heads' up, fandom folks

[reflectedeve]

Fandom's having a pretty rough time of it lately. First the FanLib mess, and now . . . what is being referred to has "Strikethroughgate."

(This is to say nothing of all the comic-feminism wank lately, which I've been dealing with in my RL identity. Maybe things seem crazier to me than they might do, since there's a high percentage of wank that I'm actually invested in? As opposed to the times when I'm completely a bystander.)

Anyway, I don't have a big post to make on this strikethrough mess, but for those of you who don't know: LJ has been deleting/suspending journals and communities due to allegations that they support/facilitate illegal activity. Specifically, activity involving paedophilia and incest. These allegations apparently come from at least one third-party activist website.

One of the biggest problems here is that the accusers are failing to differentiate between real communities of, say, paedophiles . . . and communities devoted to fiction and fandom kink. For instance, one of the first casualties (to be noticed widely, anyway) was pornish_pixies, which was a well-known, general community for Harry Potter slash rated R and NC-17. While it did include "incest" amongst its interests, incestfic was actually a minor cross-section of the posted content. And in any case, it was all fanfiction. The important distinction between this and actual criminal activity is, I hope, obvious.

(It seems that the allegations may have focused largely on interests listed by the suspended/deleted journals, such as "incest" or "rape." Even RPG journals, listing the fictional interests of roleplaying characters, have been suspended. Content and context seem to have been ignored. It's also important to note that some people list those interests because they oppose said activities, or have survived them.)

Anyway, I don't have all the information or a great deal of insight, but check out a rather comprehensive collection of reactions, info, and links.

Read that post if you want to know more, or are worried that your journal might be at risk. Of all the reactions so far, I rather like this (though it might easily be problematic for some people who strongly value their fandom anonymity): fandom_counts.

Fandom is my happy place, my favorite of hobbies. I don't like seeing it stomped on like this, and for such completely wrongheaded reasons. (I might have expected someone to attack us for, say, copyright violation--which I'd have had us fight, but at least it would have been somewhat legitimate!) Think of the porn. (I miss the pixies already.)

[ETA:] This post contains a letter (to the organization allegedly behind the accusations) which details very nicely why what they are doing is problematic.

[ETA the second:] Right. Don't panic, or anything. Don't pitch a fit. Just be informed.

Comments

[reflectedeve.livejournal.com]

When it comes to suspending/deleting the journals of actual criminals . . . or even people who discuss things like paedophilia in a manner that suggests they engage in or encourage it? I absolutely see where they're coming from.

The problem is that fiction is not criminal activity. Criminal activity involves harm or exploitation which is really done to real children. Original fiction and fanfiction do not fall under this category. It might be the most disgusting story about child abuse ever written . . . and god only knows, I wouldn't be able to stand thinking about, much less reading that . . . but it still isn't criminal.

The even bigger problem is that the people who made these accusations apparently didn't know--or claimed not to know--that many of the journals/communities they were reporting were dedicated to fiction. These journals and communities were reported as under suspicion of real-life criminal activity, and that's why they were suspended or deleted. (Heck, some of the communities that were deleted were not incestfic-based at all . . . pornishpixies was primarily plain-old slashfic, for instance. I read that community for the occasional really good non-underage non-incestuous femslash that was posted there.)

Even communities dedicated to survivors of rape and incest are apparently being reported and deleted because they list those interests, and content isn't being checked. That's really damn counterproductive.

And while people should and are removing the offensive words from their interests now that they know about this, the suspended journals are not being restored under any condition (because of perfectly reasonable caution on LJ Abuse's part . . . the trouble is, they shouldn't have been suspended in the first place). Also, there are no clear guidelines as to which interests might be suspension-worthy, and people are very confused.

deal with real criminals before you start throwing yourself at fan-fiction writers.

Well, that's exactly it. They're throwing themselves at fanfiction writers because they are mistaking them for criminals. They aren't checking thoroughly at all, and penalties are being imposed without proof.

[reflectedeve.livejournal.com]

That should have been pornish_pixies.