Is WordPress.com censoring political debate?
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The website Isabella Lund runs a political blog in swedish about a subject matter concerning the status of a disenfranchised group of women in Sweden and the rest of the world.
While the blog’s subject is indeed controversial in many quarters, it is a matter for legitimate political debate both in Sweden and the United States. While WordPress.com does indeed have the right to decide what exists on their servers, the blogging community is entitled to know whether the subject matters for the blogs, particularly when it comes to freedom of speech and opinion, is subject to summary acceptance or rejection from WordPress.com.
It is incumbent on WordPress.com to express that in the Terms of Service then, and that the blogging community that uses WordPress.com is told exactly what political opinion is acceptable or not, and which political debates are acceptable or not.
As said, the subject matter for the mentioned blog may be controversial, but it is entirely legal in both Sweden and the United States. Therefore I publish this post in a public place here in the forums, in the hope that you can answer this question.
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So the blog was suspended for political speech? Was it just that or was it other things?
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Were they running ads, affiliate links, or republishing copyrighted content from other websites?
That is a lot more likely of a reason why the account was suspended.
Considering that no one with the power to suspend the account is from Sweden, I doubt they’d be that interested in political issues.
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It’s a “big” story in the swedish bloggosphere – and since I’m a big fan of free speech I thought I’d ask directly at the source.
The blogger is an escort and talks about how they live, particularly as prostitution is halfway illegal in Sweden. Selling is not forbidden, but buying is – and this dichotomy is a big political issue in Sweden between feminists, libertarians, liberals, conservatives who all take a somewhat different view of the phenomena. It is not a blog to solicit clients, however. It’s just a blog that talks about what that life is like, given the particular circumstances here.
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Well, I’d like to know why. Right now, the libertarians of Sweden are up in arms about it.
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Blogs are not “suspended” for having adult/mature content. They are suspended only when they disobey the rules pertaining to affiliate links and advertising or republishing copyrighted content from other websites without permission to do so. WordPress is an American company and American law peratining to copyright applies, regardless of where the blogger is situate.
Even then the bloggers do have the choice of downloading a free blog template from wordpress.org to be self hosted on their own servers or they can hire a web host. They are not censored; they have a second option for being heard.
I’m not assuming that those bloggers who are complaining have blogs labeled adult/mature but perhaps this is a factor based on the information you have voluntarily provided. Some bloggers like to contrive excuses for using the sexual element simply to invite “hits”.
If the blog is question contains such material then wordpress is very clear. WordPress requests that those bloggers whose material falls within this adult/mature content category declare their blogs as such. They do not usually do so, instead their fellow bloggers notify staff when they have not been so declared.
The result is that the blogs so labeled adult/mature are not censored; they are simply not considered in the mix found among the top posts and top blogs. This may annoy the bloggers in question if they are “hit whores,” who want their free blogs to be promoted by their free bloghost but IMO it does not constitute censorship and is not grounds for blog suspension.
Although other bloghosts do not register children under the age of 13 years please bear in mind that wordpress has no such restriction and we do have a fair number of children blogging here. In fact the penguin club blogs are frequently found in the top post and top blog rankings.
I am a Canadian and this is my personal opinion. I do not speak for wordpress. If you wish to have a definitive answer then the forum is not the place to get it and I’m quite sure you know that. Please direct your “feedback” to Matt at support at this domain dot com.
P.S. If you do quote any part or the whole of my opinion expressed in this thread I will expect you to click on my username, link to my blog and properly attribute the source of any quote in whole or in part of mine.
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Why should they mark a political non-sexual blog as adult? Why do you assume they speak about sex? And why do you assume that, if it had been a blog about sex, that Swedes should follow the cultural mores of anglo-saxon north americans who, as a rule, can’t read swedish anyway?
It is a personal blog, speaking about a life from a political standpoint regarding a political issue by a person who lives in the gray area between law, public morals and their own individual circumstance.
And yes, I choose the public option because I want this debated in the open. I want to know – because I’m annoyed at this decision.
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(1) If you did not consider the sexual element to be a factor then one wonders what your motivation for saying this in your post above?
The blogger is an escort and talks about how they live, particularly as prostitution is halfway illegal in Sweden.
(2) Indeed one wonders what your motivation is when it comes to speaking on the behalf of another blogger who presumably is not your mute dependent?
(3) Your annoyance does not constitute a support question pertaining to wordpress technology and you have posted to the support forum. You do not have an option to have this discussed here because yours is not a request for technical support.
(4) The place to blow off any steam you have is in your blog. And the place to get a definitive answer is from Matt by emailing support at this domain dot com.
I am respectfully terminating this dialogue between us now and turning my attention to answering support questions. Thank you, in advance, for graciously accepting my departure.
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If anyone has a concern, the correct course of action is to email Support.
Posting to the forum means you wait longer.
Hoping publicity will raise the stakes is pointless.
And regarding our Terms of Service there is no debate. You agree to them at the point you get a blog.
In this case I think a genuine mistake has been made. I have returned the blog. Please do not think for even the slightest moment that this thread has made this happen – a simple post into Support would have had the same result.
If you wish to debate this further, I suggest you use your blog.
[Edit. I have since established the reason for suspension. It was using copyrighted images without permission. Hardly some high political debate…… and somewhat harder to debate.]
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