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WordPress Bans Fascist Website Linked To Charlottesville Killer (fastcompany.com)
tedlistens writes: WordPress has said that it does not censor websites like that of self-proclaimed fascist group Vanguard America. But last night, the group's site was taken offline for violating the company's terms of service. The about-face was likely prompted by Vanguard's participation in last weekend's Unite the Right rallies in Charlottesville, Virginia, during which James Alex Fields drove his car into a crowd, killing one person and injuring 19. Fields has claimed allegiance to Vanguard America; the group denies that Fields was a member. For WordPress to drop a site, even a fascist site, is a very big deal; the same is true of GoDaddy's and Google's decision to drop their registration of neo-Nazi site the Daily Stormer (another site that GoDaddy previously said would be permitted on free speech grounds). WordPress hasn't explained the shift in its approach to the website: the company's user agreement and terms of service have not changed since Charlottesville. That policy, like that of other tech platforms, has long stood by strict neutrality and freedom of expression. That may now be changing.
Ok, suggestions for what label would be acceptable? Assholes is too broad a term.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
...looking for other sites that violate the "terms of service".
I call BS. There are plenty of platforms which like to spout that platitude, but have special rules when it comes to naked people. Other platforms disallow "adult content" altogether. Yet point out that a platform is supporting white supremacists, and the "free speech" card gets played.
Nudity is treated as more offensive than racism. Think about how messed up that is. We're only seeing this reaction from GoDaddy / WordPress now because there were full-on Nazis in Charlottesville.
It's just PR. It's not like corporations are people.
Does WordPress have anything in their terms of service about inciting violence, committing crimes, or breaking the law in general?
If Vanguard America hasn't distanced themselves from the actions of this alleged member, perhaps they could be classified as a terrorist organization? This isn't necessarily an issue of free speech any more than breaking the law is.
From the WordPress User Guidelines:
Directly threatening material.
Do not post direct and realistic threats of violence. That is, you cannot post a genuine call for violence—or death—against an individual person, or groups of persons. This doesn’t mean that we’ll remove all hyperbole or offensive language.
Also from the WordPress User Guidelines:
Log in or piss off.
What? Are you high?
Fascism is an economic model and has nothing to do with Donald Trump or Nazis.
Really? Really???
"Fascism is a form of radical authoritarian nationalism, characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, and control of industry and commerce, that came to prominence in early 20th-century Europe."
"National Socialism (German: Nationalsozialismus), more commonly known as Nazism, is the ideology and set of practices associated with the 20th-century German Nazi Party, Nazi Germany, and other far-right groups. Sometimes characterised as a form of fascism that incorporates scientific racism and antisemitism, Nazism's development was influenced by German nationalism (especially Pan-Germanism), the Völkisch movement and the anti-communist Freikorps paramilitary groups that emerged during the Weimar Republic after Germany's defeat in First World War."
I'm sorry, but you absolutely do not get to paint this a color that pleases you.
Fascism does indeed have a few economic ideas in it, but that's only a very small part of what fascism actually is. Saying Fascism is nothing more than an economic policy is like saying a five course dinner is about the glass of water they serve alongside it.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
action and google's and godaddy's, etc. just remember your position on this when GoHillary.com or BlackLivesMatter.org is taken down because the sites allow "hate speech" to be posted.
We can fine an endless supply of "hateful" speech, even speech calling for violence on the left, too. The KKK has no monopoly on that.
Black Lives Matter protester: 'Only good white man is a dead white man'.
New Black Panther Party (NBPP), whose leaders are known for anti-Semitic and anti-white tirades. Its late chairman, Khalid Abdul Muhammad, famously remarked: “There are no good crackers, and if you find one, kill him before he changes.”
Though she opposed [a proposed Constitutional anti-gay-marriage amendment], [Clinton] said that she believed that marriage was "a sacred bond between a man and a woman" and she took "umbrage at anyone who might suggest that those of us who worry about amending the Constitution are less committed to the sanctity of marriage, or to the fundamental bedrock principle that exists between a man and a woman." [Pretty hateful words, by today's LGBTTTQQIAA... standards].
"White folks was in caves while we were building empires. We taught philosophy and astrology [sic] and mathematics before Socrates and those Greek homos ever got around to it." Al Sharpton [A gay slur, a nationalist slur, and a racist comment, all in one!]
You cannot define "hate" speech to just include white-supremacist or other speech you disagree with. Because if you do, when power shifts or something bad happens, your speech is next. We didn't go and shut down any of the sites that James Hodgkinson was active on, and if Trump and the right had tried to do so, the media would--correctly, for once--said that would be wrong and a violation of free speech rights. We didn't go and shut down the mosque where Omar Mateen's anti-gay views were stoked by his religious indoctrination. It would have been wrong.
When the KKK and Nazi's want to expose themselves and their idiotic and repugnant ideas, it's not a good idea to create martyrs-to-the-cause of any of them nor answer them with violence. That just feeds them.
Looks pretty peaceful to me. Nobody ran him over with a car. In fact, he was completely unharmed. Isn't this the kind of protest you spend hours on here defending?
I expect a bit of both.
First there is an acknowledgement that these groups are more then just a random ranting hicks. But groups trying to push a well crafted narrative of fear that giving others equal rights will diminish their own rights, and hatred of the groups who are getting such rights and trying to show that they are not worth it. It is the responsibility of everyone to stand up against this groups in one way or an other. These groups use the same methods and logic that had created much of the foreign terrorist groups, and their growth to a point where they had destroyed countries came from a population that more or less just let it slide. Racism really has no place in business, as all it does it reduce your customer base and partners to work with.
Then there is a PR problem of being considered friendly to this group, this will attract more undesirables to your service, and effect your general perception. It could be like the Simpsons quote "Not Raciest but #1 with racist)
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Same as muslims calling for the execution of atheists and gays? Shut them down too?
How about BLM saying there are "too many white people"?
A business that is open to the general public must serve the general public. A bakery must sell to all customers and WordPress must sell to all customers.
If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
A bakery must sell to all customers and WordPress must sell to all customers.
This. We need to seriously have protections for the 1st amendment online (that is purely about speech) as we do with other protections in the 14th amendment.
The more I hear about the actions various progressive tech companies are taking online to speech they don't like (beyond nazis) the more I fear for the future for the internet and future of freedom of speech that is necessary for democracy.
The government won't be far behind with this pro-censorship sentiment as we have seen with the Charlottsville government illegally rescinding a right to protest and arbitrarily retracting the protection of law.
Why on Earth would you think that's even a question? Oh wait, you're probably one of those moronic right wing nutjobs who thinks "Not all Muslims are terrorists" = "We love Islam and agree with ISIS's interpretation of it!"
BLM has never said anything of the sort. BLM is a diverse coalition of people who are concerned that black people keep getting killed by the police for ridiculous reasons, and that there's too much apologism for such killings. You can probably find an individual member who has said something ridiculous, but the movement as a whole would disagree with it.
In general, no. Businesses can pick and choose who they serve as long as they don't discriminate against protected classes of people - essentially minorities who are historically and institutionally discriminated against for things beyond their reasonable control. You can implement policies banning libertarians, Marvel fans, Bronies, and people who like Hawaiian Pizza from your wedding cake store, you just can't ban gays for being gay.
If you actually listened to people who aren't RWNJs, you'd know all this. But you choose not to. Here's a thought though: last year, Hillary Clinton warned you that Donald Trump was attracting a large following among white supremacists. She said:
Most Republicans didn't merely refuse to heed her warning, but they lied about what she said and pretended she'd claimed all Republicans are racists, despite the fact she said nothing remotely similar to that, and even recognized that the other half of Trump's supporters were desperate people with legitimate grievances.
Clinton was right then, and HAD CONSERVATIVES HEEDED HER WARNING we'd not be in the horrific situation of having a President who panders to, and gives power, to Neo-Nazis, and who is in probability one himself.
Maybe, just maybe, you should start listening to what liberals, Democrats, and the left in general actually say, rather than pretending they're saying stupid things, inventing whole stupid opinions for them to have, just so you can feel better about yourself?
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
That's completely different than opening the wallets of every American to bail out the Banking Industry. Thanks Republicans, for being SOOOOOOO smart that you don't need my money! Oh, wait...
Before blaming that on Republicans, you should look at the facts: Democrats voted 172 to 63 in favor of the bailout, while Republicans voted 108 to 91 against it.
Mmm, immigrants and globalism are the root of all the world's problems
I can't say I saw GP say that they were.
Your sarcastic statement, however, is as patently false as the statement: Immigrants and globalism don't cause any problems.
Like most things, the truth is somewhere in between, and trying to pretend otherwise just makes people look like ignorant fools.
BLM has never said anything of the sort.
You're right, they said far worse. Like saying all "white people are sub-human" I've heard that before...coming from black supremacists. Very uh...diverse, so progressive. Gee, they're just like Margaret Sanger and her belief that blacks were sub-human need to be culled, and the perfect way to do that was via planned parenthood. Never mind her pro-eugenics stance or anything...
Clinton was right then, and HAD CONSERVATIVES HEEDED HER WARNING we'd not be in the horrific situation of having a President who panders to, and gives power, to Neo-Nazis, and who is in probability one himself.
You didn't even listen to him when he blamed both sides for the violence did you. You're so heavily invested in identity politics that you're willing to swallow whatever bullshit is shoved down your throat. You also likely believe that antifa is really the good guys, and really aren't just racists on the left.
Om, nomnomnom...
No, they must bake the cake if they would bake the same cake for others without basing their refusal upon the customer being a member of a protected class.
Here's a source backing my assertion. Where's a source backing yours?
You're making a "chicken and egg" argument. The problem is that antifa was not in response to white supremacists. It was in response to our new President being elected and a rejection of conservative/libertarian values. If you're not a liberal, you're a fascist or a racist or a bigot. That's their mantra. This whole white supremacy thing is a circus side show that the left fell for. It has nothing to do with what's been taking place over the last few years. We've had BLM torching entire city blocks, assaulting people, inciting the murder of police officers, more recently we have antifa doing similar things.. but only now does the media really start talking about violence. It's absurd.
The woman died because a neo-Nazi fuckwit ran her over. There is no other reason no matter how much you try and whitewash it