MastrnDec 14, 2022
Chip Stewart
There’s the Streisand Effect for you: A mystery buyer bought a Charlottesville weekly’s archives only to wipe them from the internet - apparently to erase several stories about rape allegations he faced in college. Now the Washington Post is writing about it. @mmasnick https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/12/14/hook-charlottesville-vanished-archive/
A newspaper vanished from the internet. Did someone pay to kill it?

The Hook, a Charlottesville weekly, closed in 2013 but web archives survived until 22,000 stories vanished in June. Speculation swirls around a mystery buyer.

The Washington Post
Dec 14, 2022 at 4:59pmMastodon for iOS
Show threadCharles SeifeDec 14, 2022
@MediaLawProf @mmasnick Oh, this goes straight into my "right to be forgotten" file. Fascinating.
Show threadKirsty's Old AccountDec 14, 2022
@MediaLawProf @mmasnick
Have they ever heard of @internetarchive 🫣
Show threadnotchristDec 14, 2022
@adminkirsty @MediaLawProf @mmasnick @internetarchive apparently, the guy who erased the archives was too stupid to know what is the internetarchive
Show threadWiredfire Dec 14, 2022

@MediaLawProf @mmasnick image above is a screenshot of text. Text reads as follows:

An analysis by The Post found that 14 of the 18 targeted pages referenced Ofori, his accuser or her mother, or linked to Hook articles that did.
Three of the pages cited the Hook's 2011 article detailing the rape accusations. One of Experiential's complaints targeted the same Russell document that Ofori tried to get delisted from Google in 2020. 1/2

Show threadWiredfire Dec 14, 2022

@MediaLawProf @mmasnick Google acted on at least 10 of Experiential's complaints, removing those pages from search results.

Some of the offending pages contained only glancing references to Ofori or his accuser's family. One linked to a Hook article about campus crime statistics, underneath which Susan Russell had posted comments about how police and university officials handled sexual assault allegations. 2/2

Show threadMelmoDec 14, 2022
@MediaLawProf @mmasnick This is my concern with the Twitter archives -- who owns them and what can they do with them?
Show threadBritish Tech GuruDec 14, 2022
@MediaLawProf @mmasnick This, more than anything is a bloody good example of why nobody should ever post anything online under their own name. Or even have a high definition photograph of themselves online.
Show threadBob VezeauDec 15, 2022
@britishtechguru @MediaLawProf @mmasnick Or alternatively, express only views you would be willing to defend or explain for the rest of your life. Be careful tooting under the influence.
Show threadBritish Tech GuruDec 15, 2022
@BobVezeau @MediaLawProf @mmasnick That could be problematic too. How many ideas were in vogue that everybody agreed with that suddenly became heinous not many years later? I can think of plenty. Support an idea that's in vogue at your peril.
Show threadBob VezeauDec 15, 2022
@mmasnick @britishtechguru @MediaLawProf
I follow your point. Still, it seems to me that anonymity is just avoidance of personal accountability.
Show threadMike Masnick ✅Dec 15, 2022

@BobVezeau @britishtechguru @MediaLawProf ... or someone who is at risk and wants to blow the whistle, or expose domestic violence, etc. etc. etc.

Anonymity is important.

Show threadBob VezeauDec 15, 2022

@MediaLawProf @britishtechguru @mmasnick

Yes, I get it, for those special circumstances. But why do you suppose the KKK wears those robes?

Show threadMike Masnick ✅Dec 15, 2022
@BobVezeau @MediaLawProf @britishtechguru I would suggest, kindly, that you read @jkosseff's latest book: https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501762383/the-united-states-of-anonymous/
The United States of Anonymous by Jeff Kosseff | Hardcover | Cornell University Press

In The United States of Anonymous, Jeff Kosseff explores how the right to anonymity has shaped American values, politics, business, security, and...

Cornell University Press
Show threadBob VezeauDec 15, 2022
@jkosseff @britishtechguru @mmasnick @MediaLawProf
Thanks for the recommendation. Looks worthwhile.
Show threadChip StewartDec 15, 2022
@BobVezeau @jkosseff @britishtechguru @mmasnick I concur - it’s very good
Show threadBritish Tech GuruDec 15, 2022

@BobVezeau @MediaLawProf @mmasnick I was stalked in the real world by a naive young lad who was being controlled by a sociopathic woman we both knew. Horrible experience that went of for many months before the young lad presumably woke up and smelled the baloney he was being served.

I have been stalked online too. It’s not fun finding obscene voicemail on your phone. For these and many other reasons, online anonymity is important.

Show threadBob VezeauDec 15, 2022
@britishtechguru @MediaLawProf @mmasnick
Wow, I’m sorry to hear that you had that personal experience. We can also agree that the world is now full of naive people being controlled by sociopaths. So, I’ll just close by saying I understand and respect your opinion.
Show threadJames EdwardDec 17, 2022
@BobVezeau @britishtechguru @MediaLawProf @mmasnick
But it would be nice if we could develop a culture where it was accepted that what people said in the past isn’t necessarily representative of who they are today, and that people are capable of growth and apologising for past indiscretions. I would trust a politician more if they had tooted a bunch of wrongheaded stuff in their youth, but had come clean with an apology rather than trying to delete/bury it or pretend like they never once said anything dumb.
Show threadBob VezeauDec 17, 2022
@britishtechguru @jamesedward @MediaLawProf @mmasnick Absolutely agree. It would be great if there were a way by which one could permanently attach the apology to the original indiscretion.
Show threadJames EdwardDec 17, 2022
@mmasnick @britishtechguru @BobVezeau @MediaLawProf I guess on Mastodon at least there’s the edit button that you could use to prepend a retraction, though the temptation will be to edit a bad opinion into a good one rather than own the mistake.
Show threadBob VezeauDec 17, 2022
@britishtechguru @mmasnick @MediaLawProf @jamesedward I often takes some time for one to recognize such a mistake. That realization can also come in degrees. No easy solutions.
Show threadChip StewartDec 17, 2022
@BobVezeau @britishtechguru @mmasnick @jamesedward a few years ago, I wrote about some of the ethical challenges of Streisand Effect shaming done by journalists, and differences between regular people vs elected officials & prominent people. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3124532
Show threadBritish Tech GuruDec 17, 2022

@MediaLawProf @BobVezeau @mmasnick @jamesedward

About 30 years ago, a newspaper published a deliberately inaccurate article and syndicated it. Nobody picked it up because it was nasty. I never saw the newspaper because everybody tried to protect me from seeing it. It did affect life's progress but as nobody would show the article I never figured out why. 15 years ago I found it online and had the paper delete it. It was nasty! 2:years ago I had to stop a photo being sold on Amazon. What a PITA

Show threadBigBadBoxBookDec 14, 2022

@MediaLawProf @mmasnick

Question: These archives were originally publicly offered speech, albeit on behalf of a business that hoped to make profit or in the least self-sustain. Could someone with access to the original files republish all of them, if only archive them in a manner that they remain publicly available (a library system, maybe)?

Attempting to retain control of them is like classifying a newspaper article once it's on the stand (as Bush II tried & failed to do in the 2000s).

Show threadSteven MolnarDec 14, 2022
@MediaLawProf @mmasnick BTW, the target of Steisand's suit has some great scenic photos.
https://www.californiacoastline.org/
California Coastal Records Project -- Aerial Photographs of the California Coastline

California Coastal Records Project -- Aerial Photographs of the California Coastline

Show threadMorgan PeyreDec 14, 2022
@MediaLawProf @mmasnick ...aaand the Wayback Machine has 17 copies of the story (TW: rape) https://web.archive.org/web/20211026060654/http://www.readthehook.com/102337/unsilenced-how-mother-fought-protect-her-daughter-and-yours
Unsilenced: How this mother fought to protect her daughter... and yours.

Show threadTribuneDec 14, 2022

@MediaLawProf @mmasnick

(Archive link bypasses paywall):

https://web.archive.org/web/20221214172747/https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/12/14/hook-charlottesville-vanished-archive/

#LinkRot #StreisandEffect

A newspaper vanished from the internet. Did someone pay to kill it?

The Hook, a Charlottesville weekly, closed in 2013 but web archives survived until 22,000 stories vanished in June. Speculation swirls around a mystery buyer.

The Washington Post
Show threadVoronDec 15, 2022

@mmasnick @MediaLawProf money is the problem the unrestrained power of money is the problem the rich are the problem everything else are symptoms or comorbidies that have been excerbated by money

"The economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power." - FDR

Show threadsorrykbDec 15, 2022
@MediaLawProf @mmasnick Gift link to the article for non-subscribers: https://wapo.st/3htnPCc
A newspaper vanished from the internet. Did someone pay to kill it?

The Hook, a Charlottesville weekly, closed in 2013 but web archives survived until 22,000 stories vanished in June. Speculation swirls around a mystery buyer.

The Washington Post
Show threadSimon FrankauDec 15, 2022
@MediaLawProf @mmasnick Fortunately we now have a word for "to buy something others find useful in order to destroy it" - to Musk it.
Show threadTwitter Original™ ThadDec 17, 2022

@MediaLawProf @mmasnick

How do we protect this stuff? How do we stop news from being disappeared like a Chilean leftist under Pinochet?

Show threadtolortsluborDec 18, 2022
@MediaLawProf @mmasnick #ofori #rape #rapists #Charlottesville #Virginia