Hate speech on Second Life partner sites

On this thread one resident raises questions of what constitutes "hate speech". He tries to get me "nailed" for one ironic statement that I made in direct response to one culturally supremacist slur directed at me. In fact my statement by use of irony was directed exactly against the kind of attitute and language that he tried to attribute to me.

Motivated by his great concern for the Second Life forum TOS and proper language I decided to take a look at his own website. The person in question operates SLUniverse.com, a website that has received active marketing support by Linden Lab. Some of its services such as Snapzilla can be found prominently featured on the first page of Secondlife.com and seemlessly integrated with the Second Life marketing look and feel.

On this website I have found a new thread where the operator of the site not only slanders me with false rumors (or lies?). In relation to accusations posted there feel free to refer to my newly started Anshe-Rumors Reference.

What upsets me is that he also posts private IM conversations without my permission and uses the following vocabulary to describe my person:

"shit"
"whore"
"bully"
"predatory snake"
"blow job instructor"
"asshole"

In addition he insults my religious feelings with the term

"fucking god"

He uses insulting adjectives such as

"fake"
"manipulative"
"arrogant"
"lying"
"cheating"

And the following term has been directed at me by another poster and has not been moderated:

"bitch"

I have tried to bring this to the attention of Linden Lab staff and abuse team several times. However, my inquiries have not lead to the removal of the harassing content from this partner site. My latest e-mail to the person responsible for marketing at Linden Lab still remains unanswered.

I understand that Linden Lab can not police each and every fansite on the internet. However, it would reflect greatly on Linden Lab if websites that are integrated with Second Life's marketing would not be used by their owner to slander other Second Life residents calling them "shit", "whore" and "asshole". As such I hope Linden Lab will use its influence to adequately protect its customers on the Web spaces it promotes.

Anshe,

I raised a question here, , Robin responds there.

Free speech kinda sucks sometimes. Especially when you can't buy someone out...
You want LLab to regulate a third party site that doesn't have to abide by their ToS? Uh, how about no.

Maybe you could purchase SL-universe.com? That's about your only legal bargaining chip.

SLUniverse.com is not just any external website. Linden Lab is actively promoting this site and its services. As such I would expect them to at least hold the owner of that website responsible to not use that site as one tool for hate speech and harassment.

i remember a thread which might help readers decide what hate speech is.

/invalid_link.html

Biff, I apologize for using the language you quote even though semantically it properly describes nature of your actions. I am glad that your griefing in world stopped after several people filed abuse reports.

as you may recall, i put my build back up for a few days to demonstrate that it was my choice, not Linden edict, that brought it down.

as for griefing, that's very much in the eye of the beholder. you didn't care for my build, and denounced it as griefing. others viewed my work differently.

I would expect SL to try and distance themselves from sites where the mud is flying. Mud sticks and Linden Labs should endeavour to keep themselves clean.

So, Robin is saying that if someone had personal information about Lindens/Live Helpers/Mentors and posted it on a 3rd party site, they wouldn't instantly permaban the person from SL?

I don't know either of the parties involved, although I do know both names. What I'm trying to suggest is that I don't have an axe to grind.

You could ignore it Anshe. If you want to be really nasty about it, I would suggest you find a good lawyer who deals with defamation. Some of those statements you've quoted could be construed as defamatory in my non-expert opinion. I should also say I've not seen them in their original context and don't have much desire to, although I do know enough about the law to say that their context is important.

I suspect the same lawyer would tell you that Linden Lab are not responsible for the contents of third party sites, even those that they recommend and work in partnership with. It may be possible to argue that Linden Lab should reconsider its support of a site that indulges in defamatory comments, if such a thing is proven, but I think you'd have problems legally forcing them to do so.

I have absolutely no idea what the lawyer will tell you - your RL person trading under an assumed name is legally fine, and damaging that good name should lead to damages. Presumably they'd be paid in L$ since that is the direct currency in which you are taking damages.

I hope it doesn't come to that, although it would be interesting to see what happened if you did do it, would it be a first someone suing IRL for defamation of their online personality I wonder.

Well seen as I am not Robin, I really can't answer that, I simply pointed Anshe to the question I asked, and the response I received.

If you want a more in depth answer, mebbe you should post a more in depth question on Hotline To Lindens?

which person would they ban? the poster or the third party website moderator?

I have never seen Anshe speak so eloquently before without using broken english, leaving out transitive verbs and what nots.

Are you using a grammar corrector now Anshe?

The next question would then be how would they know what account they use in SL. Sure, they can look at the account name, but that's assuming that people are using there SL name on those websites, and sure, check out the IP, but who is saying that someone else wasn't using their machine. 3rd party sites aren't under the same control, you can create a username on 3rd party sites that have nothing to do with your SL account name and LL can't do anything about it, because they cannot determine who it is that that person plays within SL.

While it is true that it's up to LL to decide who they want to advertise and who they don't want to, the truth of the matter is that SLUniverse is a popular place for SLers to go outside of these forums, and Cristiano is offering a few great services that integrate into SL. If the Lindens choose to advertise, iwth them, that's there choice, same as it's your choice to visit those advertised sites, or boycott them.

Sometimes I use Microsoft Word but this time I had somebody proof read for me before I posted. I also know most English grammar rules well, just when posting fast it is easy for me to fall back to Chenglish

And also what if you are posting under a different name? For one thing, anyone can sign up for SLUniverse as pretty much any user name, like most forums. There is no requirement that you verify who you are in SL. I could go sign up right now and choose, say, Anshee Chung as a user name.

Should Lindens take action against any avatars in SL with the same name and just assume it's the same person? I think not.

This whole thing is amusing, Anshe. Your level of hypocrisy is unprecedented, truly. You have used nearly every single word in your own threads in THESE FORUMS, which you are now whining about. You have called people assholes so many times I have lost count, your thread on your Wixom events had the word whore edited out how many times? You called Hank a crook and a liar, you called me one cheap liar multiple times and made false allegations about me(since although you speak flawless English when it suits you, you cannot manage to use the word A). I stand behind every single thing I have said about you.

What this all boils down to is that the things you have done are catching up to you, and you are starting this new PR campaign with "why are you so mean?" as the catch phrase. You im me and say it, you im Maxx Monde and say it. The problem, Anshe, is that too many people know the things you do, and are not afraid to be quiet about it. You lecturing anyone about being mean is laughable.

I posted a private IM conversation from you after you publicly lied and claimed I neg rated you. You agreed to take my word on it and retract, then went back to the forums and proceeded to say I was "one cheap liar who had been caught", along with all the other stupidity you created in that thread. I am sure you hate having your statements out there in view, as you try so hard to craft a public image as this gentle hapless business girl, when you are anything but.

There was a point at which, in spite of your odd need to conquer Second Life, I at least had some level of respect for you. Watching your actions with Hank, with Adam Zaius, with myself and others recently has made me see that was a mistake. You will do whatever you have to do to "win", everyone else be damned. Good luck your "Anshe is being bullied by big meanies" campaign. A winner indeed.

To be perfectly honest Anshe LL allowed ppl to call me those things on their LL forums right here. I don't think it realy matters to LL what ppl say. More so they will not do anything to another sl site.

Yes I think that is a mistake. If the poster doesn't get to you, no problem they will just make an alt or two gang up on ya and try to get to you that way. It's always been allowed.

In recent months I have noticed that Jeska has edited some posts, Robin has made some statements and the General forum was moved down the page. Yes it helps but we have a long way to go before we can have an adult conversation that will not be spamed flamed or derailed by those who can't be adults.

Strong statments? Nope not at all, it's just how it is.

Cath

I read your thread in your forums where you dispel the truth supposedly. There are already a few lies in what you have posted:

1) In regard to agreeing to not bid on the sim, I saw the IMs Anshe. You can spin it however you want. It was not collusion to let a group have a sim to actually BUILD on at a time when you were simply buying out land and turning around and marking it up.

2) You continue the Mia Lament thing, which is hysterical, since it is not me. The main problem with your so called evidence is that you have no way of knowing if anyone is AFK, yet you claim to know they went AFK after 5 minutes. Also, it takes me almost 3 minutes to sign into SL because of the size of my inventory. I signed in after you posted the claim that I neg rated you, not before. With someone who has as many neg rates as you do, and who receives them daily, what is so funny is how you just stuck to the theory like some kind of crazed lunatic, regardless of it not being the case.

3) Adam can confirm the campaign you have started against him. I would also point out that SLExchange stores data about each transactions on its database server too, and that you have access to sales data and customer information for everyone who purchases through the site.

4) It's funny that the thing with Hank just happened to coincide with him launching a currency exchange against you. Hmm, interesting pattern.

5) Anshe, you were leaving more than 3 sims worth of land unclaimed, until you could sell off other land and then grab it and stay within the same tier. You knew exactly what you were doing. The auction loophole was closed after seeing that the convenience was being abused.

6) On the topic of Oneironaut Escher, no other resident had raised their land except you - the land near his plot was already raised because there were mountains on both sides of it - in Federal and in Stanford. You received all of feedback you did because of how nasty you were to him - which is in direct contrast to your "why you have to be so mean" campaign.

Interesting versions of "the truth" Anshe, indeed. BTW,you are a coward for making your thread locked. I left my thread open and you could have responded to any of it. I am also certain you would edit any critical speech of you in your forums anyway.

PS - on the topic of "blow job instructor" and "whore", did you not a) teach people, among other things, how to use the built in animations to simulate oral sex on a man? I have photos from the class if you would like. Also, your original escort card was posted in the thread as well. Did you not perform cyber in exchange for money? What exactly are you protesting?

why the hell everybody hate anshee?

each time i talk to her she is charming

One last thing, Anshe. Interesting thread choice, which you picked because I called you on your use of racial slurs. None of the words you chose fall under the definition of hate speech, so you can carry on with using them in your threads. Tit for tat doesn't really suit you, Anshe, you're not very good at it.

ya

of course u know it's only slander / libel if it isnt true.

I'd like to know why it's customary to bring your alts to any thread that Anshe participates in. Perhaps I should do the same? I could forum-christen my totally randomly named alts Ansheee Chung and Ansheeee Chung.

I wanted to get an alt called Harlot Gillespie to see if anyone noticed, but the name has passed into Feted Inner Core territory.

Kyrah,

I don't hate Anshe, and yes she can be quite charming, especially if you are making money for her. Ultimately, it boils down to all the stuff she does behind the scenes. Lately it has been coming back to haunt her in a lot of ways, as more people speak out and compare notes and she lets more stuff slip. If she were above board and not doing the kinds of stuff she does and made the kind of money she makes, I would say more power to her. Unfortunately, that is not the case. She writes that off as people being jealous of her, because that is easy. Now she writes it off to people being mean to her.