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

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

So basically;
1. Anyone who posts material that LJ deems offensive gets suspended.
2. Anyone on their flist or in the same comm who wants to explain why this person got suspended by linking (for instance, everyone who's linked to ponderosa's pic and new journal over the last week) also gets suspended.

If I were paranoid, i'd say this sounds like a perfect continuation of the strikethrough code change; not only will people get banned, but nobody else will be allowed to see what it takes to get banned; if they want to find out, they'll get banned.

Ooooh, and check this out: anyone who links to material they THINK should be banned - "Here, check out this pro-ana community, think I should report it?" - will, I suppose, have to get banned. If they ever started banning pro-ana comms, that is.

If this is true, it's insane.

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

It's so completely insane.

Let's say I made a post reccing Fanny Fandom's story two years ago when she originally posted it. The story is about Buffy, in high school, having sex with Angel, just like she did on TV. Since she is not 18 years old, this is questionable content from LJ/6A's POV. Three days ago, in a fit of understandable paranoia, Fanny f-locks the post containing the story. Heck, let's say she makes the post PRIVATE. But my rec is a public post. Someone sees my rec, mentioning S1 or S2 Buffy/Angel fic, and reports my post. I get permanently suspended without warning for having linked to material that LJ finds offensive, and Fanny gets permanently suspended without warning because LJ has now had her fic pointed out to them and they deem it offensive.

It's completely insane.

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

And like dominoes, we all fall down.

*whaps head against keyboard*

In some ways, I can't imagine how they can even hope to enforce something like this since I don't know of a single person who hasn't linked to something objectionable at least once in their LJ life.

Yet, can you imagine LJAbuse wading in during something like Strikeout and just banning people left and right for linking to the "wrong" kind of Web sites?

Talk about your chilling effect.