Myspace Religious Oppression

Link: http://www.secularstudents.org/node/1933

It appears that MySpace has a hostile attitude towards atheists and agnostics.
A user group which has been around since 2003 was recently hacked and as a result was deleted. In the past when this has happened to Christian Groups Tom has restored the group and declared that he will protect it from further attack. When this happens to an atheist group the reaction is somewhat more dismal. MySpace? has done nothing to assist this group which had had over 35,000 members.
Source.

MySpace refuses to undelete the group, although it never violated any terms of service, said Bryan Pesta, Ph.D., the group’s moderator. When the largest Christian group was hacked, MySpace’s Founder, Tom Anderson, personally restored the group, and promised to protect it from future deletions.

It is an outrage if Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation and the world’s largest social networking site tolerate discrimination against atheists and agnostics– and if this situation goes unresolved I’ll have little choice but to believe they do, said Greg Epstein, humanist chaplain of Harvard University. News Corporation, Murdoch’s global media corporation which also includes Fox News, purchased MySpace? in 2005.

My personal profile was deleted as well, and despite weeks of emails to customer service, plus a petition signed by 500 group members, MySpace? won’t budge. I think these actions send a clear message to the 30 million godless people in America (and to businesses whose money was spent displaying ads on our group) that we are not welcome on MySpace,said Pesta.

It has been said that one of the reasons for the deletion of the group was because of numerous complaints, about the groups presence, from myspace users who found the existance of group offensive.

I agree with Oz Atheist, the only way to handle this is to swamp myspace with godlessnesshe has outlined a number of appropriate responces, I have changed my religion setting from “No Religion” to “Atheist", despite my misgivings about labeling atheism a religion. I’ve made a bulletin about the issue and as soon as I submit this here, I’ll be reposting this on my profiles blog.

Thanks to Oz Atheist for the info.

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5 comments

Comment from: Oz Atheist [Visitor] · http://ozatheist.wordpress.com
Thanks for the trackback Locky.

I didn't say swamping myspace with godlessness was the only way to handle this, but it is a good way. :)

I've seen numerous comments around of people who have cancelled their myspace account. By all accounts when you cancel your account you can tell them why - they have told them "because of atheist oppression" (or similar).

To me this seems a bit drastic, kind of "cutting your nose off to spite your face".
01/31/08 @ 18:44
Comment from: locksmyth [Member] Email
True, true. I apologize for the misrepresentation. That was how I had read your 6 ideas.
01/31/08 @ 19:13
Comment from: Too Bad [Visitor]
Personally, i support the rights of athiests. But keep in mind... you are not PAYING, so you are not ENTITLED. It's their site, and you are using it. If tomorrow they went through and deleted all your favorite sports teams, political candidates, speed metal bands, etc... and left nothing but wrestling, republicans, and the cranberries.... it would be well within their right to do so. Here is their terms of service:
MySpace.com reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to reject, refuse to post or remove any posting (including private messages) by you, or to restrict, suspend, or terminate your access to all or any part of the MySpace Services at any time, for any or no reason, with or without prior notice, and without liability.
11/07/08 @ 06:21
Comment from: locksmyth [Member] Email
That is a very weak argument. Performing the activities outlined in the post in order to change and bring to public awareness a bigoted position or activity of any organization (whether or not they offer paid services) is not an act of entitlement, it is merely bringing it to public scrutiny. Once in the public arena people can decide if they wish to continue being associated with a bigoted entity or if they decided to take some type of protestant action.

No company has the right not to be criticized or protested. Just as the makers of The Golden Compass have no right not to be protested against by the catholic league.

If it was a position of I am ENTITLED then that would open a whole new range actions that could be taken not the least of which is a class action lawsuit. However in this case while they might be free to discriminate against me and others with religious views like mine we are equally entitled to make our displeasure about such discrimination apparent both to the public and to the company.
11/07/08 @ 10:37
Comment from: acai berry select [Visitor] · http://acaiberryselect.vox.com
Just by surfing the web for articles and information for my medical study, I found your site. Not that it is realy health related but I like the things you are writing about.
07/27/10 @ 11:27

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