New on the Digg banning front- no feminists either

Tali — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 04:15:00 -0600

I just tried to post this amazingly poignant piece of Def poetry to Digg and it seems the URL is blocked.

Check it out:
http://favvideos.info/feminism/watch-video/GTLDb-flVNE/mzprettykitty/feminism.html

Who Cares if a Few Dykes Get Banned from Digg?

Tali — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 07:42:52 -0600

Got your attention? Good. Recently I’ve become aware of a strange situation at Digg, where a few quality lesbian articles have been systematically buried and lesbian Diggers have been banned, with no response from Digg. Why should you care?

After reading this story, I got scared. I’m not a lesbian, but I care, because this is exactly the sort of things, we internet dwellers should be worried about. As content creators and consumers, we can’t allow de-democratization of the web. It will be the end of free speech on the web.

“It’s Democratic- the Majority of Diggers Don’t Care for this Content”
I’ve spoken with a few people on the subject, for the past couple of days, and this objection came up every time. I disagree. These stories never reached much over 20 Diggs, it would only take as many buries to make them disappear. The option to report a story also makes it quite easy to make it go away. To strengthen my point, that there is an alternative Digg, just type the term “gay rights” in the Digg search box, and look through an endless list of pro-gay stories, ( too bad more than 95% haven’t risen above 2 Diggs).

“Well if it Wasn’t Porn, Why Did the Digg Staff Block it?”
That’s a great question! What the hell is the Digg team doing, blocking none-offensive material? And why would it ban its own users, if they were on the up-and-up? Stories by Gay Parents, a sub-blog at Parents.com, surly couldn't be porn, right?

So I come to a worrying conclusion: There are a few homophobic Diggers out there, burying stories and reporting gay Diggers, and Digg is either irresponsibly banning without checking the facts, or actively supporting homophobia. Either way, they are not dealing with this issue as I would, personally, see fit, of a social network.

It Scares The Shit Out of Me
And that’s why I care. Because if it’s gays, now, who’s to say blacks aren’t next? Asians? Hispanics? Jews? Women? And maybe it won’t be just Digg? Maybe all the other social networks? Maybe the whole of the web?

Am I over reacting? You tell me. Is there a difference between banning lesbians with lesbian-interest stories, or banning Jews with Jewish-interest stories? Diggers have told me of hateful, disturbing comments. A Short search could lead you to this seemingly innocent example.

Ban Digg!
Many of the gay community have opted to ban Digg, in protest. And my initial reaction was quite similar. But after turning it over in my mind, knowing I’m writing this article, an interesting idea popped into my head:

Don’t ban Digg!

Think of a workers strike: What would be more effective? If the strikers sat home and waited to be begged by their company to come back to work. Or if the strikers gathered around their company buildings, chanting and singing, till their throats are hoarse and they can’t sing any more?

I took the liberty of compiling a 100 Digg articles, which are of gay interest. I want every one reading this article, to follow these links and Digg every one of these stories. These are quality gay-targeted content- no porn, no spam. Some are fun, some are sad, some are political. I want to see gay stories take the front page of Digg! Maybe that’ll get the Digg team to acknowledge the situation, which has been inflaming gays and straights alike.

Don’t ban Digg- give it another voice! I’m sure not every Digg user is a homophobic. I know for a fact, there are plenty of us out there, who love to read this content, or at least want to know that the content is not being censored.

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New on the Digg banning front- no feminists either

Who Cares if a Few Dykes Get Banned from Digg?

Got your attention? Good. Recently I’ve become aware of a strange situation at Digg, where a few quality lesbian articles have been systematically buried and lesbian Diggers have been banned, with no response from Digg. Why should you care?

Read more about this from the people it happened to: