Myspace a place for censorship
NOTE: This blog isn’t funny, it isn’t even going to be entertaining. So if you get turned off by it I understand. I never ask this from you guys out there but even if you stop reading half way through leave me a comment and kudos for this. Even if your comment is a single word, I am trying to prove a point and I need to get this blog ranked high. Just wait for tomorrow and watch it get yanked from the rankings.
Once again the myspace censorship police aka customer service, has struck yanking my blog from the top ten because somebody didn’t like what I wrote. Because I linked to Mighty Rex’s blog his got yanked as well.
Now I know most of you could give a shit about the myspace blog rankings. The thing is when I place in the top ten on average I gain 40 new readers. Which is cool because I want as many people reading my garbage as possible, it’s my reward for putting in effort to come up with 5 blogs a week that people care to read.
Getting yanked pisses me off but what really sends me over the edge is that on a whim somebody in customer service decided to yank it because they don’t like it. Somebody finds what I wrote objectionable. Yet the porn stars, topless models and bands that write songs with profanity are allowed to remain. It’s a joke. Because I had a link to Mighty Rexs blog his got deleted from the rankings. This has happened before with connected blogs. Also I have had blogs deleted, one did violate customer service but another one did not. Others have had the same things happen.
Some people will say that this is a technical glitch and I am flipping out about nothing but I have a list of documented cases on when it has happened. I have paid attention to this.Here are examples of other blogs that disappeared (these are all specific entries):
You are going to hell if you laugh at my blog
Super Nate is a dirty pig section
The best valentine’s gift ever
P.S. THIS BLOG ALSO GOT REMOVED FROM THE TOP TEN!!! WHY????
Does Size Really Matter? A white man and black woman break it down for you!
A blog that talks about the disappearing blogs that they have had:
I talked to someone from myspace and they denied that myspace was deleting anything. She then put me in contact with someone that is responsible for the blog rankings and he admitted that customer service was yanking the blogs:
“On the issue of blogs being pulled from the rankings and even deleted, there are clearly some cases where our customer service team has been overzealous and made some questionable calls. As I’m sure you know from being a moderator, it’s not always easy to draw lines between something that is provocative but acceptable and something that is offensive. The CS team are working hard and have a huge volume of material to cover every day, so it’s pretty much inevitable that some mistakes will be made.That said, I have and will continue to review our rules with CS, and they should only be deleting blogs that clearly violate our terms of service. There is a slightly different bar for the blog rankings that I’ll explain.”
Myspace denies that they do any censorship, I’ve read numerous articles where they said as much. I am now in the process of contacting the people that have written these articles to let them know the truth. Myspace will censor you if they don’t agree with what you write.
I’m asking you the people of myspace to comment on this blog. Take a second out leave a kudo and if you would even be as so helpful to post a bulletin directing people here. It’s bullshit that myspace selectively does things like this and it is censorship.
Thanks
Kevin
*Update*
I cleaned up some of the typos and linked to Rex’s blog… Also I sent this to Tom it has been read and I haven’t gotten a response yet.
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On 02/12/08 at 11:29 pm
michael said:
Ive been a member of Myspace since 2004… well I should say I was until today.. then I posted a blog about unlawful actions being taken by the US govt against detainees… and a second blog about myspace unlawfully conducting “surveillance” on its members.. here ill just cut and paste what I sent the news tonight….
Earlier today I posted a blog on my myspace account.. the Ive had since 2004. The blog illustrated certain facts and highlighted certain articles… and was based on a report that the US was using social networking sites to spy on citizens/members and that the networking sites were cooperating. It cited specific references…it gave links…it named names…
In a second blog posted an hour later I put up a photo montage of pics from Germany in 1939 and here…now. titled… “I thought we won the war?”
Those of you who had me on “WATCH THIS PERSON” got notifications and could see, every single thing I did and said. So did someone else. By 10AM my myspace account was closed and I was sent an email saying and I quote
“Myspace does not share your views on a number of subjects pertaining to Myspace business practices and activities and has chosen to terminate your membership”
I wrote back saying “reinstate me or I sue” those who know me know Im not kidding… and they responded
“Your account was not singled out by any member of our staff based on your views or postings but appeared in an hourly surveillance report, based on what we view as content adverse to our interests we exercised our right to administrate our membership and therefore terminated you. Any further discussion of the matter is pointless, as we will not be reactivating your account and should a court order it done in the future I can assure you we would not be able to restore the mail, comments, and blogs etc. as we are under no obligation to keep such records”
So I prepared an emergency injunctive order to prevent the records being destroyed, and a small claims suit of “Infringement on Civil Rights” well based on the email that they terminated my account NOT BECAUSE I VIOLATED A TERM OF SERVICE but because they didnt like what I had to say, and that made it illegal and subjective. I was ready to go…until I got a call and this morning.
At this point all I will tell you is that Myspace and any other social networking sites are not who they appear or want you to believe them to be. Every blog Ive written, every nightmare Ive had about “what could happen” is not future but past…
Imagine a place where everyone spills there guts, tells there secrets, puts up pictures of all they do and with whom, what they own, where they live, what they buy, what music they like, who they sleep with, who they dont, what their personal dreams are, there opinions on bosses, government, the DMV… Im sure someone would pay a fortune to have access to that information. WIth it… well you could control them… Now imagine the government doesnt need a warrant to inspect it all because YOU DID IT TO YOURSELF. Who knows maybe you didnt realize who was behind the social networking site boom and takeovers. I hear I cant sue them because they are protected by a “mutual assistance” agreement with the US government. At least thats what the kind man on the phone said… he wanted to talk to me about “your recent writings and thoughts on how our government is performing its duties, and functions in the war on terror and related events” he asked me “do you really think that the government is spying on people and using fear and intimidation - I mean dont you think thats kind of irrational”
Given that hes calling me from a local FBI office (I had to call back, so I know its for real), to talk to me about something I wrote on the internet that he and his friends dont want you to know or see…. ID SAY NO…I think its completely plausible.
Remember I told you this today…February 12, 2008…remember I warned you…remember that Ive never been a pussy or one to be silent…but in order for me to live to fight another day… I have to make it through this one.
AND THUS I ENDED MY LETTER…