(no subject)
So far as I can tell from several hours of reading and research, these things are facts:
-LJ deleted ("permanently suspended") on the order of 500 accounts yesterday with no forewarning to the owners.
-Some of these journals appear to have included either descriptions of actual acts of pedophilia or attempts to solicit pedophilia. Some of them were fiction and clearly labeled as such. Some of these included fictional depictions of sexual activity between underage characters (e.g. Harry Potter fanfic in a friends locked community). Some of them were blogs of villains in a fictional roleplaying game (clearly labeled as such and containing no pornographic content of any variety but listing illegal things among their interests). Some of them were blogs for discussion of literary works such as Nabokov's Lolita. Some of them were blogs of survivors of rape or incest or support communities for survivors.
-Owners of deleted accounts were told, when they tried to find out what was up, that their accounts were deleted because they listed illegal activities among their interests and LJ had been told that this could be interpreted as encouraging or soliciting illegal acts.
-Despite over 80 pages of comments to their last post (on unrelated topics) in an LJ news blog, with commenters condemning the 'purge' or requesting clarification, LJ has made no statement to their customers explaining what is going on.
-In that same period, the CEO of the company that runs LJ gave a statement to a (non-LJ) news blog (CNET news) saying that the removal of journals was not for solely legal reasons but because LJ wanted to have a certain type of community and these journals did not fit their image of what that community should be. (To quote: "It was based on what community we want to build and what we think is appropriate within that community and what's not.")
These things are speculation or rumor:
-The action may have been incited by a right-wing religious group threatening to go to LJ's advertisers.
-Owners of deleted journals have been told that there is a mechanism by which they can retrieve the contents of the journal, but that there is no avenue for appealing LJ's decision and restoring the journal.
These things I have read on LJ today:
(these are embedded in the endless pages of comments to the news post, so not providing links, sorry)
-"I've been raped when I was 5, assaulted and harassed throughout my teen years. ... I had to remove "surviving rape" and "surviving sexual abuse" from my interests and it makes me feel awful. It took me YEARS to accept what happened not as a deep dark secret that means I'm the scummiest scum of the earth, but as something very bad that does not make me bad, that gives me an opportunity to maybe help a little, educate a little. I came to peace with my experiences and today, if I come to a situation where I need to state that I am a survivor, I do not lower my eyes when I say that. But now it feels like I've been thrown back ten years and I need to hush around corners again and treat it like a confession of my sin."
-"73 communities and 427 people list 'marijuana' as an interest. 362 communities and 371 people list 'murder' as an interest. 58 people list 'illegal activity' as an interest. But a rape survivors community I frequented was deleted? This is arbitrary and stupid and I'm disgusted by you fucking people."
These are things I am thinking:
-As far as I am aware, no one I know lost their account. No community that I read or to which I belong was deleted. I still care. This still affects me personally because of what it says about LJ as a company, a community, and a medium of communication.
-I believe in freedom of speech.
-I believe that people in power have a responsibility to use that power wisely, which includes both responding quickly and seriously to accusations of pedophilia AND taking the time to investigate those accusations before acting on them.
-I believe that responding to the media before you respond to your customers says a lot about a company's priorities.
-I hear that http://www.greatestjournal.com is nice.
-LJ deleted ("permanently suspended") on the order of 500 accounts yesterday with no forewarning to the owners.
-Some of these journals appear to have included either descriptions of actual acts of pedophilia or attempts to solicit pedophilia. Some of them were fiction and clearly labeled as such. Some of these included fictional depictions of sexual activity between underage characters (e.g. Harry Potter fanfic in a friends locked community). Some of them were blogs of villains in a fictional roleplaying game (clearly labeled as such and containing no pornographic content of any variety but listing illegal things among their interests). Some of them were blogs for discussion of literary works such as Nabokov's Lolita. Some of them were blogs of survivors of rape or incest or support communities for survivors.
-Owners of deleted accounts were told, when they tried to find out what was up, that their accounts were deleted because they listed illegal activities among their interests and LJ had been told that this could be interpreted as encouraging or soliciting illegal acts.
-Despite over 80 pages of comments to their last post (on unrelated topics) in an LJ news blog, with commenters condemning the 'purge' or requesting clarification, LJ has made no statement to their customers explaining what is going on.
-In that same period, the CEO of the company that runs LJ gave a statement to a (non-LJ) news blog (CNET news) saying that the removal of journals was not for solely legal reasons but because LJ wanted to have a certain type of community and these journals did not fit their image of what that community should be. (To quote: "It was based on what community we want to build and what we think is appropriate within that community and what's not.")
These things are speculation or rumor:
-The action may have been incited by a right-wing religious group threatening to go to LJ's advertisers.
-Owners of deleted journals have been told that there is a mechanism by which they can retrieve the contents of the journal, but that there is no avenue for appealing LJ's decision and restoring the journal.
These things I have read on LJ today:
(these are embedded in the endless pages of comments to the news post, so not providing links, sorry)
-"I've been raped when I was 5, assaulted and harassed throughout my teen years. ... I had to remove "surviving rape" and "surviving sexual abuse" from my interests and it makes me feel awful. It took me YEARS to accept what happened not as a deep dark secret that means I'm the scummiest scum of the earth, but as something very bad that does not make me bad, that gives me an opportunity to maybe help a little, educate a little. I came to peace with my experiences and today, if I come to a situation where I need to state that I am a survivor, I do not lower my eyes when I say that. But now it feels like I've been thrown back ten years and I need to hush around corners again and treat it like a confession of my sin."
-"73 communities and 427 people list 'marijuana' as an interest. 362 communities and 371 people list 'murder' as an interest. 58 people list 'illegal activity' as an interest. But a rape survivors community I frequented was deleted? This is arbitrary and stupid and I'm disgusted by you fucking people."
These are things I am thinking:
-As far as I am aware, no one I know lost their account. No community that I read or to which I belong was deleted. I still care. This still affects me personally because of what it says about LJ as a company, a community, and a medium of communication.
-I believe in freedom of speech.
-I believe that people in power have a responsibility to use that power wisely, which includes both responding quickly and seriously to accusations of pedophilia AND taking the time to investigate those accusations before acting on them.
-I believe that responding to the media before you respond to your customers says a lot about a company's priorities.
-I hear that http://www.greatestjournal.com is nice.