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When I say that I won't allow any more illegal posts, I mean it.

  • 09-10-2013 10:06PM
    #1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,840 ✭✭✭


    I don't know why a very small number of members here chose to ignore my warning, but it is my responsibility to this site to ensure that when notified of potentially illegal content on it, that I must remove it.

    I made a pretty clear warning about what I would do should such nonsense continue but that was ignored, so I'm not going to be permanently banning the parties involved for a week and I have removed the offending thread in it's entirety.

    This is my job and I simply will not entertain being questioned about how it's done - my word on this site is, if you'll pardon the expression, law and whilst most of you will never have seen me stepping in anywhere on Boards taking this sort of action, I'm left with little choice in this particular instance.

    The Blasphemy law in Ireland is a load of nonsense. No one wanted it, no one needed it and in my personal opinion it was little more than political smokescreen at a time when Ireland has real problems that need real solutions. As was mentioned in the thread, even the law makers themselves claim that it's unworkable. This is the sort of thing that's bound to make you feel anything but confident about your elected representatives.

    The Defamation law in Ireland is equally a load of nonsense, it takes the notion of "innocent until proven guilty" and turns it completely on it's head and punishes anyone who would dare speak up about something negative and tells them that unless they have exceptionally deep pockets to pay their way to a high court victory, they have no entitlement to voice and anyone who helps them have a voice is just as guilty as they are despite having nothing to do with whatever issue is at hand.

    Both of these *ARE* the law of this land and as a business that has its offices in the Republic of Ireland, Boards.ie Ltd is bound by these and every other law in the Irish statue. I as an employee of Boards.ie Ltd have an obligation to act in the company's best interests and keep us on the side of the law. Being compliant with this law is not up for discussion. When the company is officially notified about something that is in breach of the law (as we were by an email earlier today), we have to act or we become responsible for it and we are not going to court for your ignorance (I'm speaking directly to you valknut).

    It's been a very long time since I've had to step in to After Hours to deal with this sort of thing - that's a credit to the community here and especially to the mods who've worked exceptionally hard to turn this forum from the downward spiral it was on, so I sincerely thank you all for collectively agreeing that this should be a place of sometimes serious and sometimes frivolous discussions of all kinds, but that there are ways and means to talk to to one another and about any given subject that keeps everything civil, legal and above all fun. AH used to cause us one serious legal threat a week, but now I really cannot remember the last time anything here caused us any bother, so if it seems like I'm coming down on this particular issues extremely hard, I am because I am not prepared to let the forum slip and let all your hard work start to come undone.

    Thank you all for your time and whether you're happy about my actions or not, I do hope you can at least respect that 1) I have no choice and 2) I'm far more interested in seeing your community thrive rather than having its members (and by extension this entire site) once again branded as ignorant and petulant children because of a few bad eggs with some sort of axe to grind.


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Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,147 ✭✭✭PizzamanIRL


    Dav wrote: »
    AH used to cause us one serious legal threat a week

    That's crazy.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 23,555 ✭✭✭✭Sir Digby Chicken Caesar


    not sure if you can answer this.. but someone emailed you about jokes relating to a certain man who's been dead for a long time?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 8,840 ✭✭✭Dav


    No, someone emailed me what looked to me to be pretty blatant breaches of the blasphemy law.

    One man's joke is another man's hate crime.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,516 ✭✭✭wazky


    That's crazy.

    Yeah, must of been a slow week on AH.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,031 ✭✭✭we'llallhavetea


    what's all this? are we still allowed fantasise about ridin' priests?!


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,764 ✭✭✭✭Mr.Crinklewood


    Can we not just take the Eagle to the vet?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 25,494 ✭✭✭✭My name is URL


    Could you give a synopsis of the offending post so that people know exactly what kind of thing to be avoiding?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,359 ✭✭✭✭kneemos


    Can't wait for the next episode.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,557 ✭✭✭KeithM89


    I have no idea what this is about so i'll just leave this here:



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,818 ✭✭✭donvito99


    Wait, what happened?


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,231 ✭✭✭BNMC


    Hey Dav I followed you on Twitter and you never followed back. Shame on you!


  • Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 26,409 Mod ✭✭✭✭Peregrine


    Could you give a synopsis of the offending post so that people know exactly what kind of thing to be avoiding?

    +1

    I'm a bit confused here. What happened and what kind of threads were removed?

    I'm not questioning their removal, if it was breaching laws, that's fair enough. But what kind of posts were they? Are we just talking about anything that could be seen as defamation/could cause outrage/hate?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,248 ✭✭✭✭B.A._Baracus


    I have no clue whats going on aswell.
    If boards.ie doesnt want certain things said, thats cool, I just don't know what are such things :o


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,443 ✭✭✭Bipolar Joe


    Nimrod 7 wrote: »
    +1

    I'm a bit confused here. What happened and what kind of threads were removed?

    I'm not questioning their removal, if it was breaching laws, that's fair enough. But what kind of posts were they? Are we just talking about anything that could be seen as defamation/could cause outrage/hate?

    That is literally anything, ever. I would like a little clarification.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,640 ✭✭✭Pushtrak


    Damn blasphlegmy laws.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,031 ✭✭✭we'llallhavetea


    BNMC wrote: »
    Hey Dav I followed you on Twitter and you never followed back. Shame on you!

    he likes nipple stories ;)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 8,947 ✭✭✭cml387


    Maybe someone suggested that Buddha is a less than svelte individual?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 640 ✭✭✭PLUG71


    The thread was about Tommy Robinson leaving the EDL.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,041 ✭✭✭Seachmall


    Is it possible to expand on what Boards.ie will consider blasphemous?

    For example, am I allowed to quote Richard Dawkins' opinion of the Old Testament God?

    The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.


    Is that blasphemous?

    Is it OK because it's a quote from popular culture?

    If so am I allowed to express my own comparable sentiments?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,777 ✭✭✭sentient_6


    I too hope some clarity is offered as a OP means nothing without context. Don't do that! What? That! oh......ok?


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,359 ✭✭✭✭kneemos


    Hard to know what blasphemy is.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 54,868 ✭✭✭✭tayto lover


    Whatever you say, say nothing
    When you talk about you know what
    For if you know who could hear you
    You know what you'd get
    For they'd take you off to you know where
    For you wouldn't know how long
    So for you know who's sake
    Don't let anyone hear you singing this song

    And you all know what I'm speaking of
    When I mention you know what
    And I think it's very dangerous to even mention that
    For the other ones are always near
    Although you may not see
    And if anyone asks who told you that
    Please don't mention me

    And you all know who I'm speaking of
    When I mention you know who
    And if you know who could hear me
    You know what he'd do
    So if you don't see me around
    You'll know why I'm away
    And if anyone asks you where I've gone
    Here's what you must say

    Well that's enough about so and so
    Not to mention such and such
    I think I'll end my song now
    Sure I've already said too much
    For the less you say, the less you hear
    And the less you'll go astray
    And the less you think, the less you do
    And the more you'll hear them say


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 8,840 ✭✭✭Dav


    Calling the prophet Muhammed a paedophile and pervert was the general jist of it. The tone used was deliberately attempting to incite hatred. I didn't see the person involved calling every other historical figure that married multiple women or women who in today's terms we now call (with very good reason I might add) children.

    It's only relatively recent times (< 200 years) that we have ages of majority and statutory sex laws (again, with very good reason) and they are wildly different all around the world and no less culturally acceptable or not in their respective nations.

    It's only 50 years since it was expected of any young boy of the age of 15 to go and get a full time job in Ireland, now we would question someone for doing that at 18 and wonder why they're not going to college.

    You can't objectively look at historical records with currently applicable cultural norms.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,116 ✭✭✭RDM_83 again


    Nobody has ever been charged with the blasphemy laws, in fact its designed to be unworkable (this according to people with actual legal knowledge unlike myself :cool: ).

    If boards.ie actually gave a shiit about the blasphemy laws or thought they were a serious threat to the sites existence the recent clampdown on church bashing threads in AH would have happened a lot sooner and a lot harder and the Religion and Spirituality group of forums would be a continuous legal nightmare.

    Unless this is about the Athlone incident threads I'm a bit confused.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,134 ✭✭✭✭Rayne Wooney


    kneemos wrote: »
    Hard to know what blasphemy is.

    I thought blasphemy was something from medieval times, apparently it's not. Wikipedia says
    Section 36 defines a new offence of "Publication or utterance of blasphemous matter",[35] which carries a maximum fine of €25,000.[35] The offence consists of uttering material "grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion", when the intent and result is "outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion

    So insulting the sacred church stuff is illegal?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,561 ✭✭✭hairyslug


    For those of us with the dumb, can someone explain the blasphemy laws in Ireland, my mind keeps on getting stuck at the stoning scene in the life of Brian


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,295 ✭✭✭Joe10000


    hairyslug wrote: »
    For those of us with the dumb, can someone explain the blasphemy laws in Ireland, my mind keeps on getting stuck at the stoning scene in the life of Brian

    All I said was that piece of Halibut was good enough for Jehovah.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,798 ✭✭✭✭hatrickpatrick


    Nobody has ever been charged with the blasphemy laws, in fact its designed to be unworkable (this according to people with actual legal knowledge unlike myself :cool: ).

    If boards.ie actually gave a shiit about the blasphemy laws or thought they were a serious threat to the sites existence the recent clampdown on church bashing threads in AH would have happened a lot sooner and a lot harder and the Religion and Spirituality group of forums would be a continuous legal nightmare.

    Unless this is about the Athlone incident threads I'm a bit confused.

    In as unbannable a manner as possible, what happened in Athlone?
    Is this the "why do you like riding hippos" thing again? It resurfaces on AH every few months and we all have a good nostalgic chuckle about it ;)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,041 ✭✭✭Seachmall


    Nimrod 7 wrote: »
    But what kind of posts were they? Are we just talking about anything that could be seen as defamation/could cause outrage/hate?

    The thread was about Tommy Robinson leaving the EDL, the OP however was quick to change the discussion to how evil Islam is and repeatedly referred to racist/bigoted/Islamophobic blogs and sites.

    Y'know, the usual.


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  • Moderators, Education Moderators Posts: 26,409 Mod ✭✭✭✭Peregrine


    hairyslug wrote: »
    For those of us with the dumb, can someone explain the blasphemy laws in Ireland, my mind keeps on getting stuck at the stoning scene in the life of Brian

    Pretty much the quote Rayne Wooney posted above.

    Here's the full quote from the 2009 Defamation Act:
    (2) For the purposes of this section, a person publishes or utters blasphemous matter if—

    (a) he or she publishes or utters matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion, and

    (b) he or she intends, by the publication or utterance of the matter concerned, to cause such outrage.


This discussion has been closed.
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