MySpace Censors Anti-War Websites

MySpace Censors Anti-War Websites
Prison Planet blocked as the model for government regulated Internet 2 gets a dry run
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Tuesday, September 25, 2007

[align=left]Rupert Murdoch's MySpace has been caught in another act of alternative media censorship after it was revealed that bulletin posts containing links to Prison Planet.com were being hijacked and forwarded to MySpace's home page. MySpace has placed Prison Planet on a list of blocked websites supposedly reserved for spam, phishing scams or virus trojans.
It has been apparent for at least two weeks that all bulletin posts containing links to Prison Planet were being censored but we decided to wait and see if it was just a technical error before drawing any attention to the problem.
Now there is little doubt that MySpace has deliberately filtered out Prison Planet, preventing anyone from accessing the site via the social networking giant. [/align]

Try it for yourself, post a bulletin from your MySpace account with a link to Prison Planet contained in the text. Click here and copy the html code into the bulletin window and press send. Then go to "Show Bulletins I've Posted". You will notice that your link has been hijacked and now links to a URL that begins with http://www.msplinks.com - this is MySpace's filtering middleman that was launched earlier this year to supposedly combat spam assaults and phishing scams.


[align=left]When the link is clicked, it doesn't go to the Prison Planet.com link you intended, but instead forwards to the MySpace home page.
"These links are legit and we are creating them," MySpace.com President Tom Anderson announced in April. "They are not viruses or whatever else your conspiracy theorist friends told you. They still point to their original url, but let us easily turn off links to spam, phishing, or virus sites. booyah!"
The problem with this statement is that Prison Planet.com is an alternative news website that has been featured and referenced in hundreds of mainstream publications and is also carried as a news source of Google News. Though our detractors are fond of arguing that we are "not a credible news source," the contention that we are either a spam, phishing or virus website is completely false.

MySpace should come clean and admit that it is now following an official policy of censorship based on political affiliation, and that its readers are not left free to make up their own minds on the credibility of any particular story, but are intentionally prevented from accessing certain websites that MySpace deems contrary to the political agenda of its owner, Rupert Murdoch.
Why is this important? Shouldn't MySpace have the right to block any website they wish? After all, it's their website, they decide the content.

In another example, a MySpace user attempts to post an Infowars.com article but is prevented from doing so.
Firstly, websites such as MySpace, Wikipedia and Digg pose as virtuous online information democracies yet are bossed by bias censors and patrolled by organized armies of trolls whose sole purpose is to discredit and delete controversial information by launching unsubstantiated ad hominem attacks on the credibility of its source or its very right to be discussed (Wikipedia trolls deleted a list of Republican sex scandals, among a host of other manifestly provable controversies).
They are also wide open to abuse from nefarious government agencies and corporations seeking to "memory hole" sensitive information from the web, as was documented by the WikiScanner scandal. In this climate, a media watchdog like Prison Planet should be welcomed, not shunned, censored and blocked off by MySpace filtering software.
Secondly, this is the model for the imminent arrival of Internet 2, a government regulated and controlled cyberspace police state where bloggers require ID numbers and permission from the powers that be to simply express an opinion, and then that opinion is subsequently subject to censorship and deletion if it is counterproductive to the interests of the state.
Earlier this year, MySpace were caught red-handed when a moderator unwittingly admitted that Prison Planet.com was one of the alternative media websites that MySpace was blocking from its messageboards and bulletin posts.
In a discussion thread, a MySpace user complained that his Ron Paul post had been censored, to which a MySpace moderator responded, "Ron Paul wasn't being censored, it was the prisonplanet.com part of the message that was being filtered out." [/align]
The moderator later clarifies that it was beyond his control and that "prisonplanet.com" is on a list of URL's that are automatically blocked by MySpace's servers.
But Prison Planet isn't the only website to be targeted by Murdoch's censorship jackboots - in January 2006 MySpace enacted a policy to block all You Tube links, a move that resulted in a boycott of the social networking website after thousands complained before MySpace was forced to restore the links.
Please use this link to contact MySpace and let them know what you think about their decision to censor political websites that don't toe Murdoch's corporate agenda.

While I don't agree with censoring PrisonPlanet, have you seen all of the beliefs espewed on that site? There's a lot of good points, but a few bizarre ones too. They claim Harry Potter is a veiled effort to get kids into the occult, and the amount of sexual repression is astonishing. PP basically teaches that sex is a dirty, immoral act. That porn and sex outside of marrage are evil, and apparently playboy is responsible for the rise and legitimization of pedophilia. They don't seem keen on homosexuals either. I'm personally just grateful we've finally escaped the fanatical Victorian/christian dogma that sex is wrong, wicked, unatural.

That and while posting relevant, true facts, they don't seem too careful about filtering junk info from truth. 2 times now I've seen them "prove" that America is going to invade Iran at a stated time long-past. In fact this October will be the one-year aniversary of "American's imminent invasion of Iran" that they were so sure would happen.

How much money does it cost for a Myspace page? Just like here....it's their right as to what content they want.

I wonder if Moveon.org would allow a pro-Bush link on their site? Or PrisonPlanet as far as that's concerned.

Have a good one!:s4:

it's their site, they should do whatever they want with it. now, if the government forced them to censor something, that would be wrong, but I would certainly delete links to pro-Life ads if i had a site. People need to look at things from both sides of an issue.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Psycho4Bud

How much money does it cost for a Myspace page? Just like here....it's their right as to what content they want.

I wonder if Moveon.org would allow a pro-Bush link on their site? Or PrisonPlanet as far as that's concerned.

Have a good one!:s4:

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/\ /\

He makes a very good point here. Myspace is their site, and should have no obligation to affiliate themselves with propoganda.

hmm.. most of the prisonplanet post here seem like spam. Maybe myspace is on to something :thumbsup:

BTW I just checked and apparently they forgot to block Infowars. Another evil genius plan half thought out.

"MySpace should come clean and admit that it is now following an official policy of censorship based on political affiliation, and that its readers are not left free to make up their own minds on the credibility of any particular story, but are intentionally prevented from accessing certain websites that MySpace deems contrary to the political agenda of its owner, Rupert Murdoch."

I agree with this part of the article. I also believe myspace has a right to censor whatever they want, but they should (not legally but as a moral obligation) show or list what websites they block and why.

I was in a very active group called, "The Bush is an Idiot Group" with about 15,000 members that suddenly disappeared. I don't know if it was the group leader or myspace.

Do the owners of myspace have a moral obligation because of their size and power? Yes, just as Wal-Mart does. Do they have a legal requirement to state who they censor and why? Absolutely not.

Um, actually guys, MySpace now changes all links to an msplinks.com url, but they do forward to the original site :thumbsup:

That's why I dumped my MySpace account after News Corp bought it. This is the same guy who owns Faux....uh.... I mean Fox News Channel, so what do you expect?

On the other hand, I certainly agree that it's their site so they can do what they want. As long as it's not the government interfering, then it's their obligation to pick and choose their content.

Just as MySpace has the right to censor left-leaning ads, I have the right not to have an account with them. It works both ways.

Interesting article though!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Psycho4Bud

How much money does it cost for a Myspace page? Just like here....it's their right as to what content they want.

I wonder if Moveon.org would allow a pro-Bush link on their site? Or PrisonPlanet as far as that's concerned.

Have a good one!:s4:

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Uhhhhh, didn't Rupert Murdoch just buy My space. If so, wouldn't that almost guarantee no left wing posts.

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Originally Posted by medicinal

Uhhhhh, didn't Rupert Murdoch just buy My space. If so, wouldn't that almost guarantee no left wing posts.

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IF he bought it, I guess it IS his choice. Once again, I wonder if Moveon.org would allow a pro-Bush link on their site?

Have a good one!:s4:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Psycho4Bud

IF he bought it, I guess it IS his choice. Once again, I wonder if Moveon.org would allow a pro-Bush link on their site?

Have a good one!:s4:

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Well, I thought the net was a place that was supposed to be a forum for opposing views, so limiting the left on my space just made it a right wing political sight, just like Move on .org is for the left. My space used to be a place for teens to meet and post their ideas etc. now it is a right wing blogosphere. I never went to My space for anything anyway so it won't affect me, but it will allow that asshole Rupert Murdoch to poison the minds of our youth, and that should not be allowed. It's subtrafuge 1-A, the mind control of the youth. Thats how Hitler was taking over, and Murdoch is using his tactics.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by medicinal

Thats how Hitler was taking over, and Murdoch is using his tactics.

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LOL....just a bit extreme, don't ya think?

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXv5UsSLIiA[/YOUTUBE]

Have a good one!:s4:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by medicinal

Well, I thought the net was a place that was supposed to be a forum for opposing views, so limiting the left on my space just made it a right wing political sight, just like Move on .org is for the left. My space used to be a place for teens to meet and post their ideas etc. now it is a right wing blogosphere. I never went to My space for anything anyway so it won't affect me, but it will allow that asshole Rupert Murdoch to poison the minds of our youth, and that should not be allowed. It's subtrafuge 1-A, the mind control of the youth. Thats how Hitler was taking over, and Murdoch is using his tactics.

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Should not be allowed? Why should any political website be allowed then? This is a cannabis site encouraging people that it's OK to do drugs, that shouldn't be allowed! But you know why it is allowed? Because owners of websites are allowed to have their own opinions and have their own communities to support the opinion. I'm sure there's lots of people saying "encouraging folk to smoke pot, that shouldn't be allowed!"