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— Tue, Mar 20, 2007 —
Kids On TV v. MySpace
Artists Allege Anti-Gay, Anti-Indie Bias

kidstvH.jpg
Losing a MySpace page has become as American as apple pie. Friends, lovers and enemies are constantly griping about accidental deletions or mysterious vanishings. Toronto-born pop quarter, Kids On TV, however, wrote in to complain about a more explicable, not to mention targeted, virtual attack.

Despite following the News Corp-operated website's strict rules, the Kids suddenly found their page missing, the only explanation coming in generic list form of possible reasons. They allege that MySpace targeted them for their radical political stance and sexually informative lyrics. Now they're fighting back.

Rather than attempting to recreate their 14,000-strong friendship circle, the Kids are focusing on building a new page to explore censorship on MySpace. And the result are disturbing, particularly with regard to the democratization of technology. They write:

Once we created the page we were surprised that everyone who responded to it with a story of censorship was a gay artist. Admittedly we are (or rather were) in touch with many gay artists via our myspace account. But this doesn't explain the repeating pattern... The emerging cases documented on the censorship page seem to be mostly gay/sex-lib arts groups - not commercial ones. The groups that are targeted for censorship seem to be mostly non-profit, activist groups.
Had it not been for MySpace, they say, the group would have missed out on a number of successes. Without such a tool, countless other small bands and/or artists will be deprived of the opportunity to expand their creative (and professional) contacts.

We must say, it's distressing to hear of such a trend. But, of course, it isn't surprising. When big corporations such as News Corp invest in something as potentially powerful as MySpace, users can expect a little censorship. Though expected, it doesn't mean it's welcome. Or, of course, fair - especially on a site that portends to be your space. If you want to help fight censorship on MySpace or have a little tale of your own, head on over to Kids on TV's new page to vent. Or, of course, to meet all the cool art fags MySpace gave the boot.

Comments


No. 1
The Billster says:

I can't say I'm at all surprised - as soon as MySpace was bought by Murdoch, I knew it was only a matter of time before yet another media outlet began shoving his ideology down our unwilling throats.

March 20, 2007 1:06 PM
No. 2
Ugh says:

K - I work at MySpace and this is total crap. We have many openly gay employees (we're a block from WeHo), News Corp employees (i.e. Rupert) almost never even step in the office, they have no control of the site content, yadda yadda yadda. No one has been kicked off for their beliefs (there is a site mocking all religion in a fairly untasteful manner and an I Hate George Bush discussion group that is in the Top 10). In fact I checked this out and they were removed because they used an AUTOMATED messaging tool for sending messages out. The servers here register these programs as spam, and if you do it often enough you'll get booted. In the Term & Conditions of the site, it openly says that you cannot send messages or friend requests via an automated tool or you will be booted. That's it, hire an intern to do messages and request by hand, otherwise they have this great feature called Bulletins - an online "flyer." This band is just pissed they got in trouble and think there is some conspiracy.

March 20, 2007 8:42 PM
No. 3
Paul Raposo says:

Ugh, I've noticed on this blog that occasionally employees of a company who have done some wrong, always stand up for their employer. However, it is still a case of "I said, you said" and it seems that there is a common thread among actions taken by MySpace against gay themed pages. You can make up all the excuses you want, but if an anti-Bush site is still up, but many gay themed pages are down, then clearly some groups are being targeted and others are not.

And claiming you have many gay employees and are near West H'wood means nothing. Mike Savage lives in San Francisco and the Republican party if filled with GLBT's, but that doesn't stop either from being anti-gay.

Since these kids have much evidence demonstrating MySpaces anti-gay attitude and you have none, I will take their word over yours

March 21, 2007 9:40 AM
No. 4
Ugh says:

Paul, I've noticed on this blog that occasionally gay people stand up for their brethren simply because they are gay. However, I know what I am talking about and would never on my life defend something related to a "job' simply because it sounds fun. TRUTH: I logged into the interface which shows why someone gets deleted, as well as a "Spam log" showing the frequency of sent message and friend requests. It shows that Kids on TV were sending over 30 friend requests per second, which unless they have some magic internet ability, is impossible unless you use an automated tool, which is illegal on the site. I've helped activate about 40-50 of my promoter, band, and business friends who are gay, straight, black, white, chaste, slutty, etc., for exactly the same reasons I discussed above. Yes Michael Savage is a douchebag, but it doesn't mean I'm "defending" MySpace simply because it seems right. If Kids on TV wants to have their profile back, have the owners of this site email me privately to set up a chat and I would love to see if we can get them their band profile back.

March 25, 2007 2:11 PM
No. 5
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May 2, 2007 8:27 PM
No. 6
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May 10, 2007 9:24 PM

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