Information is gold

[ellid]

For those who are wondering what is going on, evidently a group calling itself "Warriors for Innocence" did a Google search on LJ communities and filed complaints against several dozen that listed incest, odd sexual practices, or pedophilia as interests. LJ responded by suspending many communities (estimates range from 20 to over 500), among them a few genuine pro-pedophilia sites.

However...the vast majority of the sites that were suspended were fanfiction sites, incest survivor communities, role playing games (including two character journals that were clearly labeled as such - and were the game villains), and a Spanish language community devoted to discussing Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita. Warriors for Innocence is crowing over this, and accusing anyone whose journal was deleted (including, presumably, the Spanish Nabokov fans) of being "perverts," "pro-pedos," and "sick."

Before anyone thinks that these are simply concerned citizens...dogemperor did some digging, and found that they have some *very* disturbing connections to the Christian Reconstructionist movement, the Patriot militia movement, the neo-Confederate movement, and a whole host of ultra right-wing hate groups. Based on this, and on WFI's glee in the deletions, it seems all too possible that fanfiction (especially slash, or male/male relationship stories) was being targeted, at least in part. Here's a link to DE's post.

And yes, I'll admit it: this is why I've locked my journal for a few days. I read and write fanfiction, and I'm feeling a bit threatened right now. I'm also a regular and outspoken member of dark_christian, the LJ comm devoted to exposing the Reconstructionist movement and its efforts to "restore America to its Christian roots," regardless of what history, law, or the Constitution says. I don't *think* they know who I am, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Comments

[egalite.livejournal.com]

yar, I'm pretty pissed about this. As in, trying to archive my six years here and then bolting elsewhere. This is bullshit... I read some of that stuff... and what.the.hell. These people are worse than my parents (at least, I hope they are).

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

I've been keeping up with this and am pretty disgusted with al of it, LJ and WoI.

I've not visited the WoI site because of all of the warnings about spyware and tracking back but from others reports they sound like they are supportive of and possibly advocating for other, equally illegal, racist activities.

They aren't on LJ but the reports say their blog is on Blogger. Can we complain to Blogger about them?

I'm not generally this petty but I'm appalled at how this was handled and how WoI equate people who support free speech as being pedophiles.

The apology from LJ is a start but they have a long way to go before I encourage anyone to get an account. Luckily, I've never given them any money and certainly don't ever plan on it now.

[tena524.livejournal.com]

Just one more piece of evidence that the lunatics run the asylum...

If you decide to jump ship to another blog site, please let me know, as I'd hate to lose track.