________________________________ From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] 1. Re: Independent UK Critic of NBC has Twitter account suspended after network complains All of this endless literalist parsing of whether you can or cannot find the NBC executive's email easily through Google or not is losing sight of the bigger picture of why Twitter or any social media platform would have a policy about not publicizing personal information -- *so as not to subject people to harassment*. THAT is the point. We all realize that if you dredge through Google using tricks like trying variations of a person's name and their known company domain, you can likely hit on their email, or it might show up in a conference list or something in search and technically "be there". So what? The point is, this email was *not* put on a public web page for the public to contact with complaints. So it's not fair game. Adams is behaving like a common Anonymous script kiddie trying to incite "The Internet" to flashmob this executive he believes responsible for a policy he doesn't like (remember when Anonymous went after A&T executives like that when they thought AT&T was responsible for taking 4chan down?) That's just infantile. There's no need to harass somebody in person or even crash their mail server -- there are other avenues such as petition-writing or contacting the customer service public-facing officials. There's that -- and then there's the entitlement-happy craze for instant on-demand Internet entertainment without regard for how companies are supposed to make money. If NBC delays their airing of sports until prime time, it's because they can sell ads better that way. What's the plan for them making money off a live Internet stream? Most Internet ads don't make return as broadcast media ads -- it's a real problem for how the media will survive. The notion that "loads of people show up at prime time anyway" or "only some geeks know how to tunnel with VPN" just aren't valid arguments -- if people show up anyway, it may not be for long once the means of circumvention spread, and it isn't just a few people anyway. Indeed, people like Adams think they can organize crowds by inciting Twitter. Finally, there's the question of journalism. Since when does a journalist also get to consider himself a professional, and also incite flashmob protests on the Internet? Oh, since social media made it "ok"
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