Sunday, September 25, 2005
Yahoo!: The Snitchin' Sucks Are Running-Dogs Of The Counter-Revolutionaries
Operation! Yahoo!:The revolution will be digitized.
It's always struck me that the possibilities for great good and grave injustice lay somewhere within the ones and zeros. We have a certain tradition in literature, from science-fiction to satire, of the digitally enhanced despot. Systematic control of information has been a tool of those in power since we have had a history. The envisioned omnipotence of technology brought the dark possibility of big brother's penetration into the smallest facets of our lives.
It's always struck me that the possibilities for great good and grave injustice lay somewhere within the ones and zeros. We have a certain tradition in literature, from science-fiction to satire, of the digitally enhanced despot. Systematic control of information has been a tool of those in power since we have had a history. The envisioned omnipotence of technology brought the dark possibility of big brother's penetration into the smallest facets of our lives.
As the Web has spread across our world, access has seen the previous models of cultural communication (along with their controlled state) fall away. Depending on perspective, they may call it citizens' media, mass-amateurisation, folksonomy or any of the other terms that pass in and out of usage for user control of information. Communication has become considerably less a case of top-down control despite the dire apprehensions. It seems a rolling tide that will be hard to turn back. That is not to say that no one is trying. China stands head and shoulders above all the rest in their efforts with hundreds of thousands of people devoted to monitoring and controlling the Web activities of their fellow countrymen.
The Chinese have built their heavily censored internet with the help of American companies; Cisco, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! and others have provided the hardware, tweaked the software and generally turned a blind eye to what is going on. Not quite three weeks ago, a year old case came to light where it appears Yahoo!, from what is known to date, has taken the most active role yet in aiding the Chinese government's thought police. Efforts by the Communist Party to squash the remembrance of the Tianamen Square massacre became a state secret with the willing aid of Yahoo!
Shi Tao, a journalist, posted the substance of a one CP warning to a site here in the United States. Yahoo! provided the information necessary to link the posting to Shi. He was sentenced to ten years imprisonment. Jerry Yang, a co-founder of Yahoo!, has been quoted as saying that they were simply complying with a legal order of which they had no idea of the nature. I can't believe that is true. Someone at Yahoo! must have looked at the pro-democracy site and the document that was posted there. They had cost a man ten years of his life, as evil hacks of a despotic system, and continued to lie to hide their greed driven willing participation.
I was seething for a week about this. For me, it is hard to imagine any amount of money that could mean taking away ten years from another man's life for the likes of what Shi did. At the time, despite some play on the Web, it hadn't hit the MSM on my radar. It seemed a major evil done without the notice of a great many people. It would send me to do the closest thing to political action in years. I just did not know what, yet.
It struck me that there was a large number of Yahoo! users in this country that had no idea of what was going on or the role they were playing in supporting the company. It occurred to me that should change and that Yahoo! had a readily available database of users. I would hit the personals and utilize the search functions in there, it was user control of information for the purpose of freedom. Never mind that it may not have been totally in keeping with the spirit of the TOS or that it would leave me with the dirty feeling of a semi-spammer. I could take care of that with a carefully crafted letter.
The cynic in me was struck by how 60's it seemed. You know, hustling babes under the cover of political action. I had to go with that feeling and pick what I thought were the best of the women: Most would be progressive, educated and, through interests and occupation, be identified as likely opinion-leaders. There was a heavy concentration in academics, media and computer/internet users. Some would be selected because they were "Real People" models for the service: I thought it important they know what they were fronting for. On to my email introduction.
No doubt, I was contemplating the economic side of political action. Why do bars have ladies' night? I had to work into the letter some of the other options available to move to for personals. I had to work URL's into it without tripping any filters that Yahoo! might have employed. I also had to work into it a plausible legal defense should Yahoo! contemplate action. I'm probably pushing the limits of candor with this post in light of that consideration. I would use several different versions of the letter, also. As always, I was honest, a little windy perhaps but to the point. And got off a pretty good presentation of the Shi case.
I would contact 116 women having no idea how they would respond. I started working back from a 250 mile radius. I had no picture posted with my sparsely written profile. I knew these things would limit the response. I feel an obligation to not go into detail about those who did respond. The message was of an ambivalent nature and I would feel like it would be an invasion of their privacy. Let's just say I'd be spending most Saturday nights without a date.
This will end this particular action. I'm going to send a link to this to a couple women and then my account will be cancelled. I think the effect I had was probably pretty small.
My investment of time and money for this was small considering the chances for bringing light onto the Shi case. If I was more of the geek, I could have possibly crafted an API to automate more of the process. I hope somebody stumbles across this and improves on the technique. And despite the apparently limited effect, I'm really glad I did it. I had to do something and it was a pretty good stretch of the legs for a future action.
I have to mention that Google, the fine folks that host this blog, are also running-dogs of the counter-revolutionaries. It would just seem not quite as bad.
¶ 9/25/2005 12:11:00 PM
