Digg for liberty bring back the banned
By Diane V. McLoughlin Feb. 2, 2009
Dear digg,
These are uncertain times we live in. The world may hang in a balance
between peace and war. Edmund Burke observed that, 'The only thing
necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.'
The most important thing that people of good will can do is to say something.
Please reconsider the recent banning of digg member yellowcakewalk.
Yellowcakewalk is a peace activist. They are an active and thoughtful
contributor to the digg community. I have been to the website
Whitehouseprotest.org/ where yellowcakewalk contributes. Lots of pictures of
grassroots peace protests.
There is concern held by some in the digg community that someone may have
violated terms by falsely reporting abuse that did not occur.
Yellowcakewalk's focus is on anti-war and international justice. Because of
recent events in Gaza it is fair to say that yellowcakewalk has demonstrated a
keen interest in following and commenting on stories about it. It is a highly
emotionally charged issue for both sides of the yawning divide. Some diggers
do not share yellowcakewalk's views. This is not sufficient grounds for
banning. It is detrimental to freedom of speech and thought. It diminishes the
digg community as a whole. While it is possible that yellowcakewalk said
something out of character that was beyond the pale, diggers have looked and
have not found it.
The irony is that while yellowcakewalk is banned, others are not banned. For
example, one digg member recently slandered me as a 'Jew hater' in a thread
because, like yellowcakewalk and others, I want peace and justice everywhere
for everyone; I do not agree with Israel's behavior toward the Palestinian
people.
I am not alone in the wish that yellowcakewalk be brought back, as can be
viewed in the following thread of comments:
http://digg.com/people/Banned_from_Digg_for_mentioning_Samson_Strategy
The larger concern is that it may become more difficult for the rough and
tumble of debate to thrive free of attempts to snuff it out. In recent days Israel
has openly called for and enlisted a volunteer cyber army of bloggers to fight
for Israel's version of the facts on the web. And although I have not been
around digg for long (I do not know who else has been banned recently) I have
read concern by other digg members in threads that banning may be
happening with greater frequency. They are concerned that the two facts may
be linked.
It would be impossible to micro-manage a community of digg's size. The
larger the community the greater the challenges in dealing with fallible human
beings. But there may develop a unique climate of cyber animosity to freedom
of speech and thought that digg has not had to contend with before. I do not
believe that digg wants to be manipulated and misled into squelching the free
exchange of ideas.
Digg members such as yellowcakewalk work hard to contribute to digg. Via
digg they make valuable contributions to the world community of ideas.
Through digg (and other content sharing sites, Mixx, reddit and delicious being
but a few examples), they help the most compelling ideas, both bad and good,
to rise to the forefront of debate and discussion. It is a vital process.
As for me, I visit every single digg member that I have on my friends list first, to
see if we might have something in common before becoming their fan. I check
out their favorites and so on. I don't want to 'shout' (share) what interests me to
somebody who from their digg profile does not appear to hold interests similar
to my own.
I recommend stories, check out shouted stories to consider digging (voting
up), and I occasionally comment on dug articles. There is so much good
material that I regret to say that I cannot find sufficient time to digg more than I
do. Some of the articles I post to share on digg are mine.
The banning of digg community member yellowcakewalk leaves me
wondering if it is worth the risk to invest my time and energy on digg if in the
end it is an easy tap of a key without appeal or warning for my digg user page
and identity - dianevmc - to simply vanish, because of an anonymous smear by
someone who does not share my political views.
I feel that sites such as digg are indispensable to freedom, justice and truth.
I commend the creativity and vision of diggs' facilitators.
Throughout history the wise have counselled that every generation would of
necessity have to be on guard to protect the essential underpinnings of
civilization. 'Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according
to conscience above all liberties.' (John Milton; 1608 - 1674. Wikipedia: 'best
known for his epic poem Paradise Lost and for his treatise condemning
censorship, Areopagitica.')
I am writing today to respectfully point out that digg may find itself increasingly
misled. The same goes for all content sharing sites. Good people may have a
harder time trying to point out that something somewhere is wrong. It is not to
say that digg is the only place on the world wide web in which to share
information. But it is one of the largest sharing communities. And sometimes
it is only a few grains of sand that are necessary to tip the scales.
We may be entering an era of cyber totalitarianism. The first people they go
after to silence in a totalitarian regime? Community leadership.
I am, most sincerely and respectfully yours,
Diane V. McLoughlin, writer
http://www.mcloughlinpost.com/
home
Editorials feed
By Diane V. McLoughlin Feb. 2, 2009
Dear digg,
These are uncertain times we live in. The world may hang in a balance
between peace and war. Edmund Burke observed that, 'The only thing
necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.'
The most important thing that people of good will can do is to say something.
Please reconsider the recent banning of digg member yellowcakewalk.
Yellowcakewalk is a peace activist. They are an active and thoughtful
contributor to the digg community. I have been to the website
Whitehouseprotest.org/ where yellowcakewalk contributes. Lots of pictures of
grassroots peace protests.
There is concern held by some in the digg community that someone may have
violated terms by falsely reporting abuse that did not occur.
Yellowcakewalk's focus is on anti-war and international justice. Because of
recent events in Gaza it is fair to say that yellowcakewalk has demonstrated a
keen interest in following and commenting on stories about it. It is a highly
emotionally charged issue for both sides of the yawning divide. Some diggers
do not share yellowcakewalk's views. This is not sufficient grounds for
banning. It is detrimental to freedom of speech and thought. It diminishes the
digg community as a whole. While it is possible that yellowcakewalk said
something out of character that was beyond the pale, diggers have looked and
have not found it.
The irony is that while yellowcakewalk is banned, others are not banned. For
example, one digg member recently slandered me as a 'Jew hater' in a thread
because, like yellowcakewalk and others, I want peace and justice everywhere
for everyone; I do not agree with Israel's behavior toward the Palestinian
people.
I am not alone in the wish that yellowcakewalk be brought back, as can be
viewed in the following thread of comments:
http://digg.com/people/Banned_from_Digg_for_mentioning_Samson_Strategy
The larger concern is that it may become more difficult for the rough and
tumble of debate to thrive free of attempts to snuff it out. In recent days Israel
has openly called for and enlisted a volunteer cyber army of bloggers to fight
for Israel's version of the facts on the web. And although I have not been
around digg for long (I do not know who else has been banned recently) I have
read concern by other digg members in threads that banning may be
happening with greater frequency. They are concerned that the two facts may
be linked.
It would be impossible to micro-manage a community of digg's size. The
larger the community the greater the challenges in dealing with fallible human
beings. But there may develop a unique climate of cyber animosity to freedom
of speech and thought that digg has not had to contend with before. I do not
believe that digg wants to be manipulated and misled into squelching the free
exchange of ideas.
Digg members such as yellowcakewalk work hard to contribute to digg. Via
digg they make valuable contributions to the world community of ideas.
Through digg (and other content sharing sites, Mixx, reddit and delicious being
but a few examples), they help the most compelling ideas, both bad and good,
to rise to the forefront of debate and discussion. It is a vital process.
As for me, I visit every single digg member that I have on my friends list first, to
see if we might have something in common before becoming their fan. I check
out their favorites and so on. I don't want to 'shout' (share) what interests me to
somebody who from their digg profile does not appear to hold interests similar
to my own.
I recommend stories, check out shouted stories to consider digging (voting
up), and I occasionally comment on dug articles. There is so much good
material that I regret to say that I cannot find sufficient time to digg more than I
do. Some of the articles I post to share on digg are mine.
The banning of digg community member yellowcakewalk leaves me
wondering if it is worth the risk to invest my time and energy on digg if in the
end it is an easy tap of a key without appeal or warning for my digg user page
and identity - dianevmc - to simply vanish, because of an anonymous smear by
someone who does not share my political views.
I feel that sites such as digg are indispensable to freedom, justice and truth.
I commend the creativity and vision of diggs' facilitators.
Throughout history the wise have counselled that every generation would of
necessity have to be on guard to protect the essential underpinnings of
civilization. 'Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according
to conscience above all liberties.' (John Milton; 1608 - 1674. Wikipedia: 'best
known for his epic poem Paradise Lost and for his treatise condemning
censorship, Areopagitica.')
I am writing today to respectfully point out that digg may find itself increasingly
misled. The same goes for all content sharing sites. Good people may have a
harder time trying to point out that something somewhere is wrong. It is not to
say that digg is the only place on the world wide web in which to share
information. But it is one of the largest sharing communities. And sometimes
it is only a few grains of sand that are necessary to tip the scales.
We may be entering an era of cyber totalitarianism. The first people they go
after to silence in a totalitarian regime? Community leadership.
I am, most sincerely and respectfully yours,
Diane V. McLoughlin, writer
http://www.mcloughlinpost.com/
home
Editorials feed
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