Update on proanorexia
I've received a response from LJ Abuse.
Dear LiveJournal user thevelvetsun,
Let me first apologize for the length of time it has taken to respond to your concerns. This delay was because the LiveJournal Abuse Prevention Team has been experiencing unusually heavy demands on its resources over the past few weeks.
I have reviewed the links that you have provided and have determined that they do not contain material which violates LiveJournal's Terms of Service (http://www.livejournal.com/legal/tos.bml).
In general, LiveJournal's policies allow as much freedom of expression as possible, even in cases where this is very distasteful. Content is removed only if certain conditions are met. In the case of self harm, we do not consider this simple discussion of it to be a violation of our policies. This is due to our opinion that simply posting about engaging in harmful behavior is unlikely to change whether or not an individual actually engages in that behavior.
As stated in the policy you have linked to at http://www.livejournal.com/abuse/policy.bml#selfharm, content must both instruct others on how to engage in harmful activities, and encourage them to do so. There are a few notable exceptions to this, but all of them specifically require incitement of others to engage in harmful activity, or solicit information on how to engage in harmful activities.
Examples relevant to communities such as proanorexia include content which solicits information on how to hide their eating disorderor harmful eating habits from friends & family, or content which explicitly discourages people from seeking help for their disorder.
It is also important to note that in communities such as this, determining what qualifies as truly harmful behavior is quite difficult. Much of the advice, dieting tips, or entries about short term fasting could indeed be harmful to an underweight individual suffering from anorexia nervosa. However, this same information would not be actively harmful to most people, even if it may be poor advice, or unhealthy dieting tips.
We do not believe it is appropriate to make assumptions about a person's health to determine whether an activity would be harmful for that individual, even if the content is posted to a community with a name such as proanorexia. While many people assume that all or most members of such communities suffer from anorexia nervosa, my personal experiences with reports about the proanorexia community give me the impression that approximately 10-15% of the community's members actually have this eating disorder. Regardless, I do not believe it is the Abuse Prevention Team's role to be the doctor, nutritionist, or psychiatrist for LiveJournal users, and do not feel we should refuse service to anyone simply because it is likely that they should be consulting with one or more of these groups of people.
LiveJournal fully recognizes that anorexia is harmful and that there are communities which are dedicated to maintaining a lifestyle that has the potential to cause harm. Speaking strictly from a safety and protective stance, we would of course prefer it if none of our users participated in any way in potentially harmful or dangerous activities, and if those communities had no reason to exist. We realize that these disorders can be harmful to the health of those suffering from them, but we must also recognize that the activities being discussed are not illegal. Because this is such a serious matter, I wish to go over each link in detail with you:
http://community.livejournal.com/proanorexia/47176758.html
In this entry, the user does indeed solicit advice on how to continue fasting, which may be harmful to this individual. However, it is not our role to make an assessment of this user's health and determine whether or not this behavior is or is not harmful to them. It is also important to note that several users responded indicating that the user eat or drink something, despite her initial entry asking for advice that did not involve eating. Another poster also discouraged her from taking an aspirin as she mentioned, since her stomach is empty and it could cause harm. In short, the advice they are receiving is slightly helpful, if not the best advice possible. I also believe that this individual would not be at all receptive to any statement indicating they do what is likely to be the best course of action, which is to resume normal eating habits.
http://community.livejournal.com/proanorexia/47255184.html
This user has made statements about their progress on a weight loss plan. Regardless of whether or not this plan may be harmful to the individual, we do not take action on such statements as explained above.
http://community.livejournal.com/proanorexia/47254138.html
This qualifies as a user making a statement about having succesfully fasted for a day. This would require an assessment of the individual's health to determine if it was unhealthy for them, which, as stated above, is not an appropriate assessment for us to make. Regardless, this is simply a statement, and as such would not be a violation of our policies even if we could determine that it was harmful behavior.
http://community.livejournal.com/proanorexia/47253459.html
This entry has been deleted either by the original poster, or a maintainer/moderator of the community.
http://community.livejournal.com/proanorexia/47250212.html
The user is soliciting encouragement to not eat. Again, this might be harmful for this individual, it might not be, but such an assessment should be made by medical professionals, and would require considerably more information about this person.
We do take reports such as yours very seriously. If you encounter material in this or any other community which appears to violate our policies as explained above, please do report it by opening a new request following the instructions given in http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=105. We will evaluate the links you provide, and determine if the posts do in fact cross the line of what we permit on our service.
However, we will not suspend any community as a whole simply because it is devoted to discussing an eating disorder. We do not feel that restricting access to someone based on a disorder they have, or lifestyle choice they have made, is appropriate. This hold true even if, in our opinion, the disorder or lifestyle choice may be bad or potentially harmful.
I thank you for your concern and appreciate you taking the time to write to us about this very sensitive matter.
Regards,
Mark Ferrell
Manager, LiveJournal Abuse Prevention Team
According to the 1,300 people who signed my Open Letter, proanorexia was in violation of the TOS. Livejournal, however, sees it differently. Even when confronted with specific entries, they refuse to acknowledge how dangerous that community is. That community is still the #1 search result on google. Countless girls could be endangering themselves because of it. Maybe Livejournal cares more about the new users they will get because of that fact, instead of the health of those girls. How many of their inactive members have died?
I've also written to my Elected Officials.
According to the NEDA, "Anorexia Nervosa is a potentially lethal disease and has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness."
Why does a disease with such a high mortality rate not have sufficient insurance coverage?
Many people who suffer from anorexia end up in bitter struggles with insurance companies that refuse to provide them with treatment. The majority of people can't afford treatment on their own.
CBS did an article about this, found at http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/04/earlyshow/contributors/melindamurphy/main2059820.shtml
Insurance companies need to start offering better coverage of this disease. For many anorexics, getting proper treatment is the only way they will survive. The decision of an insurance company can be the difference between life and death.
I urge you to please consider using your influence to help the people who suffer from this disease.
I've done all I can do. This will be my last entry on the matter, so if you friended my journal just to see the updates you might as well defriend me now.
Feel free to comment if you would like to discuss this, but keep in mind if you insult me, swear, or are overly rude I will delete your comment and ban you from commenting again.
Thank you very much to everyone who has supported me in this.
EDIT: I know I said I was done with this, but then I saw a new entry that made my stomach drop. Livejournal can't allow this.
Abuse Report tracking #800539.
http://community.livejournal.com/proanorexia/48741791.html
"So today is the seventeenth day of my 21 day fast. Ive been doing well, but today i feel DEAD."
Clearly this is an example of self-harm. Simply by making this post, this user is encouraging others to do the same. All the comments to this entry are encouraging this girl to continue to fast.
In a response to a previous Abuse Report, you said "We do not believe it is appropriate to make assumptions about a person's health to determine whether an activity would be harmful for that individual."
There are no assumptions needed to see that this girl is starving herself to death, being encouraged to do so, and also encouraging other girls.
This is blatantly against the Terms of Service.
I'll update if/when I get a response.
EDIT 2: Response below...
Dear LiveJournal user thevelvetsun,
Thank you for your report. We have taken the appropriate action regarding this entry.
Regards,
Zoe
LiveJournal Abuse Prevention Team
The entry is still there, so I'm thinking maybe they gave the girl a 'strike' and told her to delete it within 3 days? If they were going to do nothing I think they would have said so in their response. We'll see, I guess.
I asked them to clarify what 'appropriate action' means, and they responded with this:
Dear LiveJournal user thevelvetsun,
In this case, the user has been asked to remove the entry in question. As this has already been accomplished, we will now consider the matter closed.
Regards,
Zoe
LiveJournal Abuse Prevention Team
Dear LiveJournal user thevelvetsun,
Let me first apologize for the length of time it has taken to respond to your concerns. This delay was because the LiveJournal Abuse Prevention Team has been experiencing unusually heavy demands on its resources over the past few weeks.
I have reviewed the links that you have provided and have determined that they do not contain material which violates LiveJournal's Terms of Service (http://www.livejournal.com/legal/tos.bml).
In general, LiveJournal's policies allow as much freedom of expression as possible, even in cases where this is very distasteful. Content is removed only if certain conditions are met. In the case of self harm, we do not consider this simple discussion of it to be a violation of our policies. This is due to our opinion that simply posting about engaging in harmful behavior is unlikely to change whether or not an individual actually engages in that behavior.
As stated in the policy you have linked to at http://www.livejournal.com/abuse/policy.bml#selfharm, content must both instruct others on how to engage in harmful activities, and encourage them to do so. There are a few notable exceptions to this, but all of them specifically require incitement of others to engage in harmful activity, or solicit information on how to engage in harmful activities.
Examples relevant to communities such as proanorexia include content which solicits information on how to hide their eating disorderor harmful eating habits from friends & family, or content which explicitly discourages people from seeking help for their disorder.
It is also important to note that in communities such as this, determining what qualifies as truly harmful behavior is quite difficult. Much of the advice, dieting tips, or entries about short term fasting could indeed be harmful to an underweight individual suffering from anorexia nervosa. However, this same information would not be actively harmful to most people, even if it may be poor advice, or unhealthy dieting tips.
We do not believe it is appropriate to make assumptions about a person's health to determine whether an activity would be harmful for that individual, even if the content is posted to a community with a name such as proanorexia. While many people assume that all or most members of such communities suffer from anorexia nervosa, my personal experiences with reports about the proanorexia community give me the impression that approximately 10-15% of the community's members actually have this eating disorder. Regardless, I do not believe it is the Abuse Prevention Team's role to be the doctor, nutritionist, or psychiatrist for LiveJournal users, and do not feel we should refuse service to anyone simply because it is likely that they should be consulting with one or more of these groups of people.
LiveJournal fully recognizes that anorexia is harmful and that there are communities which are dedicated to maintaining a lifestyle that has the potential to cause harm. Speaking strictly from a safety and protective stance, we would of course prefer it if none of our users participated in any way in potentially harmful or dangerous activities, and if those communities had no reason to exist. We realize that these disorders can be harmful to the health of those suffering from them, but we must also recognize that the activities being discussed are not illegal. Because this is such a serious matter, I wish to go over each link in detail with you:
http://community.livejournal.com/proanorexia/47176758.html
In this entry, the user does indeed solicit advice on how to continue fasting, which may be harmful to this individual. However, it is not our role to make an assessment of this user's health and determine whether or not this behavior is or is not harmful to them. It is also important to note that several users responded indicating that the user eat or drink something, despite her initial entry asking for advice that did not involve eating. Another poster also discouraged her from taking an aspirin as she mentioned, since her stomach is empty and it could cause harm. In short, the advice they are receiving is slightly helpful, if not the best advice possible. I also believe that this individual would not be at all receptive to any statement indicating they do what is likely to be the best course of action, which is to resume normal eating habits.
http://community.livejournal.com/proanorexia/47255184.html
This user has made statements about their progress on a weight loss plan. Regardless of whether or not this plan may be harmful to the individual, we do not take action on such statements as explained above.
http://community.livejournal.com/proanorexia/47254138.html
This qualifies as a user making a statement about having succesfully fasted for a day. This would require an assessment of the individual's health to determine if it was unhealthy for them, which, as stated above, is not an appropriate assessment for us to make. Regardless, this is simply a statement, and as such would not be a violation of our policies even if we could determine that it was harmful behavior.
http://community.livejournal.com/proanorexia/47253459.html
This entry has been deleted either by the original poster, or a maintainer/moderator of the community.
http://community.livejournal.com/proanorexia/47250212.html
The user is soliciting encouragement to not eat. Again, this might be harmful for this individual, it might not be, but such an assessment should be made by medical professionals, and would require considerably more information about this person.
We do take reports such as yours very seriously. If you encounter material in this or any other community which appears to violate our policies as explained above, please do report it by opening a new request following the instructions given in http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=105. We will evaluate the links you provide, and determine if the posts do in fact cross the line of what we permit on our service.
However, we will not suspend any community as a whole simply because it is devoted to discussing an eating disorder. We do not feel that restricting access to someone based on a disorder they have, or lifestyle choice they have made, is appropriate. This hold true even if, in our opinion, the disorder or lifestyle choice may be bad or potentially harmful.
I thank you for your concern and appreciate you taking the time to write to us about this very sensitive matter.
Regards,
Mark Ferrell
Manager, LiveJournal Abuse Prevention Team
According to the 1,300 people who signed my Open Letter, proanorexia was in violation of the TOS. Livejournal, however, sees it differently. Even when confronted with specific entries, they refuse to acknowledge how dangerous that community is. That community is still the #1 search result on google. Countless girls could be endangering themselves because of it. Maybe Livejournal cares more about the new users they will get because of that fact, instead of the health of those girls. How many of their inactive members have died?
I've also written to my Elected Officials.
According to the NEDA, "Anorexia Nervosa is a potentially lethal disease and has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness."
Why does a disease with such a high mortality rate not have sufficient insurance coverage?
Many people who suffer from anorexia end up in bitter struggles with insurance companies that refuse to provide them with treatment. The majority of people can't afford treatment on their own.
CBS did an article about this, found at http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/04/earlyshow/contributors/melindamurphy/main2059820.shtml
Insurance companies need to start offering better coverage of this disease. For many anorexics, getting proper treatment is the only way they will survive. The decision of an insurance company can be the difference between life and death.
I urge you to please consider using your influence to help the people who suffer from this disease.
I've done all I can do. This will be my last entry on the matter, so if you friended my journal just to see the updates you might as well defriend me now.
Feel free to comment if you would like to discuss this, but keep in mind if you insult me, swear, or are overly rude I will delete your comment and ban you from commenting again.
Thank you very much to everyone who has supported me in this.
EDIT: I know I said I was done with this, but then I saw a new entry that made my stomach drop. Livejournal can't allow this.
Abuse Report tracking #800539.
http://community.livejournal.com/proanorexia/48741791.html
"So today is the seventeenth day of my 21 day fast. Ive been doing well, but today i feel DEAD."
Clearly this is an example of self-harm. Simply by making this post, this user is encouraging others to do the same. All the comments to this entry are encouraging this girl to continue to fast.
In a response to a previous Abuse Report, you said "We do not believe it is appropriate to make assumptions about a person's health to determine whether an activity would be harmful for that individual."
There are no assumptions needed to see that this girl is starving herself to death, being encouraged to do so, and also encouraging other girls.
This is blatantly against the Terms of Service.
I'll update if/when I get a response.
EDIT 2: Response below...
Dear LiveJournal user thevelvetsun,
Thank you for your report. We have taken the appropriate action regarding this entry.
Regards,
Zoe
LiveJournal Abuse Prevention Team
The entry is still there, so I'm thinking maybe they gave the girl a 'strike' and told her to delete it within 3 days? If they were going to do nothing I think they would have said so in their response. We'll see, I guess.
I asked them to clarify what 'appropriate action' means, and they responded with this:
Dear LiveJournal user thevelvetsun,
In this case, the user has been asked to remove the entry in question. As this has already been accomplished, we will now consider the matter closed.
Regards,
Zoe
LiveJournal Abuse Prevention Team