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Pirate Party Banned From Social Networking Site
An anonymous reader writes to tell us that as the European Parliament elections loom, StudiVZ, Germany's largest social networking site, has opened up to political parties for election campaigning. That is, if you aren't the Pirate Party. "The other political parties were allowed to have a special account to show they are an organization and not an individual. The Pirate Party, however, was not allowed to have one and instead operated on a standard user account registered by an individual. StudiVZ noticed that the Pirate Party account was not a "real person" and despite it having a thriving network with hundreds of followers, it was summarily deleted. This means that it is impossible for the Pirate Party to have a presence at all on the largest social networking site in Germany."
Update: 05/02 19:17 GMT by T : Reader riot notes: "FYI: I just translated the press release to English."
they say those that fail to heed the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. Germany seems well down that path now I'd say.
First, private company can do what it wants -- I own three.
Second, this particular "victim" has perhaps the largest-trafficed site in the world. They don't need any help.
Third, democracy is perhaps one of the dumbest actual concepts in practice. Why the hell sholud my vote on 90% of topics count equal to someone expert in the particular field. I've got my expertiese, where my vote should count more than the average joe, and my ignorances where my vote should count way less.
The only thing democracy has going for it, when it comes to elections, is to help curb government corruption. That's hardly a plus for the actual system. And any "party" comparing itself to pirates isn't interested in curbing corruption.