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palsgraf_polkaBut seriously folks. This whole LJ drama and Six Apart and everyone is so mad and has their panties in a bunch, talking about freedom of speech and the lack thereof, has me shaking my head.
Well, guess what folks? Six Apart and Live Journal together are a private company, offering a members only subscription service. They can do whatever they want. There is no violation of free speech, because this speech is not free. We pay for the privilege to post here, whether through actual money or looking at advertising. And as mis-guided and odious as the great LJ purge of 2007 is, it's perfectly within their right.
So, all these people are yelling "Free speech! Our rights are being violated!" and they really don't have a leg to stand on. The first amendment to the United States Constitution says:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
It does not say that businesses have to extend that right, because they don't. If you walk into a fine restaurant and you're ugly, stinky and dirty, they have every right to ask you to leave. And if Live Journal doesn't like an account, they have every right to delete it. And, everyone has the right to be mad and the right to fight it through complaints, which seem to be working. But the government did not shut down LJ; the government did not tell Six Apart to take down those blogs; the company bowed under pressure from some public vigilante group. And while that is distasteful, it's well within the right of a privately owned company to do so.
Our government is falling into a dictatorship and we're letting our freedoms (real Constitutional freedoms) slip away through our fingers as they type diatribe after diatribe about Live Journal. I think the Americans here have their priorities out of whack.
Well, guess what folks? Six Apart and Live Journal together are a private company, offering a members only subscription service. They can do whatever they want. There is no violation of free speech, because this speech is not free. We pay for the privilege to post here, whether through actual money or looking at advertising. And as mis-guided and odious as the great LJ purge of 2007 is, it's perfectly within their right.
So, all these people are yelling "Free speech! Our rights are being violated!" and they really don't have a leg to stand on. The first amendment to the United States Constitution says:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
It does not say that businesses have to extend that right, because they don't. If you walk into a fine restaurant and you're ugly, stinky and dirty, they have every right to ask you to leave. And if Live Journal doesn't like an account, they have every right to delete it. And, everyone has the right to be mad and the right to fight it through complaints, which seem to be working. But the government did not shut down LJ; the government did not tell Six Apart to take down those blogs; the company bowed under pressure from some public vigilante group. And while that is distasteful, it's well within the right of a privately owned company to do so.
Our government is falling into a dictatorship and we're letting our freedoms (real Constitutional freedoms) slip away through our fingers as they type diatribe after diatribe about Live Journal. I think the Americans here have their priorities out of whack.
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no subject
Date: 2007-06-05 02:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-05 02:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-05 03:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-05 04:13 pm (UTC)Look, like most of the 'net LiveJournal is a *toy*. Like most 'net toys, the daily mamangement of Livejournal is handled by people who appear to be kids with little or no business/RL experience*.
So what happens? They get a report that pedos are using their system, and like any self-respecting person would do, they shut that shit down ASAP. Let's face it, they didn't follow the official 'LJ Abuse Policy', but then again pedophiles really don't deserve due process; after all, they're kid diddlers and are therefore undeserving of certain rights.
Unfortunately, SixApart overshot the mark** and more importantly they didn't completely vet their information (or, in business terms, they 'failed to perform due diligence'). As a result a bunch of journals got shut down.
But here's the thing: not all of the shut down/deleted journals are being restored. Apparently some of them really DO belong to pedos and some of them are questionable enough that SixApart decided they didn't need that sort of customer. Lousy execution, but the proper result...imagine that. I'll bet the next purge will be done much more smoothly.
None of this is any skin off of my back. Then again, I don't post anything in my journal or in my interests that's remotely pedophiliac. I imagine that if I did, I'd have easrned myself a deleted journal right around now. As Aemilia points out, we are playing on someone's private property, and it's the owners' right to ask us to get the fuck out of the pool if they think we're pissing in it...even if we're not.
*Being all angsty and shit while owning a really cool Mac isn't Real Life experience, so please STFU now, 'K?
**Although there's a big question mark in my mind about what's appropriate material on LJ. Methinks the margins are a little too wide for SixApart to bitch without some more exacting standards.
On the other hand, some LJ users think they can post whatever they want, whenever they want, and use the First Amendment as a defense. I suggest these people stand on the streetcorner holding one of Mapplethorpe's photos of a nude child and sing 'Thank Heavens for Little Girls' at the top of their lungs. They'll see the First Amendment in a whole new light in about 15 minutes.