their content- that would require too much work, evidently- but based on their interest lists. Yes. So, if your interests contain words that WfI, in their infinite wisdom, have decided mark you as a pedophile, you are at risk of having your journal "permanently suspended" in lj-speak. (See a list of some of the suspensions here.)
LJ is saying they are concerned that the ability to search by interest makes them liable if pedophiles are using their search function to meet up and is claiming that listing something illegal in your interests violates TOS based on the batshit legal theory that you are "encouraging" an illegal activity by listing, say, "incest" as an interest. WfI is apparently saying they are harassing LJ's advertisers and succeeding; I might buy that theory, given that LJ was apparently stalwart for several days before they started the delete-a-thon.
In any case, if I wasn't so exhausted I would be intensely pissed about the whole thing. Really, the queen jewel in this crown of horseshit is that this little bunch of nitwits, which has not even the slightest stain of legitimacy (as liz-marcs asks: where are their law enforcement connections? and what exactly are they accomplishing besides driving pedophiles underground and punishing thought crime?) have appointed themselves the LJ police...and LJ is just letting them. It's sickening.
Don't get me wrong; the world will not come crashing to a halt over this. But something needs to happen. LJ needs to tell them to fuck off, or we need to stand up and protest loudly enough that somebody notices. I mean, who is more important, a dozen or so little busybodies or the millions of people who use LJ every day?