Indymedia are Stalinesque control freaks

Boulevardier

I have wasted a lot of my time banging my head against the brick wall that is the comment facility on the Indymedia web page.

Indymedia claim, as far as I know, to be champions of free speech and openness, yet almost all the comments I have posted on their site have been taken off (or "hidden from view" to use their own parlance) within a short time of my putting them up.

A look at their comment guidelines http://www.indymedia.ie/editorial throws up a large list of things they don't like, but an ordinary poster like myself in effect has no way of guessing which of these he/she is going to fall foul of. Attempts to get in touch with the Indymedia people are met with a total absence of acknowledgement or reply, plus, as of yeaterday, a temporatry ban and threats of another.

Now, my comments have (mostly) been pretty middle of the road in tone. One thing they tend to have in common is that they do not marry well with the CPI/Eirigi/IRSP point of view.

I cannot therefore avoid the conclusion that Indymesia are hypocrites, stalinists and control freaks.

Has anyone alse formed the same (or the opposite) impression?

coylemj

You've discovered the sad truth which is that these Trotskyites only believe in free speech when you agree with them.

expectationlost

its a news site have any news to add to it?

Boulevardier

Not usually, but nor do most of the posters whose posts are let stay up!

mikemac

Same with their youtube clips.
Every comment needs approval, if you disagree your comment never makes it

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

As far as I recall, they used to leave all comments up and only started this censorship a few years ago.

mike65

They have no truck with anything posted that is ideologically "hostile" in their eyes. I dunno what the traffic is like but I get the impression its quieter than it used to be.

Boulevardier

The thing is, my postings are not anti-left; I am not a troller.

The traffic seems reasonably brisk, but there is no way of knowing what is not going up.

If it were almost any other political site, I would expect some sort of censorship, but given what Indymedia claim to be, I simply cannot understand how they justify being so controlling.

I have tried contacting them several times, but I have not had the courtesy of an acknowledgment.

mike65

The "latest comments" page covers the last 5 days which suggests pretty quiet to me.

The guy who runs it (or at least ran it at the time) was arguing his corner here a few years back, he seemed the sort you couldn't really be allowed to disagree with as I recall.

coylemj

Boulevardier wrote: »

I have wasted a lot of my time banging my head against the brick wall that is the comment facility on the Indymedia web page.

Can I remind you of your original post - by your own admission you are wasting your time, just don't bother with them.

Lux23

Indymedia really should change their name, they are no more independent then RTE or Newstalk, they just represent a different agenda.