Southern Poverty Law Center Takes Aim at Men’s Rights Websites
Chuck Rudd writes at the Good Men Project:
The Southern Poverty Law Center—a non-profit civil rights organization that made its bones going after the likes of the KKK and neo-Nazis—has turned its cannons on my virtual homeland: The Manosphere. The SPLC, created in 1971 by civil rights activist Morris Dees, publishes a quarterly “Intelligence Report” covering the latest movements and trends among so-called extremists and hate groups. This quarter’s issue features no less than three articles covering the Manosphere.
First, what is the SPLC’s stated purpose?
The Southern Poverty Law Center monitors hate groups and extremists throughout the United States and exposes their activities to law enforcement agencies, the media and the public. We’ve crippled some of the country’s most notorious hate groups by suing them for murders and other violent acts committed by their members.
To expose the rampant hatred and seething violence of the Manosphere, the group’s lengthiest piece mentions a handful of high-profile cases of men…
On Being Forced To Be ‘Your Real Self’ Online
Via an interview with Pixel Union, head of Tumblr’s mobile division Buzz Andersen on the problem of being forced to be your real identity online — isn’t the internet supposed to free us from that?
One of the things that fascinates me is the way a lot of young people seem to use Tumblr, which is basically as a positive, aspirational alternative to the social networking institution they’re accustomed to: Facebook.
Rather than forcing them to represent themselves as they are, which I think is Facebook’s major goal, Tumblr allows them to represent the romantic self (or selves) they wish to be. I think this is a big part of the intense emotional attachment a lot of people seem to have to Tumblr.
Facebook is currently #1 in terms of time spent online, but Tumblr recently became #2. I think this is because they both appeal to intense human desires, but I would…
Internet Providers to Start Policing the Web July 12th
WTF? Via Russia Today:
Some of the biggest Internet service providers in America plan to adopt policies that will punish customers for copyright infringement, and one of the top trade groups in the music biz announced this week that it could begin as soon as this summer.
The chief executive officer of the Recording Industry Association of America told an audience of publishers on Wednesday that a plan carved out last year to help thwart piracy is expected to prevail and be put in place by this summer. RIAA CEO Cary Sherman was one of the guest speakers among a New York panel this week and he confirmed that, at this rate, some of the most powerful Internet providers in America should have their new policies on the books by July 12, 2012.
Last year, Time Warner, Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, Cablevision Systems and other Internet service providers proposed best practice recommendations that they…
Americans Often Unfriend Over Politics on Social Media
Via PBS MediaShift:
As a teenager who was vocally opinionated about political issues, I often heard the cautionary refrain “Politics is not the topic of polite conversation.” That counsel must have been lost on me, since I find myself as an adult publicly airing my opinions as both the political correspondent for this blog and as a Democratic analyst periodically appearing on FoxNews.com. I understand the wisdom of that advice, however, and know that conversations about politics (like those about religion) often begin as well-intentioned contests of ideas but end as emotionally charged and intractable disputes.
A new study released today from the Pew Internet and American Life Project illustrates this point. It found that 18 percent of people who use social networking sites such as Facebook and Google+ have blocked, unfriended or hidden someone because of that person’s disagreeable political postings.
To determine whether this is simply a case of the online…
How China Actually Gets the Internet to Censor Itself
Thank to Disinfo for highlighting my blocked words project, Blocked on Weibo, in your post “The Most Censored Words On The Chinese Internet.” However, there are a few misconceptions that one could take away from the article which I’d like to correct. First, these are words that are blocked by one social media website (Sina Weibo); they are not blocked by the Chinese government, nor are the words listed blocked more or less frequently than other words. I cannot reiterate enough that my project does not set out to prove that top-down censorship by the government exists (though it does). The restrictions on searches on Weibo are cases of self-censorship by a private company that is very much encouraged (under the potential threat of having the company shut down or being sent to prison) to do so by the government. The hope with this project was to make it clear that censorship…
Pirate Bay Dealing With Blocking By Means of Low-Orbit Server Drones
I wonder if this is how Skynet starts … via TorrentFreak:
In recent months The Pirate Bay has drastically changed its site to make it less vulnerable to ever increasing censorship attempts across the globe. But that was just the start, as the torrent site now says it’s getting ready to put some of its hardware in GPS controlled drones. “Everyone knows WHAT TPB is. Now they’re going to have to think about WHERE TPB is,” The Pirate Bay team told TorrentFreak.
It is no secret that Hollywood wants The Pirate Bay to shut down. But to accomplish this authorities may soon have to shoot down the site’s servers as these will be hovering in the air.
The Pirate Bay today unveiled their new mission. They’re working on ‘hosting’ parts of their site in GPS-controlled drones, instead of old-fashioned data centers. “Everyone knows WHAT TPB is. Now they’re going to have to think…
Spanish Court: You Do Not Have The Right To Be Forgotten
Do you have the right to be forgotten? No — the internet has no escape hatch. Via ISP Liability:
A civil court in Spain handed down last Thursday a ruling dismissing plaintiff’s claims against Google Spain over the so called “right to be forgotten”. The case is Alfacs Vacances SL v. Google Spain SL.
While the right to be forgotten is being the subject of heavy litigation in Spain, this is one of few judicial rulings on the matter. Indeed, most claims have been brought before the Spanish Data Protection Authority. About 130 cases are thus pending.
The plaintiff in this case runs a campsite near Tarragona. In 1978, the campsite was hit by a terrible accident with more than 200 people killed and many others severely burned when a tanker truck loaded with flammable liquid got on fire on the highway just in front of the campsite. While the accident happened more…
The Most Censored Words On The Chinese Internet
UPDATE: How China Actually Gets the Internet to Censor Itself
Weibo is a Twitter-esque Chinese social media platform which boasts over 300 million regular users after just two years of existence. At the moment there are 378 words and phrases for which Weibo blocks search results. Blocked on Weibo has the continually updated list, with approximate English translation. (See the site for context.) I’ve compiled a sampling:
CIA Spies On You Via Connected Devices In Your Home
David H. Petraeus plays Wii golf.
Or if they’re not doing so yet, they soon will. Spencer Ackerman reports for Wired’s Danger Room blog:
More and more personal and household devices are connecting to the internet, from your television to your car navigation systems to your light switches. CIA Director David Petraeus cannot wait to spy on you through them.
Earlier this month, Petraeus mused about the emergence of an “Internet of Things” — that is, wired devices — at a summit for In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital firm. “‘Transformational’ is an overused word, but I do believe it properly applies to these technologies,” Petraeus enthused, “particularly to their effect on clandestine tradecraft.”
All those new online devices are a treasure trove of data if you’re a “person of interest” to the spy community. Once upon a time, spies had to place a bug in your chandelier to hear your conversation. With the rise…
Ugandans’ Reaction To Kony 2012
Nearly 70 million people have watched Kony 2012, but almost none of them have been Ugandans, since internet access in their country is spotty. Thus a charity held a public screening so that actual victims of the civil strife could see the video. The reaction? Extremely negative, as the viewing began with eager anticipation and culminated with people hurling rocks at the screen in disgust over the video’s self-congratulatory nature, its focus on a white American and his young son, and its perceived use of Ugandans as props in a promotional campaign for Invisible Children:
Search Engines Pressured To Doctor Results To Favor Copyright Industries
Governments and corporations want to make sure that you see only approved material. Raw Story writes:
TechDirt’s Glyn Moody reveals that “the UK government is pressurising search engines to police search results in a way that goes well beyond notice and take-down.”
What the British government is after amounts to the artificial promotion of “approved” online music and film services, combined with a blacklist of websites accused of infringement which would be completely excluded from search results. As Moody notes, a system of this sort could easily lead to the censorship of a great deal of legitimate content with no oversight or appeal.
The Private Social Network For The Extremely Rich and Powerful
An Esquire piece on $4 billion software company Tibco discusses its latest, perhaps most significant project:
TopCom is a private communications platform for the 200 most powerful people in the world. It is being officially launched in late January at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. It is basically a customized, ridiculously secure version of tibbr, a platform developed as a kind of combination Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, texting, and Skype. It is a private social network, essentially — in this case, for world leaders.
Because the World Economic Forum has a hierarchy, so does TopCom: The top two hundred WEF members — basically, the people who run the world — can speak to one another on a given subject, and then they can choose to loop in members from lower tiers (experts, academics, etc.) as needed, widening the pool of knowledge on whatever problem is on the table.
Andrew Breitbart, Conservative Commentator and Internet News Pioneer, Dead at 43
Photo: Gage Skidmore (CC)
Greg Sandoval reports in cNet News:
Though he became best known as a conservative commentator, Andrew Breitbart was also one of the early proponents of Internet news. According to the Washington Post and Breitbart’s own site, the Los Angeles native died this morning at the age of 43. The cause of death was not disclosed.
In the mid-1990s, Breitbart was among those who recognized the impact the Web would have on communications and began corresponding with Matt Drudge, creator of the Drudge Report. He would later served as an editor for the site and become a close Drudge friend and ally.
Drudge later introduced Breitbart to Arianna Huffington and Breitbart helped her create The Huffington Post. Both the Drudge Report and Huffington Post would become two of the most popular Internet news sites. Breitbart eventually launched his own Web sites, including Breitbart.tv, and Big Hollywood.
Nassim Haramein: Fraud or Sage?
Will the new age messiah of free energy please stand up! You may recognize Nassim Haramein from his cameo in the recent internet film “Thrive”. Surely many are wondering if there is any legitimacy to his credentials or theories and one curious skeptic has taken him to task in the following article. Via Up:
I’d like to outline here some very sound reasons for asserting that Nassim Haramein is grossly misleading people by claiming to have any depth of scientific understanding behind his ideas. If you’d prefer to just see some straightforward examples, try some of these — but do come back when you’re done … (Alternatively, read this if you think I’m just being a bit horrid.)
On many of his videos, and on the main page of his Resonance Project’s website, he displays a “prestigious” award for one of his physics papers. What is this?
His certificate looks at first to have been awarded for best paper…
Google Wants To Stop Spreading Santorum
… but there’s just no way to put the stuff back where it came from! Danny Sullivan explains at SearchEngineLand:
As Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum loses two primary races to rival Mitt Romney, perhaps he can console himself with, ironically, another loss. Spreading Santorum, the page defining “santorum” as a by-product of anal sex, has finally dropped from the top results on Google. The related anti-Santorum blog, however, remains. And a page from Urban Dictionary keeps the definition alive, more explicit than before.
Santorum: The Definition Page
The page at SpreadingSantorum.com, created by columnist Dan Savage as a protest against Santorum’s views about homosexuality, has maintained its position in the top results on Google for years. The page defines “santorum” as:The frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the by-product of anal sex.
To understand more of the history of the site, and how it ended up doing so well on Google…
Facebook Personal ID Cards
Created by German artist Tobias Leingruber and available via the hypothetical government agency the FB Bureau. Why wait until these become mandatory? Get yours now:
With more than 800 million users Facebook is the dominant identity system on the web. When signing-up for new services around the open web it’s quite common to use Facebook Connect instead of creating a new user account. People stop ranting on blog comments because they only allow comments connected to your “real name” aka “Facebook Identity” (till the end of time).
For the good or bad we are losing anonymity and Facebook Inc. is establishing order in this “world wild web” (for profit, not necessarily for the good of society). A future where a Facebook Identity becomes more important than any governments’ doesn’t seem unrealistic.
9/11 Terrorist Featured in Facebook Ad
Sajid Farooq reports on NBC Bay Area:
As Facebook gets ready to go public, the eyes of the world will become even more focused on the Menlo Park-based social network.
That’s just partly why Friday’s report of an insurance advertisement on Facebook featuring the face of 9/11 terrorist Mohamed Atta is not the type of publicity the site wants ahead of its initial public offering.
Atta’s face reportedly appeared on the site as part of an ad selling car insurance. The ad appeared on the right hand side of some users’ profiles and it read “Important: Drivers in Texas Who Drive Less than 35 Miles a Day Read This.”
The text was alongside a Texas driver’s license with Atta’s picture on it, which was actually originally taken from his Florida’s driver’s license.
Women Leading the Facebook De-Friending Trend
Chris Matyszczyk reports on cNet News:
A Pew study suggests that finally, finally human beings — and especially women — have begun to prune their alleged friends on Facebook. Could there be rational, even venal, reasons for this?
It’s Friday and therefore time to muse about friendship. Here’s one thought: If the enemy of my enemy is my friend, then my friend may, in fact, be more troubling and irrelevant than Ann Taylor separates. Here’s another: People appear to suddenly be realizing that their Facebook friends are not — and will never be — real friends. Oddly, though, they are finally doing something about it.
I am grateful to my nonfriends at ReadWriteWeb, who have unearthed a new Pew study that says defriending is trending on Facebook. People are finally wandering around their Facebook garden and, perhaps stimulated by FarmVille, are taking shears to their peers …
Facebook’s Internal Acceptable-Content Guidelines Leaked
Gawker obtained a copy of Facebook’s incredibly specific (”Deep flesh wounds and crushed heads are OK as long as no insides are showing”; no “comparison” photos likening people to animals, no female “nipple bulges”) internal rules for policing user content:
Amine Derkaoui, a 21-year-old Moroccan man, spent a few weeks training to screen illicit Facebook content through an outsourcing firm, for which he was paid a measly $1 an hour. He’s still fuming over it: “It’s humiliating. They are just exploiting the third world.” Well, now we know Facebook’s exact standards. Derkaoui provided us with a copy of the astonishingly specific guidelines Facebook dictates to content moderators.
All Dead Mormons Are Now Gay
Just like the site says alldeadmormonsarenowgay.com:
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