Category Archives: Free Speech

Introducing … Fitter

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My recent withdrawal from Twitter left me feeling annoyed. I am in complete agreement with Milo that a live news social media platform could be done much better and also more efficiently monetised. The more I analysed it the more feasible it seemed I could get a prototype to release stage quite quickly. So …

FitterLogoDraft1

Fitter. A better, more professional social network for live news and life sharing. In development.

Part of the the current development database diagram is below. It is actually nearly feature complete and I am currently working on a web layer to access it. Technologies used across the stack are currently SQL Server, MVC Web API and AngularJS 1.

Fitter Diagram

Part of the work-in-progress development database for Fitter. Click for Full Size.

This is intended to be a free speech, cultural libertarian platform for most people, but at the same time to be flexible enough for people to have their own hugbox if they want. The idea is to create a platform where minimal staff intervention is required. For example, blocks will be reciprocal, so no blocking then taunting.

Ideally everyone will find it a better user experience, from supporters of #GamerGate to @NotAllowedToBeFreeBSDGirlAnyMore (archive here). More information soon!

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How the Law Helped Me Get Unbanned From Twitter. Twice. Legal Tools for Cultural Libertarians

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TwitterJail

Twitter – Compliant With EU Data Protection Laws? They better be.

Midway through last year, Twitter moved data control for all non-EU citizens to Ireland in the EU. Twitter then declared its subsidiary, ‘Twitter International Company’ to be a data controller in the EU for all non-US citizens. This brought it under EU Data Protection law.

A few weeks ago on 30/01/2016, a French man won a case in a Paris appeals Court that he could sue Facebook for suspending him,

The Witchfinder comments on how users can use EU law to assert their rights on Twitter.

So last week I was suspended from Twitter. All of my accounts were simultaneously suspended. There was no explanation – no ‘you are a spammer / meanie / aggressive follower’. I assumed the most likely reason was my article criticising Motherboard Associate Editor Sarah Jeong for doxing a rape victim, although this later turned out to be incorrect when they finally did give reasons.

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Unsuspended, but Taking a Break From Twitter

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A few days ago I was suspended from Twitter (twice). I was soon unsuspended after appealing and contacting their corporate counsel, and was told it was a mistake. However I was quite disappointed with the site, as I will deal with in a forthcoming article. It caused me to review the benefits I derive from Twitter.

I realised I barely use my personal Twitter account, so I decided to deactivate it. I use other social media to speak to my friends. My parody bot account is also unused.

I have renamed and deactivated @sam_c_smith. I have deactivated @BigFriendlyHat. These accounts will be deleted in due course.

@MHWitchfinder has also been unsuspended but I have renamed it as I am considering retiring it and ceasing to use Twitter. Although I do get some traffic from Twitter, I get much more from repeat users, friends and better sites like Reddit and Voat. The aggravation, with trolls and arbitrary suspension algorithms is also much greater with Twitter leaving it with a very low cost / benefit ratio.

As I am free to rejoin in future, I say ‘taking a break’. In reality Twitter will need to work to entice back the users it is losing and given its recent financial performance, there is a possibility that it will simply not be there.

As it happens, I am presently working on my own social media application, which will be free-speech friendly and is coming soon.

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Vile Nyberg Associate Sarah Jeong of Motherboard Doxes Rape Victim and Opposes Revenge Porn Criminalisation

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Sarah Jeong is Watching You

Parody Image of Sarah Jeong, Opponent of Revenge Porn Criminalisation and Associate of Sarah Nyberg. Image used pursuant to s30A Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

The Witchfinder exposes Sarah Jeong (@SarahJeong), a self-described ‘feminist’ who opposes the criminalisation of revenge porn and only last week violated a rape survivor again by revealing her name as a victim, republishing the information even after a larger publication took the material down.

In the United Kingdom, revealing the identity of a rape victim in the press is a criminal offence pursuant to s4(5) Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1976. This was extended to nearly all victims of sex crimes, regardless of gender, pursuant to s20(1) of Schedule 6 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

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Rational Wiki #4 – Satirist Banned, Paedophile Stays

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Rational Wiki recently had a formal hearing to consider what to do about a user called ‘Ukuphendukela’ (archive here). The user is controversial because they admit to being a paedophile and a hebephile (attracted to very young, and pubescent, children) and because they initially had a different name, ‘Shouniaisha’, which is alleged to have paedophile connotations. Ukuphendukela previously posted links to a pro-paedophile website on Rational Wiki (they deleted it but the archive of his comment and link is here). Rational Wiki’s response? Ban the satirist, Michaeldsuarez, who complained.

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A Frightened Child silenced by the lurking paedophile horror of Rational Wiki. Together we can help stop this from happening. Together, we can stop Rational Wiki. Stock image licensed from Dreamstime.

‘Rational’ Wiki (RW) continues to prove it is anything but. After the recent resignation of moderator ‘Gooniepunk’ in humiliation, banning and recriminations continue. RW’s equivalent of Wikipedia’s ArbCom is the ‘Chicken Coop’, a name that just oozes rationality.

RW’s moderators have now decided to continue their lemming-like tradition of picking fights with more powerful opponents by taking on Encyclopaedia Dramatica (ED). For those unfamiliar with the site, ED is a satirical website that covers online drama. To quote from the Wikipedia article, Journalist Julian Dibbell described Encyclopædia Dramatica as the site, “where the vast parallel universe of Anonymous in-jokes, catchphrases, and obsessions is lovingly annotated […]””.

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Google Forced by European Law to Unlist Peter Tatchell Paedophilia Book Exposé

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Peter Tatchell

Peter Tatchell – contributed to the Book, a Betrayal of Youth, edited by former Vice-Chair of the Paedophile Information Exchange, Warren Middleton. Now someone is trying to hide it from Google Search results in Europe.

Thanks to EU legislation, search giant Google has been forced to censor awkward facts from its European search results. A few days ago I received a notice of de-linking of a page on this site and given the chilling implications, I thought it worth sharing.

In March 2014, with the help of amazing Sun journalist @LouiseMensch, I wrote an exposé of a British activist called Peter Tatchell. It is still on this site, entitled, “Peter Tatchell – Sex Brought ‘Great Joy’. To 9 Year Olds”. Tatchell is well known in Britain as a human rights activist but back in the mid 1980s he contributed to a book called “The Betrayal of Youth” (perhaps not coincidentally, “Betrayal of Youth”, stands for ‘Boy’). He had also written a letter to the Guardian newspaper (which they had published) in which he appeared to say that sex with adults had brought some nine-year-olds, ‘great joy’.

Several of the contributors to the book were avowed paedophiles. For example the editor of the book was Warren Middleton (also known as John Parratt), now a convicted paedophile (archive here). At his trial in 2011, the prosecutor told the court that Middleton was part of a group of paedophiles who would meet up to look at illegal images of underage boys. Found at the home Middleton shared with another paedophile were three discs containing over 5,000 images. Perhaps there may be some connection between Middleton’s interests and the title of the book.

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Block Bot Administrator and Physics Teacher Marian Aanerud (@MAMelby) In Twitter Rant After Losing Job

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The Witchfinder responds to serious allegations by former University of Minnesota Rochester, physics teaching specialist Marian Aanerud (@MAMelby), made in a bizarre online Twitter rant today connected with the loss of her job. Note that Aanerud states she is not anonymous and is open about her former employer and real name so this is not ‘doxing’. Please see her public, written, consent here (archive here). She also makes clear her (former) employer is not anonymous here (archive here). In accordance with her public requests on Twitter I have omitted her middle names.

Your author wishes to clarify that he has had no contact with Aanerud or her employer since May 2015. However, I am entitled to respond to her allegations. Also, there is a public interest in raising concern about her use of homophobic language online, her inappropriate comments about paedophilia and previous student criticism of the standard of her teaching and conduct.

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Marian Aanerud received the 2nd lowest rating of 20 teachers at the University of Michigan, Flint. Click full size.

So last year, I wrote many articles about the Atheism+ Block Bot. As a brief recap, the Block Bot is a blocking tool like many others, which at the time had the added feature of a searchable database. The database contained many very serious and unpleasant allegations, as well as comments about protected characteristics like race or transgender status.

As a result, a number of celebrities supported the campaign, in particular this article which Richard Dawkins shared with his million + followers.

In response, the Block Bot team repeatedly accused me of stalking. Cambridge police found that this was not the case. This much, I have already shared. What I had not shared publicly until now was that afterwards the Block Bot team reported me to police again. This time the complaint was to Hampshire police.

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Rational Wiki #3 – Gabriel Holl, Moderator, Resigns After Receiving Draft Article About Paedophile, Stating He Will “leave that s***hole to rot”

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GabrielHoll1Parodised

Gabriel Holl (Gooniepunk), a moderator of ‘Rational’ Wiki. He and the other moderators, David Gerard and ‘FuzzyCatPotato’, have knowingly allowed an individual to use the site whilst self-identifying as an ‘out’ paedophile as well as allowing a spirited defence of the infamous Sarah Nyberg. Picture used under the parody exception in s30A Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Click for full size.

It is a myth that sex offenders (incuding paedophiles) have a high re-offending rate. In fact they have the lowest and sex offender registers have done little to change matters. The real offenders are an insidious hard core who lurk online, genuinely think that they are oppressed and work to normalise and legitimise their proclivities. Disturbingly the moderators of troubled website Rationalwiki (RW), David Gerard, Gabriel Holl and ‘FuzzyCatPotato’ have now allowed an ‘out’ self-defined paedophile going by ‘Shouniaisha’ as a user.

As set out below, there is no ‘doxing’ here. Whilst your author believes that ethical journalists can unmask subjects in the public interest, in this case personal information revealed about Mr Holl was publicly shared online by him on Rationalwiki (archive here)

Upon receiving a draft of this article, Holl resigned, saying of Rationalwiki that he will, “leave that shithole to rot”.  He also claimed the #GamerGate supporters sent him ‘death threats’, but declined to provide evidence.

The UK re-offending figures since 2000 show rates of re-offending for a variety of crimes up until 2012. As ever, the rate for sexual offences has hovered around 13-15% and was completely unimproved by the introduction of the sex offenders register by the Sexual Offences Act 2003 (it went up slightly).

The reasons for this are simple. Most offenders are young men who make one mistake, perhaps whilst drunk. They suffer horrible punishment, stigma and ruin. They never do it again. The same applies to female offenders. The figures for criminal damage (28-30%), robbery (37%-44%) on the other hand are much higher. Why no burglars’ register? The sex offenders register even includes children of 10 (archive here).

More so than with other crimes, a lot of sex crime is perpetrated by a hard core of offenders. Putting children and other low risk offenders on the sex offenders’ register and having them supervised by caseworkers diverts resources away from the truly dangerous, like depraved offender Craig Sweeney who abducted a 3-year-old after being released for a previous sex attack on another child.

The truly dangerous sex offenders are the insidious recidivists who honestly think they are oppressed. For decades they have sought to legalise paedophilia. In the 1970’s it was via the agency of PIE – the nightmarish Paedophile Information Exchange that even deceived and infiltrated well known human rights organisation, the NCCL (now Liberty) (archive here). These terrifying online forces still exist today, as was exemplified by their attempt to secure recognition on Wikipedia. Presently there are disturbing activities beginning on Rationalwiki. Continue reading →

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Carter-Ruck Agrees to Consider Arianne Plumbly Case v Lucy Allan MP on No-Win-No-Fee

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This article has changed rapidly at the last minute. If Arianne Plumbly’s version of events is true, she should be able to bring a claim against Lucy Allan. So where was it? My intent was to call out Ms Plumbly for empty words. The title was, ‘Bring It, Plumbly!’. However my research turned up issues worth investigating that casts things in a very different light.

As a Conservative I am very reluctant to criticise Conservative MPs. I wanted to be able to back Lucy Allan MP. My last article did – I even started a hashtag. However this is an ethical, impartial blog and I have criticised Conservatives in the past (for example, Jeremy Hunt) when it is unavoidable. In light of the fresh evidence I have referred Plumbly to Carter-Ruck and they have agreed to consider whether they can help her on a no-win-no-fee basis.

Lucy Allan MP said this to the Evening Standard (archive here) –

“Arianne Plumbly was dismissed from her employment with Lucy Allan, MP in Telford, after four months’ employment, for gross misconduct following misuse of the Parliamentary email system, persistent unauthorised absenteeism, refusal to follow a reasonable instruction and rudeness to residents.”

Contrary to Allan’s statement, whilst I was researching this article a disgusted source within the Conservative Party gave me a copy of the termination letter. The dismissal was not for any form of misconduct, but only for ill-health. It was on notice. The letter says this –

TerminationLetterREDACTED

This is what the termination letter actually says. Click for full size.

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Rational Wiki #2 – Wikimedia UK CEO Distances Herself from Rational Wiki and Sinister Paedophile Enabler David Gerard

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Since the dramatic events of earlier this year, the UK branch of the Wikipedia movement, charity Wikimedia UK (WMUK) has a new Chief Executive, Lucy Crompton-Reid (archive here). Your author decided to ask her about David Gerard and some of his more … colourful history.

LucyCromptonReidAndDavidGerard

Apparently wholesome new Chief Executive of Wikimedia UK, Lucy Crompton-Reid, confirms that David Gerard does not speak for Wikimedia UK. Photograph of Crompton-Reid used with permission. Photograph of David Gerard is an edited parody pursuant to s30A Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. Strangely, replacing Gerard’s cold, dead, eyes with googly cartoon ones makes him *less* creepy. Incidentally, adding the cartoon eyes was the *only* change. The rest is all David. Click for full size.

In my previous article, “David Gerard and the Paedophiles of Wikipedia”, I began the task of exposing Rational Wiki, a site that has become controversial because of its habit of making serious allegations based on utterly inadequate, irrelevant or simply non-existent evidence. Examples I referred to included allegations against respected Breitbart Editor Milo Yiannopoulos based on a Tumblr post and smears against me based on (literally) a deleted user comment on /r/GamerGhazi.

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