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Chilling Effects
Dec. 1st, 2007 12:13 pmChilling Effect:
Livejournal has instituted a new method for not only blog owners, but any registered user to flag a blog as "inappropriate" for various age groups. In order to view a flagged blog, a registered user must include their date-of-birth (DOB) in their profile, and explicitly click a button that states they're aware that the content has been deemed "inappropriate" for an age group. The blog owner has no recourse, and can't un-flag their own content that others have flagged. It's effectively a scarlet letter.
This is profoundly distressing. If you don't understand this, reply, and I'll explain it to you in excruciating detail. I assume my readership is actually smart enough to understand the far-reaching consequences of this.
A Modest Proposal
We're all registered users. Create a new (free) account. Now find all posts from all 6Apart (owns Livejournal) and LJ administrators, all blogs that have never contained anything more than puppies and flowers, all posts from 14 year old girls and boys, and flag them as "inappropriate content for under 18s". Do this for every post they have. This is a protest for free speech.
For the record, I'd have no problem with a mechanism for allowing (not forcing) people to flag *their own* content, but to allow any random user with a grudge to flag your posts is poorly thought out at best, and otherwise downright insidious.
Edit Added![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
thornyc's idea of creating another LJ alt before flagging everything under the sun.
A chilling effect is a situation where speech or conduct is suppressed or limited by fear of penalization at the hands of an individual or group. For example, the threat of a costly and lengthy lawsuit might prompt self-censorship and have a chilling effect on free speech.
Livejournal has instituted a new method for not only blog owners, but any registered user to flag a blog as "inappropriate" for various age groups. In order to view a flagged blog, a registered user must include their date-of-birth (DOB) in their profile, and explicitly click a button that states they're aware that the content has been deemed "inappropriate" for an age group. The blog owner has no recourse, and can't un-flag their own content that others have flagged. It's effectively a scarlet letter.
This is profoundly distressing. If you don't understand this, reply, and I'll explain it to you in excruciating detail. I assume my readership is actually smart enough to understand the far-reaching consequences of this.
A Modest Proposal
We're all registered users. Create a new (free) account. Now find all posts from all 6Apart (owns Livejournal) and LJ administrators, all blogs that have never contained anything more than puppies and flowers, all posts from 14 year old girls and boys, and flag them as "inappropriate content for under 18s". Do this for every post they have. This is a protest for free speech.
For the record, I'd have no problem with a mechanism for allowing (not forcing) people to flag *their own* content, but to allow any random user with a grudge to flag your posts is poorly thought out at best, and otherwise downright insidious.
Edit Added
thornyc's idea of creating another LJ alt before flagging everything under the sun.
