Slashdot Mirror
Anti-TPP Website Being Blacklisted
so.dan writes: The CTO of Fight for the Future — the non-profit activism group behind Battle for the Net, Blackout Congress, and Stop Fast Track — Jeff Lyon, is seeking advice regarding a problem with facing the website they created — stopfasttrack.com — to fight the secret Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal.
The site been blacklisted by Twitter, Facebook, and major email providers as malicious/spam. Over the last week, nobody has been able to post the website on social networks, or send any emails with their URL. Lyon has posted a summary of the relevant details on Reddit in the hope of obtaining useful feedback regarding what the cause might be. However, none of the answers there right now seem particularly useful, so I'm hoping the Slashdot community can help him out by posting here.
Lyon indicates that the blackout has occurred at a particularly crucial point in the campaign to kill the TPP, as most members of the House of Representatives would likely vote against it were it brought to a vote now, and as pro-TPP interests have started to escalate their lobbying efforts on the House to counteract what would otherwise be a no vote.
The site been blacklisted by Twitter, Facebook, and major email providers as malicious/spam. Over the last week, nobody has been able to post the website on social networks, or send any emails with their URL. Lyon has posted a summary of the relevant details on Reddit in the hope of obtaining useful feedback regarding what the cause might be. However, none of the answers there right now seem particularly useful, so I'm hoping the Slashdot community can help him out by posting here.
Lyon indicates that the blackout has occurred at a particularly crucial point in the campaign to kill the TPP, as most members of the House of Representatives would likely vote against it were it brought to a vote now, and as pro-TPP interests have started to escalate their lobbying efforts on the House to counteract what would otherwise be a no vote.
Is not guaranteed from private organizations.
Censorship in the US doesn't have to be about the first amendment as long as you can get Facebook, Twitter and Google to agree.
So, he's using a domain without an SPF record (allowing it to be spoofed), and Cloudflare hosting which is notorius for spam and botnets. The same domain name with .RU extension is already associated with generating spam.
Furthermore, his homepage is chocka-block with links, that anyone could mistake for a link-farm / spam page.
There's no grand conspiracy here, just a webmaster who's not terribly savvy and some overzealous AI heuristics at Spamhaus, FB and Twitter playing it safe.
Nothing more to see here, please move along.
"nobody has been able to post the website on social networks, or send any emails with their URL" You mean spam the url to people you don't normally email, right?
Hanlon's Razor.
The guy is utterly clueless.
create mirrors, use a tiny url, post images insted of links on social media.
One to my congressman and one to each senator.
Don't really know what else to do.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
From the comments below the article....
1) Site was on spamhaus's blacklist.
2) Someone with more exerience than the poster suggested he add SPF records.
3) Poster added SPF records and thanked the other person.
4) Site is no longer on spamhaus's blacklist.
I got tired of reading comments before I figured out if this resolved all the poster's complaints.
Tell that to the man in the mirror, rightwingnutbar.
I remember NAFTA was supposed to save American jobs and not long after that was signed manufacturing began disappearing out of the US. I think anything our government does should be open for public input. After all its "We the people" who vote in all of our legislative and Presidential people to represent us. I never like any government that purposely does deals without the public knowledge. But it does go to show how business and special interests have now controlled our government and the people as a whole simply live with whatever is decided.
Does Facebook and Twitter and such scan for links to domains blocked by spam lists?
i just posted a link on facebook no problem.
Sacred cows make the best burgers.
All the opponents of TPP listed on that web site are left wing. Usually, such groups applaud statist economic and personal intervention, especially with such things as the TPP which is rumored to include some very strict AGW rules.
LOL that's right you go gurl. Cheer Hilary and Bill on, They feel your pain.
1. Were you in fact spamming? If you injected your message lots of places where it was off topic, then you were spamming and earned your ban. If you failed to follow email best practices (this means *confirmed* opt-in prior to receiving any list content) then you were spamming and earned your ban.
2. Has the web site been hacked with malicious code? Assume yes until you can get a clean bill of health by bona fide security expert.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
Fortinet shows the domain was classified as spam between 2011 and 2014 and was then changed to "advocacy organisation". Maybe other rating services just haven't updated their ratings?
http://www.fortiguard.com/ip_rep/index.php?data=stopfasttrack.com
Apart from the pretty colors, it's pretty badly designed. There's only the one video explaining why it's bad, no text, no in-depth analysis, no outside opinions, no nothing. There isn't even (that I could find) a link to the text of the TPP. This might be a seriously important cause, but the website's not making a very good case against it.
Anyone know and want to elaborate on what this TPP is?
I just posted the URL stopfasttrack.com to my Facebook timeline. I was immediately going to cancel my Facebook account (for the second time) but thought I'd check first.
I've posted it on Facebook and asked everyone to try it out and they all say it's all good.
Here at the Nigerian Research Agency (NRA) we are also developing TPP:
Tele-Portation Protocol (TPP).
Your contributions will be refunded in full. Send us you cash or wire transfer and we will Teleport it back to you in only few days after we receive it; the time required to incorporate the space-time continuum into the protocol.
Also please inform the smart-ass Slashdot editor that placing an acronym (TPP) in the hope that the readers will click to find out is not much different than the cheap dim-witted Internet advertising methods.
Best Regards
Your friends from the "Nigerian Scammers Association" (NSA)
are full of censorship and oppression. Your country is equally bad, just in a different way.
Have gnu, will travel.
you know this really doesn't look good, is the WhiteHouse telling these tech companies to please blacklist this site? it seems suspicious, why are they being blacklisted if they're just some activist group hoping to prevent the controversial TPP, whats next, MSNBC fires Ed Schultz per Obama request? alot of people don't want this thing, it's very suspicious to see these social media sites blacklisting this group if it indeed isn't some farce with malware or something like that
I'm a democrat but this just doesn't look good to me, I don't see why this group's site deserves to be blocked for, according to this article, basically no reason.
What the hell is in this trade deal that they have to keep so secret and have to shut down all opposition?
Just tested it on G+ - not seeing any issue there
(cue people saying no-one uses G+ because none of THEIR 3 friends uses it)
... on Facebook
I would say quite a few of them do. They invade slashdot quite heavily any time there is an election or some protest we are supposed to be behind because it's the social justice warrior thing to do or something. Some have accounts and some post anon.
Don't forget that where TPP covers the Pacific there's also TTIP for the Atlantic and because this shit always comes in threes there's TISA as well,
It makes a lot of sense when you realize that the TPP was written by Corporations in order to make excessive profits for the rich, and both Facebook and Twitter are owned by greedy billionaires.
FTFA
I shared the site on my timeline of FB. Works fine.
If you use those "social" media sites you're giving them the power to screw us over, stop using them.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
Although political, and by tradition it is supposed that even stupid ideas are sort of equal, because we all are in some sense equal, the site IS malicious, spam, unwelcome to most users of the ones denying this mistaken lunatic the use of THEIR megaphone.
I was just able to post a link to https://www.stopfasttrack.com/... public, it also allowed me to save the link. So...very weird.
Armed rebellion? You are a loon. American culture is nowhere near anything like that.
The reason your vote doesn't matter is very simple: you aren't casting it. I'm not talking about showing up and checking the box, plenty of people do that, and then feel smug about how they are being good Americans and making a difference. That isn't voting. That is the dog-and-pony show that we use to distract attention from actual voting.
How do you vote? It is easy as pie. Take your cold hard cash, and use it to lobby (either donate to a lobby, or start one of your own). Real money is real economic power, and you can use yours to effect positive political change.
American civilians resent this. This is because they don't care enough to make real sacrifices. Checking a box costs them a few hours out of their day once ever few years. That is nothing. They will happily do that, and blather on and on about how that is how the world should work. But they are wrong.
We attain power by being useful to others. That is what earns us the right to exercise that power over others. But exercising it is expending it. If that is too much for you to take, then keep on spouting nonsense about the revolution that will never come, while those of us who are in the know jump in the game as it is actually played.
a vote on legislation based on a classified document CAN ONLY BE BAD FOR THE PEOPLE. A vote for such legislation is, therefore, treason.
There is no trust in secrecy. Period.
As for the blacklisting, I don't know. Maybe agents acting for those who want the TPP are working to actively stifle dissent? It's been known to happen, I've been a victim of similar actions myself. More so on a personal basis in my case - my family was threatened so I had no choice but to withdraw from an action that would have brought down the British Government.
[ihtoit posting AC because reasons]
...but that what happens when citizens can't be fucking bothered to pay attention and give the goddamn lobbyists free reign to write the laws!
Literally blaming the victim. Heh
Look, it's not simply a case of "We just weren't prepared enough for this, didn't take any precautions, and did nothing to stop it." this is systematic rot that has been eating away at our rights for decades
Good that you are truthful enough to acknowledge that for decades the rights of the people have been systematically being taken away, but please do tell ... WHO THE FUCK ALLOWED THAT TO HAPPEN IN THE FIRST PLACE?
It was THE PEOPLE who have casted their votes for the same fucking cretins time and time again --- and more importantly, none of them voters had been forced to do so, they did it willingly!!
Did anyone ever point a gun to your head and order you to vote for Mr. X?? Did that happen to you??
Thus, it was THE PEOPLE who have allowed, nay, ENCOURAGED the system rot to happen
Or is it slander? I'm not a lawyer.
In essence, these sites claim that your site is maleware/spam. This seems to me to be an actionable claim.
Furthermore, winning such a court case would also result in companies not automatically listening to those falsly reporting, or placing a proper appeal process into their blocking procedures.
Shachar
Sites gets banned for legitimate reasons all the time Thousands of other legitimate business sites go through this all the time. This site cries like baby and throws poo at internet community to get attention drawn to its "cause" much less the real problem for the ban. Slashdot community bites down hard on free speech bullshit... entertains crap... lame.
The CTO of Fight for the Future — the non-profit activism group
A registered non-profit?? Not that it (transparency) matters - a good cause is sufficient, and the more groups targeting that cause the easier the battle.
behind Battle for the Net, Blackout Congress, and Stop Fast Track — Jeff Lyon
That'd be the Chief Technologist - FIGJAM self-certified Jeffery S. Lyon
The site been blacklisted by Twitter, Facebook, and major email providers as malicious/spam.
Bullshit Not blacklisted . A dig through the history shows that some of the email accounts have been blacklisted in the past - for spamming. No conspiracy, just piss poor security, hunger for publicity, bad manners, and general IT ignorance. (e.g. complain about Ffffacebook and Google but overlook what Yahoo does with non-SPF signed email)
Over the last week, nobody has been able to post the website on social networks, or send any emails with their URL.
Bullshit All posts of links to the site published in the past week
Thanks Jeff. For nothing. Failure to check your facts doesn't help the campaign - the proponents of TPP don't have to block you - your incompetence and dishonesty does the job for them. Not that I'm accusing you of diluting the EFF campaign, or cashing in on it...
I'm against the TPP, certainly against the secrecy in the negotiations, and I'm ready to believe that "They" might looking to stamp out threats to "Their" plans but...
1) I just posted the stopfasttrack site to Facebook with no problems.
2) I never heard of the site until they started claiming that they were being blocked. Does anyone have evidence that the problem actually exists?
This link on twitter linked just fine
Nigga you are blocked as spam because you were spamming. Quit bitching about it, swallow some cement mix and harden the fuck up.
How cute.
Come on guys, tired of hypocritical liberals yet? Tired of hearing how open and honest Obama and his minions are yet? Tired of the mainstream media BLOCKING information that is critical to debate? Come on guys... time to stop being liberal hypocrites yourselves and stand up for what you've preached all throughout the Bush years.
This guy set up his site in the most clueless way possible, tripping every automated spam alarm possible. And you want people to blame Obama? Ok, bright guy..
Bow down to your corporate overlords and pucker up. Oh and that stuff about government tyranny? We should be so lucky.
The Fight for the Future website seems exceedingly slow when one clicks on their internal links. Is that because they are getting a lot of traffic from the "Streissand effect" or are they victims of a DOS attack?
I had the same happen two times to my personal website with articles on Freenet ( http://draketo.de ). I wondered for days why my tweets showed errors, until I tried to link the site on another page and got the information that someone had put it on a spam blacklist. Took me over a week to get it out again (by writing an E-Mail to the maintainer).
What I really don’t like about this is that twitter does not inform people *why* the site is blocked. It can’t be so hard to give the error message “tweet not accepted because the site [url] is on the spam blacklist [name] [url]”.