For all our reporting on bloggers' positive efforts to support tsunami victims by mobilizing aid and sharing information, there's a dark side: call it hate blogging. Thanks to Ruth Rader for alerting me to this.
[UPDATE: Tom Biro highlights Google and Blogspot.com policy regarding posts that are "unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable."]
13 comments:
From Ruth Bader's blog:
Never tick-off Tim Karr. He has a battalion of bloggers and blog-watchers behind him. Click on the post headline above to see what he's made of.
Tim welcomed adulthood with open arms.
Unlike [ahem] the Bad Blogger who either has missed or will miss that milestone in his life.
While I supect this was meant as a joke, it's not the least bit funny. Sort of like making fun of Holocaust survivors for being so skinny. We should form a coalition of people who are devoted to monitoring "hate blogs," as Karr coins the term. This is an interesting First Amendment issue. I wonder whether Google will pull the plug on this bozo.
Suzanne Peters, Modesto CA
I called Larry Page's office at Google and talked to a woman there. I told her about the blog and she gave me an email address to send it to. And no, it is not an address that is usually listed.
Hopefully, Google will remove the blog.
I understand the previous poster's reasoning for ignoring the bad blogger.
However, it is my belief that hate should never be ignored. Decent people have the right to stop "blog garbage" [my term for it] and make room for good information.
Garbage in equals blog garbage out.
The bad blogger has his blog on blogspot. So do I. And it disgusts me to see the "I Power Blogger" label on his piece of trash.
I sincerely hope that Google shuts down that blog today.
Unfortunately, in a world full of people there are bound to be some who are mentally deranged. On the positive side, idiots such as these "hate bloggers" can provide a perspective that allows us to more fully appreciate and empathize with the vast majority who have been sincerely moved by this tragedy.
As of 8:25am EST, Google has yet to respond to Ruth's requests that they review "Tsunami Sympathizer" for possible violation of policy meant to prevent this new form of hate speech.
Stay Tuned.
I have made contact [via phone] with the assistant to Dr. Eric E. Schmidt, who is the Chairman and CEO of Google.
And this time, I was polite but I made myself totally clear.
I have just sent an email to the woman which includes the URL of the bad blog.
She has promised that the matter will be investigated and that I will get a response either by phone or email.
I told her that one look at the blog will be sufficient grounds to shut it down.
TODAY.
I further pointed out that it is in Google's best interest to yank the blog.
Before I contacted Dr. Schmidt's office, I called and emailed every single major media source that I could think of.
Just in case Google flatlines my request.
I will keep you posted.
Now we will see if Google is too big to do the right thing anymore.
This idiot blogger is not alone. On a much larger scale, nationally syndicated radio host Michael Savage during his December 31 broadcast told listeners that the tsumani was "not a tragedy" and that the United States should not be sending any aid to the affected countries because they are "hotbeds of radical Islam." Savage added: "We shouldn't be spending a nickel on this, as far as I'm concerned. ... I am sick of being bled to death by every damn incident on the earth."
My point is made.
That hate blogger has to be stopped before Google ends up supporting a group of bad blogs.
I am still waiting to hear back from the next person in the Google chain of command. Remember, Dr. Schmidt's assistant from Google told me that I would get a response "directly."
Google had all kinds of time to talk about themselves on the CBS News show "60 Minutes" last Sunday.
Will they now honor their commitment to talk to me?
Will they follow their own posting policy and stop this hate blogger?
Will they respect Tom Biro and Roxanne and others that have posted here as folks who know a wrong thing when they read it?
Or does Michael Savage own too much stock in their company?
Shame on you, Google, for dragging your feet on this!
You have mud on your logo today.
There's plenty of communication going on and much of it is all wrong.
By that I mean, that blogger is continuing to post terrible comments.
It is not my policy to stick my head in the sand when I see something wrong. And if ignoring wrong behavior was acceptable then Google never would have listed the TOS that Tom Biro has included here.
At this point, I would like to share with everyone an email that I just sent to Google. I am not including the recipients name because I am hoping that Google will take care of the problem properly.
Here's the email:
"Nobody from Google has contacted me concerning this matter:
1.] I am requesting that the offensive blog:
http://ilovetsunamis.blogspot.com
be removed from the Google system.
2.] I am requesting that a reminder of the
Terms of Service and sanctions for abuse
be prominently placed on the Blogger Homepage
or member's Dashboard.
3.] I am requesting development of a fair
and simple way for Blogger members to report
abuse to the right people at Google.
You told me in an email yesterday that someone would be contacting me
"directly."
That hasn't happened.
The above-mentioned blog is disgraceful.
Either Google has no qualms about a blogger making a travesty of
Google's established TOS or Google approves of the contents of the
above-mentioned blog.
Which is it?"
Google responded and told me that they will be
"contacting [me] directly within the next few days."
I have added a comment option like this one to my blog and welcome your viewpoints.
However, I would appreciate it if all racist, hate-filled and obscene remarks be directed elsewhere.
Thanks.
Google responds and the story continues. Go to the more recent post here.
This guy just plain rules. For all these lefty blogs, righty blogs, and rainbow blogs, all of whom lamely worship Bush as a lesser god, a person has the guts to say screw all that and dumps a completely alternate position: one of total hate. Totally throwing a wrench into judeo-christainty-"secular"-humanism's system. The net used to be about free speech and all these eunuch bloggers exersizing inofensive dime-a-dozen rainbow speech are freaking out and calling for blood. Bloggers are not free speech. Non serviam!
Google eventually put a "Report Offensive Blog" on the navigation bar that appears on every blog that they allow.
It took awhile but they finally dealt the right card.
I consider myself the winner of the game.
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