{"id":14948,"date":"2010-12-13T10:52:03","date_gmt":"2010-12-13T08:52:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=14948"},"modified":"2010-12-14T22:52:59","modified_gmt":"2010-12-14T20:52:59","slug":"social-media-and-freedom-of-speech-the-power-of-the-server","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/whale-cottage-portfolio\/social-media-and-freedom-of-speech-the-power-of-the-server\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Media and Freedom of Speech: The power of the server"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It all began with Naashon Zalk, who with his House & Leisure<\/strong> editor wife attempted to defraud us at Whale Cottage Hermanus in October.\u00a0 I posted a warning to other guest houses on Twitter, Facebook, and made an indirect mention of it on my blog.\u00a0 Instead of paying us, Mr Zalk spent an incredible amount of energy on having our mentions of him removed on Facebook and our blog.\u00a0\u00a0 The Twitter mentions cannot be removed, as I too have learnt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was the “Take-Down”\u00a0request that I received from Hetzner, our server until last week, that alerted me to the power of the server in blocking Freedom of Speech, in their own self-interest of not being dragged into any legal matters.\u00a0 Despite arguing for Freedom of Speech, Hetzner was quite clear about changes having to be made or else they would close down my website, which was like pointing a gun to my head, given that our website is our source of bookings.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

When I saw the disparaging and untruthful\u00a0comments made about ourselves on\u00a0This Tourism Weekly website, I approached the owner Martin Hatchuel, and requested that he remove the comments.\u00a0 He refused.\u00a0 We then used\u00a0the now familiar “Take-Down” procedure, requesting of Hetzner that the three comments be removed.\u00a0\u00a0 Hetzner gave Hatchuel the same pressure – remove the three comments or we will close down your site.\u00a0 Hatchuel refused, and Hetzner closed down his site.\u00a0\u00a0 This led to a Hatchuel-the-victim-at-the-hands-of-Chris-von-Ulmenstein\u00a0blogpost by Carl Momberg, telling a very one-sided story, and not blaming Hetzner for this.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We wrote a blogpost<\/a> <\/span><\/strong>in response to Momberg’s slander.\u00a0\u00a0 We were unable to request a “Take-Down” of Momberg’s post, as his website is hosted in the UK.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ironically, quick as a shot and demonstrating\u00a0his double standards, Momberg approached Hetzner, requesting deletions to our blogpost, which we had to make under duress of having our site closed down.\u00a0\u00a0 Not satisfied, Momberg had the whole blogpost taken down via Hetzner, despite us arguing for Freedom of Speech.\u00a0\u00a0 In a chain reaction, Michael Olivier, editor of Crush!, and\u00a0the childish Twitterer David Cope of The Foodie Blog forced edits of\u00a0blogposts referring to them via Hetzner.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

This, together with the request by Cape Town Tourism’s PR Manager Skye Grove, Michael Olivier and Carl Momberg to have the Whale Cottage Blog closed down completely,\u00a0prompted the move of our website to an American server, which makes our site untouchable to any further “Take-Down” requests.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We have reinstated our censored blogpost and other edits.<\/p>\n

Despite the right to freedom of speech in our constitution, and on the internet in general, South African servers (and I only have experience of Hetzner) do not apply this.\u00a0 Whilst one is given an opportunity to respond and to refuse a “Take-Down” request, it became very clear to me that they are determined to not get on the wrong side of ISPA (Internet Service Provider Association), through which all “Take-Down” requests are channelled, and to not get involved in any potential legal action.<\/p>\n

Excerpts of the ISPA Code of Conduct are the following:<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 “ISPA members must respect the constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression<\/em><\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 ISPA members must receive and investigate complaints made in accordance with this Code of Conduct, unless such complaints are frivolous, unreasonable, vexatious or in bad faith.<\/em><\/div>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 ISPA members must make all reasonable efforts to resolve complaints in accordance with the complaints procedure.<\/em><\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 ISPA members must co-operate with ISPA in accordance with the complaints and disciplinary procedures and comply with any decisions taken by ISPA with respect to the Code of Conduct and complaint and disciplinary procedure.”<\/em><\/p>\n

In our experience, it would appear that our Freedom of Speech, the very first point on the ISPA Code of Conduct, was\u00a0violated by our server in requesting us to close down a blog post and to make editorial changes, given that most of these requested changes\u00a0have been “frivolous, unreasonable, vexatious or in bad faith”!\u00a0\u00a0 We call on ISPA to relook its Code of Conduct, or more importantly its application, to allow responsible Freedom of Speech on the internet.<\/p>\n

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com<\/a>\u00a0 Twitter: @WhaleCottage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It all began with Naashon Zalk, who with his House & Leisure editor wife attempted to defraud us at Whale Cottage Hermanus in October.\u00a0 I posted a warning to other guest houses on Twitter, Facebook, and made an indirect mention of it on my blog.\u00a0 Instead of paying us, Mr Zalk spent an incredible amount […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[4795,124,21],"tags":[1591,8712,32378,9058,6813,2381,3121,129,8722,9059,9056,9055,9057,8738,2788,7993,8718,8739,9054,32395,9053,8732,8796,1587,7066,162,32373],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t