| Author | Message | ||
     Anonymous |
Online Companies Draw Fire For Removing 'Offensive' Postings By Ariana Eunjung Cha, Washington Post WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 19 Nov 2001, 5:43 AM CST Yahoo's message boards are erupting with the kind of free-flowing, impassioned discussions the Internet's creators always dreamed of, with postings about practically every aspect of the hunt for terrorists, the capture of Kabul and mysterious plane crashes. But what's also revealing is what is being deleted. Gone are some gloating messages that say America deserved the attacks. Gone are some links to extremist sites promoting a jihad, or holy war, against the Western world.*** ...others worry about what such censorship by the likes of America Online, MSN and Lycos means for a medium widely regarded as a haven for free speech and openness. "The Western media and politicians keep talking about their freedom of speech, freedom of expression and how they are against the censoring of different views . . . yet they are no different from any oppressive Third World country or any dictatorship," Sheikh, 20, said in an interview. While many perceive the Internet as a public sidewalk where people are protected by federal law, it really operates more like a collection of private buildings run by for-profit businesses that have the legal right to screen their content as they please.*** "The sentiment in the United States changed on September 11 about what's acceptable and what's not in terms of what you can say," Killeen explained. *** ...some worry that the Internet companies are moving more aggressively in recent weeks to screen content on their sites. "In times of war, there has been a willingness among Americans to give up some rights -- to honor curfews, martial law and even restrictions on speech . . . The filtering of Internet message boards is part of all this," said Stuart Biegel, a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles who specializes in law and cyberspace. Some say Internet companies are screening material with a double standard -- supporting patriotic messages while frowning on those that criticize the government's actions. In some cases, people say, anti-U.S. or anti-Israeli messages appear to be deleted faster and more frequently than anti-Arab posts. *** Yahoo has deleted a note calling someone a "zionist israeli scum bag." But another message -- "Muslims are against the jews because muslims are too greedy. They want to take israels teeny weeny land. That's how greedy and parasitic these muslims are. America should wipe them all out." -- has remained up for weeks despite several complaints lodged by users and copied to The Washington Post.*** Even such search engines have revised their responses. When people type in "How do I build a bomb?" at the Ask Jeeves site, they are presented with a list of links, the first one being "Where can I find the latest news on the national tragedy?" If they ask "What's Islam?," among the responses is a note that says the religion does not condone terrorism. And when people ask about race and the Sept. 11 attacks, they'll get links about hate crimes and the law. "We are invoking freedom of speech in that we as editors are stating what our Jworldviews are," said Steve Berkowitz, president of AskJeeves Web properties. "We are creating what is a morally acceptable view of the world." From http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/172263.html | ||
| Annoyed |
For the second time in less than a week, the anti-$cientology web site, http://www.xenu.net, and its message board are impossible to access. If anyone here monitors that message board, join me here to post, instead, until things are back to normal. There is speculation about whether the $cientologists are responsible for this censorship. | ||
| Anonymous |
I am also annoyed. How can we find out why xenu.net is down? Alot of info about the McPherson trial is being distributed on xenu.net. Coincidence? surely there is a way to find out why xenu is down | ||
| Annoyed |
I wonder why Andreas has not said anything about last week's two days down. They don't celebrate Labor Day in his country, do they? | ||
| Anonymous |
Maybe he's out of the country and hasn't had time. Let's hope he shows up soon! |
