© May 16, 2019
Thanks to a Counter
Jihad Coalition email update I have discovered Wordpress.com (i.e. the one operated by Automattic) has deplatformed a couple of expose Islam
blogs. The CJC update links to a Jihad
Watch post writing about the deplatforming. The exposé blogs
were Creeping
Sharia and Muslim
Statistics.
The Jihad Watch writer assumes the deplatforming was the
result of the government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan complaining. At
the very least pointing to Pakistan is a good guess. On my NCCR blog I have received the same Automattic
notification.
My experience though was informing me my particular blog
would no longer be available in Pakistan due to the legal system’s Blasphemy
Law. BUT the Automattic notification also included info for how Pakistani
readers could circumvent the Pakistan banning by finding a good VPN service
that hides Internet surfing. Here is that NCCR post with the notification and advice.
So I am a bit surprised Automattic deplatformed Creeping
Sharia and Muslim Statistics over Pakistan’s Free Speech robbing Blasphemy
Laws. On the other hand, what in the world could those two expose Islam blogs
have done to annoy the powers that be at Automattic?
**********************
WordPress.com deplatforms those critical of Islam
By MARC
MAY 15, 2019 10:45
AM
WordPress.com has deplatormed those critical of Islam. I am
very disappointed having been a contributor to the WordPress code in the
distant past, and I have assisted in responsible disclosure of security
vulnerabilities to them on a voluntary basis in the recent past. I did see it
coming though.
While it would not be possible to restrict use of the WordPress source code which is publicly available and
built by volunteers, and distributed at wordpress.org, its [sic] is
“open source”. wordpress.com is very different. It is a
commercial enterprise which has some free options, the codebase being very
similar, but proprietary; and includes the hosting aspect as part of the
package.
I am aware of 2 sites so far that have been taken down, with
no warning Creeping Sharia and Muslim Statistics They
were first brought to my attention in a tweet:
After 11 years, thousands of posts and countless death threats, it was the cowards at @wordpressdotcom and @automattic who shut us down and banned us from freely sharing information. They'd rather submit to the #sharia than uphold the values of freedom of expression and speech. pic.twitter.com/4aG6tEElAf— Creeping Sharia (@creepingsharia) May 14, 2019
Looking at this tweet, it appears that this deplatforming
action was due to a complaint from Pakistan regarding breaking Sharia law.
A few weeks ago Twitter Legal notified us that this tweet violated Pakistan's (sharia) laws. @Wordpress notified us too...then they took our site down permanently. https://t.co/J0ywepp3Fh @michellemalkin #SiliconValleySharia pic.twitter.com/uUzuEZ9AUh— Creeping Sharia (@creepingsharia) May 15, 2019
This is despite their terms
of service in section 4 stating:
We do not have any control over
those websites and are not responsible for their contents or their use.
You can always reach out to Automattic to
express your disappointment politely on twitter at @automattic at their arbitrary deplatforming of anyone
without providing clear reasoning, especially from a platform built mostly by
volunteers.
I would suggest anyone using wordpress.com (not .org) or for
that matter blogger, dump them immediately, and migrate to a non-managed host
using the open source version at wordpress.com, I say non-managed host, as
managed hosting services seem to be far more likely to be pressured by hate
groups such as SPLC into removing services. Non-managed hosting services would
include AWS, Linode and my favorite at the moment DigitalOcean (includes
referral link).
You will also need to use your own domain name, as there is
no mysite.wordpress.org as there is with the .com. there are many domain
registrars to choose from, you can find a list here at a very useful site
for wordpress users.
It’s fairly easy to manage your own WordPress blog, these
sites all have extensive help documents, and surprisingly un-managed hosting
services seem to have far less technical troubles than managed ones do.
The WordPress open source community is
vibrant. It might be helpful not to interact using politically sensitive
profile names. I mention this as someone I sent there to get help came back
telling me they were unhelpful and ignored him. When I checked, I was not
surprised.
You can import content from your wordpress.com and
blogger.com sites into open source wordpress. While I can’t get too
involved in helping you out, if you have any issues, comment here, and I’ll
point you in the right direction.
Golden rule when managing your own sites and blogs: keep it
simple (20 plugins is not OK and use their default themes unless you have
programming skills), keep regular backups, and put them somewhere safe.
___________________
Is Automattic Succumbing Multicultural
Pressure?
John R. Houk
© May 16, 2019
__________________
WordPress.com deplatforms those critical of Islam
Jihad Watch ® is a registered trademark of Robert Spencer in the United
States and/or other countries.
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