LiveJournal is suspending blogs with illegal activities listed in their Interests keywords
Note to those reading this for the first time: The bottom of the post contains updates on the situation, which has been partially resolved, though problems still exist.
The moderator of a fan fiction community that was suspended has posted a letter from the LiveJournal staff in which the staff member states:
"We recognize that many people list these types of interests for shock value, as a method of expressing opposition for these illegal activities, or to indicate fictional activity. Unfortunately, the Abuse team does not have any discretion in these cases; if a journal profile contains interests that support illegal activity, we must suspend the journal."
A summary of the events in the latest purge is available in this post. Here is a list of the affected communities and personal blogs, as far as they've been determined.
This post lists some of the keywords that triggered the LiveJournal staff's suspension of one community. As you can see, they include such keywords as "kidnapping," "rape," and "beating people up."
I would suggest that folks here with LJ blogs do the following:
1) Remove any Interests keywords that relate to illegal activities.
2) If your blog addresses illegal activities in any way, place a disclaimer on your profile page that you do not advocate illegal activities.
At this point, it does not appear that LiveJournal is suspending blogs solely because they contain fiction on illegal activities, so hopefully LiveJournal can get its act together and permit owners of blogs that don't advocate illegal activities to make references to those activities in their Interests. However, at the moment, caution seems best.
Update, 7:53 PM EDT: A PR person for LiveJournal has said that an official statement is forthcoming.
Update, 8:37 PM EDT: A CNET News article includes quotations from the chairman of Six Apart, which owns Livejournal.
Update, 11:51 PM: Five thousand comments have been posted at LiveJournal's official LJ, news. And the only reason there aren't more is that five thousand is the upper limit for comments in a thread. Comments continue in this thread and over at LiveJournal's comm feedback.
A Wikipedia section on the situation has been started at the LiveJournal entry. There's still no official word from the LiveJournal staff. If an official statement is issued overnight, it's likely to be posted at one of the official LiveJournal blogs, or perhaps on the home page.
Some comms that are covering the news regularly are innocence_jihad and fandomtossed (at GreatestJournal).
Dusk (the weary reporter, heading offline soon)
Update, 4:54 AM, May 31: LiveJournal has posted a response.
Update, 6:04 AM, May 31: My response to the response.
Update, 4:15 PM, May 31: I've placed a post-mortem report here.
The moderator of a fan fiction community that was suspended has posted a letter from the LiveJournal staff in which the staff member states:
"We recognize that many people list these types of interests for shock value, as a method of expressing opposition for these illegal activities, or to indicate fictional activity. Unfortunately, the Abuse team does not have any discretion in these cases; if a journal profile contains interests that support illegal activity, we must suspend the journal."
A summary of the events in the latest purge is available in this post. Here is a list of the affected communities and personal blogs, as far as they've been determined.
This post lists some of the keywords that triggered the LiveJournal staff's suspension of one community. As you can see, they include such keywords as "kidnapping," "rape," and "beating people up."
I would suggest that folks here with LJ blogs do the following:
1) Remove any Interests keywords that relate to illegal activities.
2) If your blog addresses illegal activities in any way, place a disclaimer on your profile page that you do not advocate illegal activities.
At this point, it does not appear that LiveJournal is suspending blogs solely because they contain fiction on illegal activities, so hopefully LiveJournal can get its act together and permit owners of blogs that don't advocate illegal activities to make references to those activities in their Interests. However, at the moment, caution seems best.
Update, 7:53 PM EDT: A PR person for LiveJournal has said that an official statement is forthcoming.
Update, 8:37 PM EDT: A CNET News article includes quotations from the chairman of Six Apart, which owns Livejournal.
Update, 11:51 PM: Five thousand comments have been posted at LiveJournal's official LJ, news. And the only reason there aren't more is that five thousand is the upper limit for comments in a thread. Comments continue in this thread and over at LiveJournal's comm feedback.
A Wikipedia section on the situation has been started at the LiveJournal entry. There's still no official word from the LiveJournal staff. If an official statement is issued overnight, it's likely to be posted at one of the official LiveJournal blogs, or perhaps on the home page.
Some comms that are covering the news regularly are innocence_jihad and fandomtossed (at GreatestJournal).
Dusk (the weary reporter, heading offline soon)
Update, 4:54 AM, May 31: LiveJournal has posted a response.
Update, 6:04 AM, May 31: My response to the response.
Update, 4:15 PM, May 31: I've placed a post-mortem report here.