Situation around suck_my_nya

[cema]

Just posted in the report abuse form.

It came to my attention that user suck_my_nya was falsely accused of posting child pornography and therefore deleted. According to the way situation was described to me, the images posted were scanned from Elogie de ma Fille, a book by Irina Ionesco, printed in the USA. Apparently the vigilante who complained about the posting did not realize this was a work of art.

Moreover, as far as I can tell, LJ Abuse Team acted hastily and not in accordance with the terms of service. If not the letter, then the spirit of the rules was violated by deleting the user suck_my_nya without warning.

I hope you will look carefully into this situation. If such wanton destruction of trust between the user and LJ team continues, the reputation of LiveJournal will suffer. Many long-time users like myself will start looking for alternatives.

Personally, I have been enjoying the services of LiveJournal for several years and found a good home there. But I am concerned. Right now, I am observing the situation closely and trying to decide if I want to remain a paid user of LiveJournal.

Request tracking number is 441895.

Update. Received a standard reply, to the effect that they do not discuss such matters with third parties. Of course.
Update. suck_my_nya is back. However, several more users, who reposted some of those photographs, are now suspended. What is going on with the Abuse Team? So here is the second letter:

The user in question (suck_my_nya) is back now, thank you for a quick response!

However, it seems that more users are now suspended. I was told they reposted some of the photos that got suck_my_nya in trouble, to show solidarity with her. While I do not know any details, I would like to see the Abuse Team to resolve these issues as quickly (and hopefully as positively) as they did it in case of suck_my_nya.

The allegedly suspended users are: nekosch,
weird_wired, kos__mos, dahr.

Thank you.

Update. Discussion in abuse_lj_abuse. :-)

Comments

[calypso72]

What happened? Is it a friend of yours?

[cema.livejournal.com]

No; a friend of a friend, in LJ speak. I saw some of her postings several time: nothing worthy of such action.

The Russian sector of LJ is burning now. Things like this happen once in while. One user was suspended for fascism whereas he in fact mocked modern Russian fascists (and big deal if he had not, anyhow), I think this happened about a year and a half ago. Someone else was suspended for similarly innocent behavior. So far people were able to make the Abuse Team relent.

Sometimes things even pour out in the real life. Less than a year ago a post-doc lost his job (and had to go back to Russia quickly to avoid being in violation of the visa status) because someone translated (or perhaps mistranslated) portions of my dialogue with him in which he raised doubts that some of the Soviet universities practiced restrictions on the admission of Jewish applicants as late as the 1970s and early 1980s. In this case, nothing could be done, unfortunately.

Life is tough.

[calypso72]

Wow, now that's some real LJ drama. I had no idea.

[turgutmakbak.livejournal.com]

Good letter.

[cema.livejournal.com]

Received a standard reply, of course.

[dimrub.livejournal.com]

Saying, basically, "mind your own business"?

[cema.livejournal.com]

Yes. But the point is not to get a reply from them; the point is to let them know my opinion.

[turgutmakbak.livejournal.com]

Me too. They can't discuss it with third parties. Told them I just want the account restored, not a discussion with them or updates.

[turgutmakbak.livejournal.com]

Followed up on my their standard reply (see above). Received the following reply:

Dear user,

Child pornography is a serious issue. LiveJournal cannot afford to permit such material to remain on our servers. The policy regarding child pornography, http://www.livejournal.com/abuse/policy.bml#childporn, clearly states the definition of child pornography. It is the responsibility of each user to understand the Terms of Service to which they agreed at the time of their account creation. If LiveJournal did not take action in cases such as this, we would take on serious legal liability, and the service could be shut down by the United States government.

As we have stated, we cannot discuss a suspension with anyone other than the user in question. You will not receive any information on the suspension of the user "suck_my_nya", and we will not change or alter our decision based on the number of people who write to us. The Abuse team follows LiveJournal's policies and procedures. These policies and procedures are not affected by the number of people who write to us, and we will not make exceptions to those policies for any reason.

Regards,
Helen
LiveJournal Abuse Team

So they are not chaging their opinion only because so many people wrote to them. In fact, it only makes them more stubborn. To me, that's usually a sign of stupidity or vengefulness after being proved demonstrably wrong, but of course life is full of all kinds of exceptions.