My two cents
My thoughts on the matter:
If a company is going to do a widespread purge like this, that company has an obligation to investigate what they're purging. Are the things getting deleted legitimate threats? Are they accurate, nonfictional accounts that could have serious real life repercussions, or are they simply a lonely man's fantasies, or a ( Read more... )
If a company is going to do a widespread purge like this, that company has an obligation to investigate what they're purging. Are the things getting deleted legitimate threats? Are they accurate, nonfictional accounts that could have serious real life repercussions, or are they simply a lonely man's fantasies, or a ( Read more... )
What wigs me out is this group that stirred the pot on the whole mess, Warriors for Innocence. I've been reading the different updates across LJ about it, and they seem a little...shady. I'm sure they think they're doing the right thing to protect kids, but Jesus christ, if they don't think that actual pedophiles are not smart enough to edit their interests list (if they were that blatant in the first place) or create new journals...what exactly did they accomplish here, besides sending all of LJ fandom into a giant hysteria? I'm not even into any of the "questionable content" being targeted (...I don't even like slash) but this raises my hackles because it's a very, very slippery slope. What's next? Homoerotica? Erotica in general? Where do we draw the line, considering NONE of those fanfic/RPG journals were guilty of any crime. This forced sanitization of the Internet, all with presumably good intentions, is resulting in abridgment of free expression, which was ostensibly the greatest aspect of the Internet. It's worrisome, and it's sad, and the worst part is, I don't even think it's helping to catch child predators.
Unfortunately, I don't think there's a lot that can be done about. The First Amendment only applies to government; private orgs can do whatever they want as long as no evident discrimination is present. (And I don't think fandom was targeted specifically, er, if you could even claim fandom-based discrimination, lol.)
It's kind of why shows like To Catch a Predator kind of freak me out... I mean, they're doing good work, and that particular group works in conjunction with law enforcement, but it seems to encourage vigilantism. And like with what's happening on LJ, vigilantes seldom draw a line between thought and action. It's a very important distinction, and one that must be upheld if we are to be able to express ourselves in public without fear of persecution. These kind of fantasies, however sickening we may find them, are not illegal until they are acted upon. Deleting a journal is a far cry from being arrested, but it stems from the same thought process, and it kind of unnerves me that Six Apart/LJ and the advertisers weren't willing to stand up for free expression - and trust me, I understand what's at stake for them, I can just imagine the headlines if this went to court: LIVEJOURNAL PROTECTS PEDOPHILES and the like. But they could have gone about this in a much more responsible manner, instead of caving to pressure and deleting journals in a knee-jerk reaction that effectively accomplished nothing except freaking a lot of people out.
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