Six Apart Deletes 500 LiveJournals, Many Fannish
- By Melissa Wilson
- Published 05/30/2007
- Fandom
-
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Melissa Wilson
View all articles by Melissa Wilson
Starting yesterday, Six Apart began mass deletions of user and community journals from high-profile property LiveJournal based on hot-button keywords. Bullied by a snooper group calling themselves "Warriors For Innocence," Six Apart caved to pressure and deleted journals featuring the interests "rape," "incest" and terms that involve child molestation. While this move apparently did shut down a handful of communities geared towards pedophiles, most of the terms were found in (and became cause for permanent suspension of), unrelated others.
Included:
- Rape survivor support groups.
- Incest Survivor support groups.
- Rape, incest, and pedophilia survivors' personal journals.
- Character-based RPG journals.
- A discussion group for the novel Lolita.
In an interview with cNet, Six Apart CEO Barak Berkowitz said: "We did a review of our policies related to how we review those sites, those journals, and came up with the fact that we actually did have a number of journals up that we didn't think met our policies and didn't think they were appropriate to have up."
Prominent LiveJournal users such as writer Warren Ellis have withdrawn their support from Six Apart as a result of this action.
On his personal blog, Ellis said: "Until such time as LiveJournal/Six Apart work out how to tell the difference between fantasy fiction communities/support groups/fashion discussion communities/survivor histories and actual criminal use and traffic, and restore those fiction groups and survivor support teams to full working order, my own LiveJournal will become read-only, and I will produce no new content to be read on that system. I do believe that some stupid people got what was coming to them today. But a lot more people have been mistreated by LiveJournal for no reason beyond blind panic. I see no reason to tacitly support that by continuing to write under a LiveJournal URL."
Of special note is Ellis' otherwise active participation in LiveJournal culture, including personally paying for the account of hugely popular comics-based community Scans Daily.
Other fans have gone up in arms as well, promoting a massive fannish migration to friendlier services such as JournalFen and GreatestJournal. JournalFen has the advantage with a wide array of fans already members there due to the banishment of Fandom Wank from LJ years ago. Other fans have begun a protest community called
Fandom Counts, which is attempting to tally the number of fen who use LJ in their fannish pursuits. The most recent LJ News post had at this writing over eighty pages of angry comments from users.
Firefox News has attempted without success to contact Six Apart via phone and email for comment. We have nothing polite to say to Warriors for Innocence.
Included:
- Rape survivor support groups.
- Incest Survivor support groups.
- Rape, incest, and pedophilia survivors' personal journals.
- Character-based RPG journals.
- A discussion group for the novel Lolita.
In an interview with cNet, Six Apart CEO Barak Berkowitz said: "We did a review of our policies related to how we review those sites, those journals, and came up with the fact that we actually did have a number of journals up that we didn't think met our policies and didn't think they were appropriate to have up."
Prominent LiveJournal users such as writer Warren Ellis have withdrawn their support from Six Apart as a result of this action.
Of special note is Ellis' otherwise active participation in LiveJournal culture, including personally paying for the account of hugely popular comics-based community Scans Daily.
Other fans have gone up in arms as well, promoting a massive fannish migration to friendlier services such as JournalFen and GreatestJournal. JournalFen has the advantage with a wide array of fans already members there due to the banishment of Fandom Wank from LJ years ago. Other fans have begun a protest community called
Fandom Counts, which is attempting to tally the number of fen who use LJ in their fannish pursuits. The most recent LJ News post had at this writing over eighty pages of angry comments from users.
Firefox News has attempted without success to contact Six Apart via phone and email for comment. We have nothing polite to say to Warriors for Innocence.
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Comments
Comment #1 (Posted by Leva Cygnet)
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Thank you, Missy
Comment #2 (Posted by an unknown user)
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Thank you.
Re: the Fandom_Counts page, all the info regarding what's going on there is on the profile page (http://community.livejournal.com/fandom_counts/profile) in several languages. The page linked to in the story above is blank, and may confuse people. Last count on fandom_counts was about 14200 and growing about 3 per second.
Comment #3 (Posted by Jo)
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That last line made my day. Thank you.
Comment #4 (Posted by Clarke)
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Thank you very much for this post. I'm very relieved to see impartiality, which I hope to see more of when this story breaks even wider open. I, also, am glad to see the information on WFI from the LJ group that keeps track of dominionist groups.
Comment #5 (Posted by Alex Pearson)
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Actually, the first seven or so pages of comments on the above linked LJ news entry were on the content of that news article. Then there's a mix of angry, reasoned, and questioning comments.
Comment #6 (Posted by Anne)
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Thank you for reporting this. Great reports!
Comment #7 (Posted by Gwen)
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Do they not realize that pedos generally try to stay under the radar and DON'T flaunt their sexual inclinations? In theory, this might've worked -- and as stated, LJ/SA did manage to get rid of users and communities that were of genuine concern. Which is all well and good, but somewhere along the line, someone got their wires crossed & went on a crazy power trip. I wasn't affected by "the great slashout", since I'm not even remotely involved in any fandoms, or whatever, but I do feel for those who were unfairly wiped out. To add insult to injury, it seems we've had more info & updates from WFI, not LJ.
I think the users, especially PAYING users, deserve some official explanation. Show us the dedication we've shown you, livejournal!
Thank you for the article.
Comment #8 (Posted by crimes_of_enoch)
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Thanks for reporting on this--even Perverted Justice is calling LiveJournal/SixApart out on this!
Don't forget that many--ney, most--of the outraged users on LJ actualy do PAY for thier service.
Comment #9 (Posted by Scroll)
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Thank you for this excellent article. And for linking to Warren Ellis' journal. I hadn't heard that he had withdrawn his support of SixApart/LJ, but I'm glad to hear it.
SixApart's unprofessional behaviour toward its own customers is jaw-dropping. 94 pages of comments (the first 6 were unrelated) and nobody would make an official statement to LJ users, the customers. But SixApart was willing to go on the record with cNet.com.
Not to mention SixApart's baby with the bathwater reaction to WFI's bullying.
Comment #10 (Posted by thedorkygirl)
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Thank you for writing this and keeping it current.
Comment #11 (Posted by Bejiin)
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Thank you for reporting on this. SixApart needs to explain to it's users, especially the paid ones, how these deletions and suspensions were decided upon.
Comment #12 (Posted by Yukina_Raven)
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I love you people for the last line. <3
Comment #13 (Posted by an unknown user)
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Thank you for this article. Six Apart made the a very boneheaded decision to caving into this ridiculous witch hunt, blindly deleting journals without even checking to see their true content.
A black day not only for LJ but for everyone who values free speech ad personal expression. A giant step backwards. BOO.
Comment #14 (Posted by Kylara)
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Thank you for writing this. Thank you so very much.
Comment #15 (Posted by Kewie)
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Excellent. That last line just made the entire article all the sweeter. Thank you so much for reporting on this.
Comment #16 (Posted by an unknown user)
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thank you very much for this good recherched article.
nice to know that at least MEDIA and USERS won't shup up until there is going to be a explanation for this incorrect and over dramatized behaviour.
you last sentence is very appreciated.
Comment #17 (Posted by CSkerries)
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Thank you, Melissa! It was hard to choose, but I think I love that last link the best!
Comment #18 (Posted by Rikki)
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Thankyou for writing this article! Also, of notice may be that the site perverted justice, which does work with the police, has condemned the actions
Comment #19 (Posted by Jae)
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Thank you for spreading the story.
Last sentence says it all!
Comment #20 (Posted by an unknown user)
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Wonderful article! Thank you. A lot of people--many of which are paying customers of LiveJournal--have been mistreated by the events of Strikethrough '07. LiveJournal hasn't even dignified them with a statement yet; it badmouthed its customers to the press before it talked to the customers themselves.
Comment #21 (Posted by Michelle)
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This is a very good article. Thank you especially for the link at the end exposing Warriors for Innocence for what they really are.
Comment #22 (Posted by Katie J)
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Thank you. It's wonderful to know that the pan-fandom, pan-cause LJ community has banded together like we have, and doubly wonderful that all the noise we've made has not gone unheard.
Now to make SixApart properly account for themselves.
Comment #23 (Posted by emz)
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thank you for this article, and for spreading the story
Comment #24 (Posted by Lynda)
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Thank you for this reasoned and even-handed article.
Thanks, also, for the last line.
Comment #25 (Posted by joannakuang)
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yes, Fandom Counts~
because there should be freedom in fandom!
Comment #26 (Posted by Jex)
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Of course, this isn't the first time that LJ have pulled something like this. Remember when icons of breastfeeding were declared obscene? I fully expect to see the same BS and empty promises of change that went around then.
Comment #27 (Posted by mylexie)
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Thank you! Especially for that last line.
The entire article sums up this mess nicely. I love LJ, except when I hate it. >.<
Comment #28 (Posted by ilu)
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That last sentence is so made of win and pwnage.
:D
Comment #29 (Posted by Elizabeth)
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The last line sums up my feelings quite well. I've been a devoted LJ user for 6 years- I met my husband on LJ and many friends on the site and I'm so disgusted by this rash action they have taken based up on this right-wing religious group that is made up of less than perfect people themselves. It's sad that Livejournal has degraded this far.
Comment #30 (Posted by meepers)
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The last line is absolute love. Cheers to you for writing that.
Comment #31 (Posted by an unknown user)
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Oh, the last line is a beautiful thing to behold. Thank you so much for writing this brilliant article.
Comment #32 (Posted by Kara)
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Thanks for writing this wonderful article. The best one I've seen on this yet. The last line is love.
Comment #33 (Posted by Icarus)
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Livejournal apparently is down now, just so you know. Thank you, and thank you for that last line. Those people, sheesh.
Comment #34 (Posted by tdei)
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Thank you for covering this event and getting word about the issue out there. :) Th article is informative and stylish without being biased toward either side.
Comment #35 (Posted by Ariadne)
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Thank you for balanced commentary. I'm also impressed by how well so many LJ users banded together. We need to fight this kind of hysteria whenever it occurs because this kind of censorship - whether well intentioned or not - is the first step of a very slippery slope. Banning journals of rape survivors and discussion of Lolita is exactly the kind of casualty that occurs in this kind of witch hunt.
Comment #36 (Posted by Rebecca Ore)
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Six Apart has needed for some time to hire a professional abuse person. We've had Nipplegate; we've had botwork against LJ users tolerated; we've had this. The problem is that SixApart wants to make money on the backs of volunteers and is too irresponsible as a site owner to hire a network abuse person who has experience with all forms of abuse, from the sexually abusive sites to forms of personal harassment.
Comment #37 (Posted by Anne)
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Thank you so much for summarizing the situation so well. Although the large part of the controversy is over by now, I find this article accurately preserves the sentiments of fandom supporters at the time.
Also, your last sentence is love.