-Caveat Lector- Why does anyone use aol! There are so much better services available! -----Original Message----- From: Dr. Jai Maharaj <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa,alt.privacy,alt.conspiracy,alt.censorship,alt.impeach.clinto n,soc.culture.indian,alt.fan.jai-maharaj Date: Monday, February 01, 1999 7:58 AM Subject: AOL POLICING POLITICAL DISCUSSIONS - THE NOOSE TIGHTENS AOL POLICING POLITICAL DISCUSSIONS - THE NOOSE TIGHTENS The New York Times, The Orlando Sentinel January 31, 1999 Users tell AOL to keep nose out of debates The giant Internet service monitors electronic messages and tries to keep the chatter civil. But some customers resent the intrusions. Like the divided generations of Irish before them, the two opposing camps of contributors to America Online's discussion group on Ireland rarely agree on anything. But when the world's leading online service suspended their contentious electronic debate last month, participants on both sides were united in their dismay. "Don't stop just to appease the AOL Thought Police," one proponent of a united Ireland wrote to the Unionist contingent, "I'd much rather have someone vehemently disagree with me than know that anyone has been silenced!" America Online reopened its Irish Heritage discussion after a 17- day "cooling off" period, and if there was a strangely muted quality to the contributions at first, things are mostly back to normal. The politics folder, which now bears the slogan "a place for cordial political debate in the spirit of harmony," has spawned more than 12,000 of the usual postings regarding British treason and Sinn Fein terrorism since the beginning of the year. But the episode has fed a growing discomfort with the social and political power America Online has come to wield by dint of its surging popularity and its unusual purview over individual communication. And it underscores the challenges the company may face as it seeks with mixed success to maintain both civil discourse and satisfied customers while presiding over 180,000 continuing conversations on topics from the teenage idols 'N Sync to presidential impeachment. Balancing free expression with civility has always been a struggle for America Online and other electronic publishers that provide areas where people can voice their opinions by typing them into the ether. But it is America Online's scope combined with its editorial control that some critics say is cause for concern. With 15 million subscribers, America Online is now the gateway to cyberspace for more Americans than the next 15 largest Internet service providers combined, according to a recent report by the International Data Corp., a market research firm. Last week, announcing strong earnings, the company said 1.6 million accounts were added in the last three months of 1998 alone. But some members have begun to chafe at its definition of civility, or at least the way it seems sometimes arbitrarily applied. And some civil-liberties advocates are scrutinizing the service more closely as a new breed of institution that governs speech and yet is immune from First Amendment claims. A flurry of recent clashes in discussion areas ranging from race relations to fiction writing has served to heighten concerns over the company's more subtle methods of monitoring the discussions on its message boards -- the continuing discussions that subscribers can follow and contribute to over time, as distinct from the simultaneous and sometimes chaotic (but also monitored) exchanges in what it calls chat rooms. In particular, some subscribers cite the on-line service's practice of deleting message-board postings without explanation and of attaching the equivalent of demerit marks to the accounts of individuals deemed to have offended other subscribers. "The question is, who gets to decide what's 'offensive?'" says Renee Rosenblum-Lowden of Riegelsville, Pa., who recalls being cited for a violation for posting a message during a debate about abortion in which she advised an opponent, "If you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen." Under America Online's contract, universally referred to among members in both noun and verb form as TOS, for "terms of service," all subscribers promise not to "harass, threaten, embarrass, or do anything else to another member that is unwanted." Often transgressions are reported to America Online officials by other discussion-group participants, whose identities are not released to those they accuse. According to the company's subscriber contract, three such violations may result in the suspension or termination of an account. Rosenblum-Lowden -- whose screen name is now "Prejteach 2" because her "Prejteach" account was closed -- says she and a group of other women who take part in discussions on the Women in Action board have been picked as targets for complaints by those who disagree with their liberal views. "Unlike a court of law, you don't face your accusers," she said. "That gives people free rein." America Online officials concede that judging what is unduly offensive in often-complex political disputes or long-running personal battles can be tricky, especially given the volume and range of messages. That is why the company has enlisted nearly 14,000 volunteers to patrol the boards, and it employs a group of about 100 known as the Community Action Team to determine when a comment crosses the line. Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion. - - - - - Posted by: bets 1/31/99 20:49:59 PST - - - - - Source of the above and more news and discussion: http://www.freerepublic.com/ Jai Maharaj Latest world news at: http://www.flex.com/~jai/topnews.html Om Shanti *********************************** Lloyd Miller, Research Director for A-albionic Research (POB 20273, Ferndale, MI 48220), a ruling class/conspiracy research resource for the entire political-ideological spectrum. 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