Tracey de Morsella (formerly Tracey L. Minor) is a nationally recognized and honored Black technologist. I have been knowing and seeing her good work for over 10 years. If any one has earned the title of "Old-Men-Of-The-Net" (sorry Tracy) it is this dynamic strong Black Women. She needs YOUR help, right now (see original message below).

Her Yahoo group, SciFiNoir has been shut down by Yahoo. Many of us on the Net, have experienced a similar event in our life on the Net. She is not the first prominent Black Yahoo group to be arbitrarily suspended or shut down. It happened to Sons of Africa (SOA) @ Yahoo groups twice (a large, strong Pro-Black Yahoo group). It's happened on an individual level to many online activists.

It boils down to a basic and controversial issue on the fundamentals of Net access. The question becomes; is the Internet a public utility or a private concern??? Yahoo, AOL and most ISP's take the position that they provide a private service and therefore have the legal right to control content, access, and use (see anybody's TOS). I, and most online activist believe they are a private company providing a PUBLIC service and therefore are legally bound to act in the public good, similar to any other public utility (such as the phone, cable, or power company).

The Internet had developed primarily under a Republican congress and administration that believes in taking a hands-free position when it comes to American enterprise. In some sense this governmental attitude, has made the Internet the freewheeling, unrestricted, uncontrollable, phenomenon that it is. In other respects, this tendency to favor market forces (think Corporate America) has jeopardized the basic fundamentals of free enterprise and American freedoms.

Corporate America does not believe in sharing the pie. And with the widespread acceptance of the Internet as a commercial and economic success, they have moved aggressively to monopolize this ubiquitous communication tool we call the Net. The Net has broken down barriers of borders, ideas, and class. It is truly a public utility (see Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_utility). But let me get off my soapbox.

Yahoo has made a corporate decision not to proved live online support services. The only way you can get a real person at Yahoo corporate is to go hog-tie them in the parking lot. So you can understand Tracey's frustration in trying to deal with the problem of getting her Yahoo group back up and running. What I have found in the past is that Corporate America will respond quickly to public and governmental pressure.

She needs YOU to take five (that's 5) minutes TODAY and send an email to your local US Senator/Representative and media outlets. Let them know that you think what happened to SciFiNoir is wrong, and un-American. Tell them that you support the principals of open access and the Constitutional Right to Free Speech. If the ISP's cannot institute fair and open policies, then you are recommending that the US government does it for them.

This will definitely get their attention. As Tracey points out in her message below; Yahoo! is currently in a cutthroat battle with Google. They cannot afford the negative publicity right now (not to mention the governmental oversight). Take Action TODAY. Tell your friends and online associates to do the same.

Remember the old story; when they came for the Jews, we did not help; when they came for the Christians, we did not help; when they came for US, there was nobody left to help! I'm asking you to help Tracey now. And in helping Tracey, you will be helping all of us, have a better and freer Internet.

******************************************************************************

---Orginal Message------
To: Jim Neusom
From: "Tracey de Morsella (formerly Tracey L. Minor)"
Date: Thu, 12 May 2005 17:10:33 -0400
Subject: Is Yahoo! Arbitrarily Shutting Down Email
Accounts and Online Discussion Groups?

Popular Black Online Discussion Group Shut Down By Yahoo

On April 29, Yahoo deleted both my email account and my six-year-old African American science fiction discussion list of 485 members, called SciFiNoir. No warning, notification or explanation was provided. Since the deletion of my email account and discussion list, I have discovered many people are having their yahoo email accounts and discussion groups deleted in a similar fashion. My phone inquiry proved fruitless.

Customer support refused or was unable to answer my questions. I was informed that I violated Yahoo!'s terms of service, but that they were not permitted to explain how I had done so. They also explained that there was no one to whom I could turn to find out more about the violation, getting service restored, gain access to my emails, copy my address book, or retrieve six years of files, images, and hundreds of thousands of messages from the deleted discussion list. Yahoo! has responded to member inquiries with a form letter that suggests that I shut down the list.

A review of recent messages on my science fiction discussion forum have revealed that less than 48 hours before the list was deleted, there was an extended message thread regarding an article in the Los Angeles Times covering the Toronto Sex Crimes Unit that focused on their fight against child pornography and how the majority of those arrested are Trekkers. As far as I know, there is nothing in Yahoo!'s terms of service that forbids users from discussing current events (even subjects of a sensitive nature) on their groups.

Yahoo! is currently in a cutthroat battle with Google. One of their strategies against the Google threat is to offer users more email space and enhanced features on their groups portal. What they don.t let unsuspecting users know is that if they use Yahoo! services is that they will be censored and that they running the risk of loosing intellectual property.

To read the LA Times article, see the message thread, find out who else yahoo is deleting, or to read the What Happened to ScifiNoir at Yahoogroups FAQ, go to: http://www.visitfloripa.com/scifinoir/

Tracey de Morsella
Phone: 215-849-0946
Email: tdemorsella@multiculturaladvantage.com
View The What Happened to ScifiNoir at Yahoogroups
FAQ, at: http://www.visitfloripa.com/scifinoir/

Brother Jim Neusom will be keeping the Black community updated on the most current social and technology news. Visit regularly for new information that could help you overcome and make the best of your everyday experiences.

To subscribe to Neusom's column join the Afromerica email list to receive new information as it is updated. Or E-mail Neusom at: jneusom@yahoo.com

Submit an article
Join the Mailing List
Join a Discussion

Afromerica: Where its all Black & white and some gray areas.

[TOP]     [BACK TO COLUMN]