TAG | LiveJournal suspensions trigger firestorm of complaints |
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| by Stephen Withers | |
| Friday, 01 June 2007 | |
  
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According to Barak Berkowitz, chairman and CEO of Six Apart (LiveJournal's owner), "an unfortunate number" of suspensions were the result of insufficient "clarity" in members' profiles. "If your profile were to express interest in pedophilia with no other content that describes this interest as in helping survivors or protecting children from it we must read the profile as 'I like or I support or I'm in favor of it.' For this reason we suspended profiles that meet this criteria," he wrote in a public statement. Some 'fan fiction' journals containing stories of a sexual nature involving under-age characters were caught up in the sweep as well. "Another issue we needed to deal with was journals that used a thin veneer of fictional or academic interest in events and storylines that include child rape, pedophilia, and similar themes in order to actually promote these activities," wrote Berkowitz. "While there are stories, essays, and discussions that include discussion of these issues in an effort to understand and prevent them, others use a pretext to promote these activities. It's often very hard to tell the difference." Many user complaints were about poor communication rather than the actual suspensions. "Thanks for FINALLY saying something. You could have done this two days ago. There's a LOT of trust gone that you won't be getting back," commented 'eridanusus'. As for the future, Berkowitz frankly admitted "We are trying to walk a fine line between our love of free speech and our desire to protect children and others. The vast majority of these issues are clear but there will be time we make the wrong call, we will try hard to correct our mistakes faster and not make them on such a big scale but I'm sure we will make them."{moscomment} |
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