|
|
As the eighth most popular destination on the Internet, MySpace.com represents socialization and free speech online. Its entire appeal revolves around the venue it affords for personal expression and networking. From its inception, it was a trendy virtual meeting space for a youth-oriented audience that promotes bands, filmmakers and other media.
However, since the acquisition of MySpace in July 2005 by media-mogul Rupert Murdoch, MySpace has altered its Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy. It reserves the right to edit content or remove profiles with or without notice, and for any or no reason. This raises concerns for freedom of speech online as establishment business interests clearly seek to limit critical expression. There will be much more of this to come under Internet 2. 
What is now a business' discriminatory right will feel like communist China's censorship when the Internet becomes increasingly unreliable and undesirable. Users will be pushed towards the state regulated hub where permission will need to be obtained directly from an FCC or government bureau to set up a website. Already, businesses and organizations without massive advertising budgets will face defacto restriction of distribution.
"America Online and Yahoo, two of the world's largest providers of e-mail accounts, are about to start using a system that gives preferential treatment to messages from companies that pay from 1/4 of a cent to a penny each to have them delivered. The senders must promise to contact only people who have agreed to receive their messages, or risk being blocked entirely." This is reported in the New York Times article.
Blogging sites have complained about MySpace's censorship and removal of outsider links to video embedders such as "YouTube" as well as the use of computer spiders to delete objectionable keywords.
The greater fear is that Myspace.com and others are editing and deleting user accounts based upon politically-contraversial content. One Myspace.com user complained that his profile, "9/11 Truth," was removed completely because one the pictures "did not comply with terms of service." However, the account is still active and has been rebuilt.
So Alex Jones has created an account to test the level of censorship by Rupert Murdoch's newest asset. He has stated that, "the media elite were losing their monopoly to the rapid and free spread of new communication technologies." Murdoch stressed the need to regain control of these outlets in order to prevent the establishment media empire from crumbling.
His is not the first MySpace profile to address this concern. A caller on Jones' nationally syndicated radio show reported his MySpace group, Will Rupert Murdoch Shut This Down? View Alex Jones' MySpace profile and keep tabs on exercised censorship. An attempt has been made to not violate any policies laid out in the Terms and Conditions so that any alteration will be based strictly on content itself.
CLICK ON THE BANNER TO BUY MARTIAL LAW IN HARD COPY