I Just Pinged LJ Regarding the Issue of Linking

[liz_marcs]

Right now, an awful lot of people are saying LiveJournal will ToS your journal if you provide even a link to material LJAbuse would deem ToS-worthy (using, of course, LJ's invisible guidelines that we — the customers and content providers — have yet to see) as if you were hosting the content on the LiveJournal servers.

I'm not talking about displaying images that are hosted on another site (i.e., Photobucket or DeviantArt) using the <<img>> tag.

I'm talking about just providing a link to content or an image using the <<a href>> tag that LJ Abuse deems ToS-worthy.

See the response this user got when he/she asked that question.

Another LJ user asked the same questions and got the same response from an LJ/6A employee. (H/t to wesleysgirl for the link.)

Note that this new off-site linking stance is in direct violation of LJ's own abuse policies.

I want to be clear: I'm not calling the OP a liar, but this response beggars belief as far as I'm concerned,  especially since Web sites change all the time and it's not that hard to imagine a once-innocent link to, say to an article on SuicideGirls (warning link may be NWS), could suddenly become rife with problems.

So I decided to ask Support for myself.

Within seconds of me posting my request Support tagged it as private, so good luck seeing Request#: 797739 if you want to confirm that I did, in fact, do this.

I'll just have to give you the text of what I asked:

There is currently a rumor going around the user base that LJ/6A would delete or suspend a journal if the user links to a Web site or Web page that contains content that the Abuse Team deems as objectionable.

I'm not talking about displaying an objectionable image hosted on, say Photobucket, and linked using the "img" tag.

I'm talking about linking to a site or an image using the "a href" tag.

So, for example, I post a link to a Web site( a link and nothing more) and say someone reports the entry to LJ Abuse.

If LJ Abuse deems that I have, indeed, linked to material that would otherwise get me ToS'd if LJ servers were hosting it, would my account be suspended/deleted because I merely posted a link to another Website?

Thank you for your prompt response on this matter.

As soon as I get a response, I will post it here.

Either that, or LJ is going to ToS me for posting a link to SuicideGirls.

Screw it. If this journal disappears, that's a pretty much solid answer, don't you think?

Comments

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

//is all out of WTF, now waiting for next shipment

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

I'm sitting in your boat right now. I can't believe that more than one person got this same answer regarding off-site links.

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

....maybe it's because they're letting support volunteers answer the questions? (As witness the burr86 or whateverhishandleis debacle.)

//is still all out of WTF

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

I thought the burridjit was a paid staff, not a volunteer?

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

He is.

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

....not to sound horrifyingly pragmatic but one sort-of comforting thing I have been thinking is "They can't possibly enforce this." But....Jesus, I wouldn't've thought they would've tried to enforce questionable drawings, either.

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

I don't think anyone did.

[imaginarycircus.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you mean because I am sort of burned out - but they are only going to investigate abuse reports submitted to them. So if the witch hunters find you or someone else doesn't like you here on LJ they can report you if you have questionable material.

I feel like we need some kind of speakeasy setup now.

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

I think what she means is that she didn't think (and neither did I, truth to tell), that LJAbuse would actually follow up on the complaint and ban the material and artists in question, especially since whoever was speaking for LJAbuse at the time admitted that they knew it really wasn't "illegal," just that they didn't think the artwork had "artistic merit" and that's why the artists were banned.

[imaginarycircus.livejournal.com]

Oh, right. I thought she might be worrying that LJ would actually be conducting random searches or something. I have seen people worried about that sort of thing and I don't think they have the time or resources or interest in doing anything like random searches. But then I agree - I too never thought they would TOS journals for fanart.