GitHub Takes Down Satirical 'C Plus Equality' Language

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GitHub Takes Down Satirical 'C Plus Equality' Language

Posted by timothy on Saturday December 14, 2013 @04:20AM from the questions-and-meta-questions dept.

FooAtWFU writes "Some clowns and jokers over at 4chan thought it would be a funny idea to put together a web page for a programming language named 'C Plus Equality' as a parody of feminism, dismissing OOP as 'objectifying' and inheritance as "a tool of the patriarchy". But this parody was apparently too hot to host at Github, which took down the original Github repository after receiving criticism on Twitter, prompting a backlash and inquiry into the role of free speech and censorship on Github's platform. The project has since found a new home on BitBucket, at least for the time being." Comments on an article describing the research which sparked the parody call the parody's language "fake," and compare it to the 1996 Sokal affair. (It also reminds me a bit of Jesux.)

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The worst thing... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-12-14 04:26 · Score: 4, Insightful

Is that Github also killed off all the forked versions of the repo as well, not just the main one.
I'm a little bit annoyed that they both have this power and used it in this wya.
1. Re:The worst thing... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · 2013-12-14 04:36 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  What "fixed a broken window"? Any newly created repository occupies a previously unoccupied point in the infinite space of all possible repositories. This is more like someone building a house (without affecting any other houses) whose architecture you happen to dislike.
  
  --
  Ezekiel 23:20
2. Re:The worst thing... by svanheulen · 2013-12-14 04:41 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Why wouldn't they have that power? I have that power on websites that I own and operate. I never understand why people feel that owners don't have the right to manage their own website as they see fit. If you don't like the way they operate use someone else or, better yet, make your own website and host it on your own hardware.
3. Re:The worst thing... by Wonko+the+Sane · 2013-12-14 04:46 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  This is more like someone building a house (without affecting any other houses) whose architecture you happen to dislike.
  Indeed.
  "To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize." -Voltaire
  Now we know.
4. Re:The worst thing... by Richard_at_work · 2013-12-14 04:47 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Yup, building a house on private land that you do not own, but are allowed to build on under the understanding that the land owner has final say at any moment.
5. Re:The worst thing... by FooAtWFU · 2013-12-14 04:59 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Yeah, I don't think it's ridiculously unreasonable that a site meant to host software projects has a requirement that hosted projects actually be software projects.
  But it doesn't. "Meet the projects that prove GitHub is a collaboration tool for all stripes". Well, all stripes except for collaborative satire against the wrong group of people.
  
  --
  The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
6. Re:The worst thing... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-12-14 05:06 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  What is with everyone bastardizing the quotes of Voltaire and taking them out of their literary and historical context everytime they want to justify something stupid? Yes 'Wonko the Sane' because a US company (particularly one that has nothing to do with political activism and gender-based activism) refuses to be platform for the voices of sexist (or racist or homophobic individuals) means that women, minorities and gay people definitely have *all the power* in the US.
  Maybe write a complaint to the female-dominated tech industry and ask them to have some empathy towards your historical experiences of oppression by women and modern discrimination you face by women? Or write a complaint to the female-dominated congress who are trying to curtail your rights and freedom along gender lines? Or no write a comment on the male-dominated website slashdot expressing your concern about how all the women are taking over!
7. Re:The worst thing... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-12-14 05:08 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  It's not about whether they had a RIGHT to take it down, it's about whether they SHOUULD.
  Cinemas have a "right" to not screen movies that are offensive to christians/muslims/jews, but should they? Is that the kind of society you want to live in?
  And what does it say about feminists if they're acting like an organised religion?
8. Re:The worst thing... by Wonko+the+Sane · 2013-12-14 05:11 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Mostly I was talking about the multiple calls on Twitter to hunt down the people who dared to star the repository on GitHub and seek to get their employment terminated.
  Some people clearly can't take a joke, and are enraged that anyone else might, and will punish anyone who doesn't comply with their demands.
9. Re:The worst thing... by Typical+Slashdotter · 2013-12-14 05:48 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Agreed. I'm sick of comments like the GP in this sort of discussion. No one is asking whether they are legally obligated to keep hosting it, so why are so many people so quick to point out that they're not?
10. Re:The worst thing... by Arker · 2013-12-14 06:21 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Just having a right to do something does not guarantee it is what you should be doing, and it does not mean your decision is beyond criticism. In this case it appears to be a decision that was indeed entirely within their rights, but also a very poor decision that they can and should be spanked hard for in the arena of public opinion.
  
  --
  =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
  Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
11. Re:The worst thing... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-12-14 06:31 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  No one disputes that GitHub has the right. They are arguing that GitHub was wrong to do it. There's a difference. They could yank repositories of any project that mentions evolution; would they be right to do that?
  You can criticize behavior without believing that behavior should be illegal. It's partly because that behavior is legal that the public criticism is so important. Marketplace of ideas, and all that.
12. Re:The worst thing... by Just+Some+Guy · 2013-12-14 06:38 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  What morons - the tweeters, that is. On Github, starring a project means that you want to keep track of it, not that you endorse it. Out of over 100 starrers, at least some of them surely followed it so that they could watch the conversation unfold or even track active participants.
  Refusing to hire someone because they're listening to a conversation makes you a world-class moron. Ironically, it may be that they're listening because they have the exact same opinions on it that you do.
  
  --
  Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
13. Re:The worst thing... by TrekkieGod · 2013-12-14 06:46 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  At the best of times "everything is a joke, and everyone should never be offended by my joke"
  It's not that nobody should ever be offended by a joke. It's that people don't get to have a right to not be offended. If you're not offending someone, you didn't say anything of value. The point of free speech is to cause people to question their deeply held beliefs, which invariably will leads to taking offense, or they wouldn't be deeply held beliefs.
  
  To put it bluntly, if you are not friends with the person, you absolutely should not be joking at them in a way that will provoke a response
  As an example, I'm offended by your attitude. It violates my deeply held belief in the value of free speech and the nature of good jokes. Despite my offense, I don't wish you to get you fired, nor think you deserve to be. I just think you're an idiot, and move on with my life.
  
  --
  Warning: Opinions known to be heavily biased.
14. Re:The worst thing... by Sun · 2013-12-14 07:38 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Here's the thing. Standing up for freedom of speech is meaningful especially when it is speech you disagree with. "I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it." (another Voltaire quote). As someone living in France, I hope this means something to you.
  Shachar
15. Re: The worst thing... by something_wicked_thi · 2013-12-14 08:00 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Yes, women rule over us. That's why they make more money than men, dictate what men must look like with fashion magazines, hold 90% or more of the political positions, and head up most corporations.
  Clearly, just because GitHub doesn't want to be associated with this idiotic and vile bullshit, they're being controlled by feminists. Quick, everyone, to the free speech mobile. Let's tell GitHub that it's us who get to tell them what they can use their own web site to say. In the name of free speech, of course.
16. Re:The worst thing... by Aighearach · 2013-12-14 18:01 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  You're obviously not a developer if you think that a site specifically for posting code "should" allow itself to be spammed with fake projects that are actually designed to take offensive positions for shock value.
  No, even if the right wing media misrepresents this as some sort of liberal conspiracy to destroy freedom of speech, they actual public opinion that should matter to github is that of software developers and companies, which is who buys paid accounts. And to them, adding fake repos to clutter the indexes and search results is clearly bad. Even if you think the offensive jokes are funny, it is still functionally bad to have that content on github. It really doesn't matter what the content is.
Re:Free speech by AuMatar · 2013-12-14 04:45 · Score: 4, Insightful

Its not the government. Its a private entity and thus not bound by the first amendment.
But it does bring up an important point- GitHub is a private entity, a for-profit company. Right now, they provide a useful service if you like git. In the future they may not. Many companies have helped the FOSS community then turned their backs on it. Use them, but don't ever fully trust them.

--
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
Re:Free speech by FooAtWFU · 2013-12-14 04:47 · Score: 5, Insightful

Well. Github's Terms of Service clearly identifies that "We may, but have no obligation to, remove Content and Accounts containing Content that we determine in our sole discretion are unlawful, offensive, threatening, libelous, defamatory, pornographic, obscene or otherwise objectionable". I assume they used that discretion to find it either "offensive" or "otherwise objectionable". And clearly Github is well within their legal rights to take down this content.
But it does illustrate the limits of Github's commitment to freedom and openness: if it offends Github's staff, or if Github thinks it offends people who could get them in some level of trouble, they'll take down your content. So, you can still use Github as a platform to effect change in the world, but only insofar as Github&co agree with you.

--
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
Re:Fuck github.....they allow mindfuck and not C+= by IanGrant604 · 2013-12-14 04:58 · Score: 4, Insightful

The difference is that mindfuck isn't targeting one group of people with a demeaning "parody".
Re:Feminist Programming Language by Wonko+the+Sane · 2013-12-14 05:04 · Score: 4, Insightful

Can someone explain what that even means?
No, that's the point of postmodern language.
The purpose is to allow practitionors to show off verbal proficiency without requiring any intellectual rigour, or indeed saying anything falsifiable at all.
Given the this community's gender troubles... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-12-14 05:05 · Score: 5, Insightful

Given this community's gender troubles (e.g. http://www.livescience.com/9772-geeks-drive-girls-computer-science.html), does mocking feminists do anything other than confirm the boy's club. Yes, misapplying feminist critiques of male dominated society to programming languages is amusing, but really lads, time to clean up the house.
1. Re:Given the this community's gender troubles... by EdgePenguin · 2013-12-14 06:42 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  The problem isn't women in the community (they have been here all along...) its feminists. As with other niche communities, feminists have invaded the programming community, and then demanded that the community change its character and become a 'safe space'. In this context, 'safe' means that feminists must be able to unilaterally dictate social norms, and that criticism of feminism is pushed out. You'll forgive me - and many others - for not wanting feminism in programming. Women, as I said, are welcome and have been for a long time.
2. Re:Given the this community's gender troubles... by EdgePenguin · 2013-12-14 07:56 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  So, let me get this straight...
  I report my observations about the community, you demand "evidence" - and presumably won't accept the legions of people here and elsewhere saying similar things. You then simply deny everything as "crap" and offer no evidence at your own. You believe that you can assert your views and have them accepted but mine require, what, peer reviewed references?
  Demanding evidence doesn't make you a skeptic unless you do so in an appropriate manner (i.e. not after just gainsaying everything someone said as 'crap') and in an appropriate circumstances (i.e. not when someone is simply reporting their personal observations.) You are simply using the idea of asking for evidence as window dressing for the true content of your post: "Nuh uh!"
  Quite pathetic, really.
3. Re:Given the this community's gender troubles... by EdgePenguin · 2013-12-14 08:04 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Nobody here is mocking women. They are mocking feminists. That kind of argument is exactly why.
4. Re:Given the this community's gender troubles... by RespekMyAthorati · 2013-12-14 09:16 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  No, "safe" means "nobody can hurt my ego by pointing out that I was wrong."
5. Re:Given the this community's gender troubles... by nctritech · 2013-12-14 11:29 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  There is no "boys' club." That's a deliberate misdirection propagated by those who demand that social groups drastically change behavior to suit their own interests simply because they want to join the group. Feminists are not welcome in any place that ability to reason is important. Feminism today is an elaborate system of pseudo-intellectual bullshit that excuses women from all responsibilities while labeling any and all male actions evil. No thanks. I'll live under a bridge with the rest of the trolls before tolerating such irrational nonsense.
Re:Free speech by Trepidity · 2013-12-14 05:10 · Score: 5, Insightful

But it does illustrate the limits of Github's commitment to freedom and openness
Considering their platform is mainly closed-source, I'm not sure this is the first place we've spotted that they are not fully committed to freedom and openness. They're a business that sells project hosting space, using the free accounts as a marketing & onboarding tool, not some kind of free-culture advocacy group.

--
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
How many Feminists needed to change a lightbulb? by anvilmark · 2013-12-14 05:34 · Score: 5, Insightful

THAT'S NOT FUNNY!
Re:Is this within GitHub's mission? by x0ra · 2013-12-14 06:05 · Score: 5, Insightful

The problem is that misogyny is seen as offensive where misandry is treated as non-offensive and acceptable behavior for women to have :-/ Whereas it should either be both unacceptable or both acceptable.
Re:Are you saying feminists can't take a joke? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-12-14 06:41 · Score: 5, Insightful

Indeed. As I said above, their attitude towards offensive content is basically the same as the attitude of organised religions.
"It offends me and challenges my beliefs, so it must be removed"
Re:Making satire of equal rights. by EdgePenguin · 2013-12-14 07:28 · Score: 4, Insightful

Lets say it together one more time, because feminists like you still don't seem to get it.
"An ideology is not a race"
Criticizing feminism is in no way comparable to having a go at someone for their ethic origin. Your ideology gets no such protection, and trying to claim that it does simply advertises the world that you cannot defend it on a level playing field. This is the exact same tactic used by people who try to deflect valid criticism on Islam on the grounds of racism. Ideas that have to shield themselves from criticism so are almost universally bad ideas.