Amidst the unprecedented level of censorship being carried out by YouTube, the alternative media company Vimeo appears to be up for the challenge to outperform its rival and bring home the title belt as "America's Next Top Censor".
Just have a look at their conditions of use and the material that will "generally" be removed.
Quite ambitious:
There are some truly bewildering maneuvers in this effort, so let's break it down:
I know that, when we begin Armed With Knowledge back in 2007, this site was billed as "the most powerful weapon against the onset of tyranny." That was based on our assessment that something was wrong in the West, and things were going to begin spiraling out of control soon. Never in a thousand years, however, could I have imagined that the internet would become this.
Truly impressive, Vimeo. I am not making any promises, but...you...just...might...have a chance to be "America's Next Top Censor"!! Of course, what we would really like to see is your team audition for Trevor Moore's show, and take your shitty "alternative" platform with you:
Just have a look at their conditions of use and the material that will "generally" be removed.
Quite ambitious:
There are some truly bewildering maneuvers in this effort, so let's break it down:
- the inability to "make derogatory .. statements about individuals or groups of people" is a bold stipulation; derogatory means "detracting, diminishing or tending to lessen by taking something away; so, basically, it means you cannot criticize anyone or say anything that leads to anyone being criticized in result.
- banning content with the "intent to harm reputation" is another game-changer; it starts off sounding reasonable, because "intent to harm" is a normal-sounding legal standard, and here it sounds like the goal is to ban content that is created to purposely inflict pain towards another and do that person wrong, which is also a fair thing to ask people not to do. But Vimeo throws a change-up after those three words that changes the entire meaning, and makes this effort about protecting reputations, and banning whatever can change them. This is entirely insane; think of the long, long list of songs or films that negatively affect somebody else's reputation, regardless whether that person is an ex-lover, a priest, a teacher, a person working under the government. In practice, the stipulation probably means Vimeo simply has the reason it needs to remove anything that the company or moderator does not want criticized and, most likely, all other violations where that is not the case will be met with no response.
- when it comes to using the "image or voice" of "public figures and/or political officials" and that use "generally" being "fair game", this is a very strange concept, because it is not clear what the wild card is where Vimeo might just completely ignore its own terms of use. Based on the current socio-political climate, the mystery level of arbitrary enforcement will probably come down to whether the image and voice of certain public figures sends the message that Vimeo is probably looking for people to send, i.e. poking fun of right-wing whatever. But then again, it should all be banned if you cannot criticize anyone, because when was the last time anyone used excerpts of, for example, a right-wing politician's speech to say "gee, he sure said a swell thing." That has not happened since Dennis the Menace - regardless whether the word swell was used or not.
- "no Pickup Artist (PUA) techniques" is interesting because anyone familiar with PUA knows that the knowledge gained through it shows that women have evolutionary quirks and respond to things in a way men do not, but it is becoming increasingly clear that the dogma of the era says we cannot believe - or see - anything that shows women and men are different and gender is something other than a social construct.
- No promotion of "Sexual Orientation Change Efforts" (SOCE) is another odd stipulation, because it does not say you cannot upload videos about it - you just cannot upload videos that endorse it. Imagine being in [current year], where freedom of speech means you are free to take one side in a debate over something; well, there is no need to imagine anything. Because here you are! For those who may not know, SOCE concerns work to try to convince people to leave LGBT, or promotes scientific evidence showing that sexual transformation should not be attempted. I imagine that also means you cannot upload videos criticizing the mutilation of one's own genitals, or not injecting hormones. So basically, genital mutilation is ok when a person is motivated to do it under the influence of who knows what, maybe LGBT society, but when a person in a foreign society does this in connection with their religion, say Islam, the person is a victim and it is a human rights tragedy. What a bizarre society the West has become.
I know that, when we begin Armed With Knowledge back in 2007, this site was billed as "the most powerful weapon against the onset of tyranny." That was based on our assessment that something was wrong in the West, and things were going to begin spiraling out of control soon. Never in a thousand years, however, could I have imagined that the internet would become this.
Truly impressive, Vimeo. I am not making any promises, but...you...just...might...have a chance to be "America's Next Top Censor"!! Of course, what we would really like to see is your team audition for Trevor Moore's show, and take your shitty "alternative" platform with you:
