A group called "Warriors for Innocence" has approached Six Apart, the company that owns LiveJournal (arguably the most popular fandom blog service online) demanding that certain journals be purged. These journals contain, among other things, fanfiction containing slash and incest. According to WFI, the goal is to purge LJ of all references to child molestation, incest, child pornography, and pedophilia. In short, the targets are ostensibly "real-life" predators. But out of the purges that have taken place, flesh-and-blood predators rank low on the list. Mostly, fandom and fanfiction communities have been the victims.

There are many troubling things about this story -- not least of which is the fact that child rapists get together online and swap stories -- but one of the things that bothers me most is the fact that anyone who has been a victim of incest, child rape, paedophilia, or other similar abuse might find his or her journal deleted. If, for example, one has listed "incest" in the interests column alongside "activism," the journal might still be purged. And if one dares to actually have a community online for survivors of incest, it might suffer a similar fate.

Link to to a list of deleted journals and communities, as well as a minor history of the event and links to other, more in-depth posts. Other relevant links include: rumours of the purge, and this conversation between WFI and an LJ user whose community was deleted; this post is possibly the best.

Reader comment: EKSwitaj says,

This livejournal community was created to protest the recent deletion of (possibly) over 500 journals due to pressure from a group of Dominionists calling themselves "Warriors for Innocence."

(posted on the road in central america / xeni)

posted by Xeni Jardin at 08:42:38 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments

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