Warriors for Legal Knowledge

[penfold_x]

I think there are a lot of folks spinning their wheels about this Warriors for Innocence/Mass Incest-Pedophelia Deletion Incident who are missing a couple of key points:

1) The First Amendment does not force a webhost/broadcaster to carry a particular type material or host discussions related to that material. LJ cannot be guilty of enforcing a "thought crimes" law or otherwise violating your constitutional rights because they're a private organization, not a branch of the government. They can decide not to carry discussion of or fiction related to pedophelia or incest. You can decide not to use/pay for the service. You can protest their decision (via letters or with your wallet) and hope their lawyers change their mind about their risk assessment or their executives reevaulate the public relations implications. Those are your options.

2) You don't have to be a law enforcement-associated organization or registered non-profit to complain about pedophilia- or incest-related material on LJ. Anyone can complain to a private company/broadcaster about the materials they carry/broadcast. Ask Don Imus.

Comments

[easter.livejournal.com]

Ah, a tiny voice of reason amidst the histrionics.

[(Anonymous)]

You don't have to be a law enforcement-associated organization or registered non-profit to complain about pedophilia- or incest-related material on LJ. Anyone can complain to a private company/broadcaster about the materials they carry/broadcast.

I don't particularly like WoI because they do strike me as a vigilante group which from my experience can be dangerous and I have seen enough of their other viewpoints to see that they are racist and homophobic on top of that. I also wish more parents would get their act together because people on the internet shouldn't have to be responsible for other people's kids. That said, I am glad that people want to help protect children by reporting pedophiles. However, keeping in my your #2 point, I also think it's important for people to actually research who they are reporting before they do so because I do think there is a big difference between fiction and real-life.

[penfold-x.livejournal.com]

I don't particularly like WoI because they do strike me as a vigilante group which from my experience can be dangerous

They don't seem to be working with a law enforcement group, which can be very dangerous if they're thinking of doing "luring". If they're just reporting child porn or nests of pedophiles, they should make reports to the Cybertip Line at missingkids.org (the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which works directly with the FBI).

I also wish more parents would get their act together because people on the internet shouldn't have to be responsible for other people's kids.

I don't actually see what that has to do with this. I object to communities like "Child_Love" and I'm an adult. I didn't see any indication this was anything other than WFI trying to alert LJ to the fact that there are sex predators on LJ. Which is all our jobs, whether or not we have kids.

However, keeping in my your #2 point, I also think it's important for people to actually research who they are reporting before they do so because I do think there is a big difference between fiction and real-life.

We don't know what WFI reported and what LJ decided to delete. WFI says they're not the same universe of stuff, and LJ has admited that the problem of what got deleted was due to LJ's decision on how to enforce their TOS (it did not match WFI's concerns, which, for example, did not include survivor communities). I think fandom is looking for someone to blame for LJ's actiions that isn't LJ, because that would mean they'd need to move.

[(Anonymous)]

If they're just reporting child porn or nests of pedophiles, they should make reports to the Cybertip Line at missingkids.org (the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which works directly with the FBI).

I agree with this and that's one of the reasons I didn't like the way WoI was handling things because from everything they said, it does appear that they only went to LJ and started pressuring them about it rather than filling any law enforcement in on it. Especially considering the possibility that there actually were law officials following some of the deleted journals which could in turn mean that now a lead to someone who is doing more than just talking about it might have been broken.

We don't know what WFI reported and what LJ decided to delete. WFI says they're not the same universe of stuff, and LJ has admited that the problem of what got deleted was due to LJ's decision on how to enforce their TOS (it did not match WFI's concerns, which, for example, did not include survivor communities).

You're right that the survivor communities didn't match WoI's concerns. But they did express joy over the *fan* journals being deleted too even after people told them what those journals were and what fandom was. WoI made MANY comments during the heat of the situation where they said that they didn't see any difference between fandom content and real pedophiles.

I think fandom is looking for someone to blame for LJ's actiions that isn't LJ, because that would mean they'd need to move.

Huh, there were a lot of fandom people involved so maybe some felt that way but I saw a lot of fandom blaming both WoI AND LJ/Six Apart for how it was handled because from the majority of opinions I've seen, many people don't think it was handled right by either of those groups. I think WoI might be drawing a bit more of the anger for two main reasons. One, like I mentioned before, WoI were arguing with and even instigating a lot of fandom people when fans were trying to talk to them about their side of things. WoI could've had a lot more people on their side if they hadn't responded in the way they did. Two, once people started learning more about the group members behind WoI, it was made clear that they are homophobic and racist and that does affect how people are going to view them especially when people are already wary about their group due to the apparent vigilantism. But I haven't seen what you're talking about with WoI taking all the blame for LJ's actions because again I've seen the blame go (rightfully IMO) towards both for different reasons.