You may have heard recently that I just got deleted by MySpace TOS on 1st November...and I have been furious about this. I had just made a major recovery in less than a month only to get dumped over what they called "a violation of terms of service" and they did not specify.
And to top it all off they refuse to stop sending blog post subscription notifications or event invites, either they ignore or refuse to listen to my phone calls or phone messages, read my emails or letters, or correct whatever bugs on their site keep me from opening another new account on my email address.
I was innocently using the services of the site, innocently networking and making new friends on 1st November, when suddenly I found myself facing the following message: Invalid ID, The member has closed their account, or the profile has been deleted, and then I discovered an email from MySpace telling me that my account had been deleted for a "violation of Terms of Service".
And here goes their laundry list of accusations in quotes followed by my facts:
"Your MySpace account has been deleted for violating our Terms of Service. "
So-called "violations" which they did not specify, but just gave their usual laundry list of false reasons.
"This is usually due to one of the following:
Of which I had NONE OF.
"* Covering our banner ads with HTML"
I wouldn't know how to do that so that's out of the question
"* Harassing other users"
Impossible. I may have rebutted someone whom I disagreed with here and there but in the end it's my Constitutional right to rebut anyone whom I disagree with, and I make every effort to politely differ with such people..
"* You do not meet the minimum age requirement "
I'm 35 so that obliterates that reason.
"* Spamming the classifieds, forums, bulletins, or other sections of the site "
I NEVER did any of that; I simply USED the FEATURES of the site in protected free speech.
"* Attempting to artificially inflate scores"
I don't know how to do that.
"* Scripting the site"
I don't know how to do that either.
"Your account cannot be restored. If you choose to return to MySpace, please follow the rules. "
What? I PLAYED by the rules and they still deleted me anyway.
And to add insult to injury they still send me blog subscription posts for that account which they terminated on that afternoon for no specific reason whatsoever, just someone's false word and never giving me a chance to defend myself beforehand.
This is all the more reason News Corporation should terminate the administrator who fraudulently dumped my profile with almost 900 friends, for the SECOND TIME in one month.
I have since reported this to the Southland Better Business Bureau, the Santa Monica Police Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the California Attorney General's Office, and MySpace's parent, News Corporation, amongst other sources. As it turns out neither the California AG nor the BBB would accept this matter. Interstingly enough, I have received responses from CNN, NBC Nightly News, Channel News Asia (http://www.channelnewsasia.com), Front Page Magazine (http://www.frontpagemag.com), and even John Kasich, host of Fox News Channel's Heartland...and even the ACLU. Nothing from the ACLJ (American Centre for Law and Justice, http://www.aclj.org) yet though...I have also found a few websites that even address this sort of problem and there are details in my postscript...
I tried not to dwell on my past problems, but unfortunately they are bothering me greatly and I am enraged by this. Somehow I am able to deal with this in a rational manner but it is very difficult given my propensity toward anger.
But there is a silver lining forming so far: On Monday morning (13/11) I filed for an injunction from and with the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri seeking a halt to continued emails MySpace continue to send about blog post subscriptions and event invites for an account I can no longer use because they dumped me on 1 November with almost 900 friends.
Today I received a response that it had been assigned to a magistrate judge and I decided to accept the assignment and mail back my response in the affirmative. It now comes down to assigning a court date, and meanwhile I continue taking screenshots of email notifications I continue to receive on MySpace for that closed account.
In my filing I submitted about 60 pages of evidence including even the graphics that I would use on my page, including some that supported certain political candidates and causes, but mostly of my own creation or adaptation, and also form emails that kept coming back from MySpace showing that they were refusing to address, or ignoring, the problem, instead of fixing their technical bugs, and even sending articles about the site's founder, Brad Greenspan, suing to stop the censorship on that site. The evidence also included NINE screeenshots, plus I continued taking screenshots DAILY, until the notifications stopped on the night of the 14th, which I will present at any court proceedings.
I am pleased that a federal judge is taking interest in this matter. Hopefully we can put the brakes on what has become an out-of-control management style for a terrific website that has allowed people to connect with one another, even to the point where we discover more about ourselves as well as about others, even discovering angles of personalities of people whom we would never ordinarily meet or even show interest in.
And I hope to return to MySpace in future but I don't see it happening until or unless I receive an affirmative ruling that protects freedom of speech and I wonder if it is just my freedom of speech...or if it might affect a larger group of people.
I urge you to sign the petition to stop censorship on MySpace at http://www.petitiononline.com/free99/petition.html and send a loud and clear message to MySpace, their parent NewsCorp, and even to your friends. You may repost this in a MySpace bulletin to your friends if you like.
Also have a look at where I turned up on Censorspace.com. Brad Greenspan, the founder of MySpace.com AND Censorspace, as well as FreeMySpace.com, along with Trent Lapinski, wrote this article about my problems with MySpace censorship on http://censorspace.com/?p=45 and you can even comment over there if you like.
It is important to note that even corporate censorship---especially when conducted by a company that commands almost 90 percent of the web traffic in its category, social networking---is absolutely 180 degrees WRONG!
And I have also started contacting companies who advertise on NewsCorp services like MySpace and Fox News. So far I have contacted Toyota, Samsung, LL Bean, Stauer Watches, Vonage, and Chase about their advertising on NewsCorp services---and telling the truth about MySpace. Maybe if more people would contact companies like that who advertise on NewsCorp services like MySpace and Fox News maybe the companies can put pressure on NewsCorp and specifically MySpace. Then maybe they will change their business practises...or start losing precious advertising dollars. And with strong ratings in the cable/satellite news category Fox News and NewsCorp cannot afford to lose ad revenue because of something that MySpace are doing (ie censorship).
And don't try to argue that "well, it's their site and they have the right to dump whomever they want". That's bull crap. Companies aren't protected in the Constitution. People are. And discrimination laws, including arbitrary discrimination laws, are being violated by MySpace, who are also comnmitting acts of fraud, bad faith, breach of contract, and anti-trust violations, because they are also blocking people's ability to upload videos from Stickam, Vidilife, and even YouTube...and are even targeting users of Photobucket and Imageshack.
What if MySpace users want to USE non-NewsCorp content in their profiles? That's THE RIGHT OF THE INDIVIDUAL USER! Who is to say that NewsCorp and MySpace WON'T censor sources like ABC News (American OR Australian), CNN, MSNBC, NPR, CBS News, or even a local newspaper NOT owned by NewsCorp?
The company MUST adapt to the will of the users---NOT the other way around. So get on board, sign the petition, and DEMAND that MySpace STOP ALL CENSORSHIP ACTIVITIES NOW!
Censorship---whether by government diktat or by that of a company aiming for monopoly status---is 100 percent UNACCEPTABLE particularly for a free society like ours.
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