Murdoch's News Corp. Ends Automated Censorship of MySpace
{{date|January 10, 2006}}

In December 2005, MySpace members discovered that mentions and links to content hosted by rival video-swapping site [[w:YouTube|YouTube]] were disabled.  Debate concerning this issue was apparently even stifled on the site's message boards.  Regardless, member unrest grew, culminating in a campaign led by 600 MySpace members to boycott and relocate to rival sites such as [[w:Friendster|Friendster]], [[w:LinkedIn|LinkedIn (linkedin.com)]], [[w:Revver|Revver]], and [[w:Facebook|Facebook]].  Subsequently, MySpace reenabled the YouTube links and content in late December.  However, it appears that MySpace also closed down a blog forum where members were complaining about this issue.  {{wikipediapar|List of social networking sites}}

MySpace was also apparently banning [[w:Revver|Revver]], another video swapping site, but had relented as of early January.  To this, Revver co-founder Oliver Luckett responded, "References to his service were banned because MySpace saw it as competition".

Overall, the blocking of video stored on [[w:YouTube|YouTube]] and other sites or embedded in user profiles has led to accusations of censorship from MySpace members.  Chris DeWolfe, MySpace's chief executive denies any this, as well as any connection between recent events and the advent of MySpace's own video-sharing service, stating that blocking links or entire sites are sometimes necessary when MySpace investigates complaints of pornography or racism.

There has been concern among groups of bloggers operating out of MySpace that News Corp would monitor or censor their activities, ever since they purchased Intermix, then MySpace's parent company.  Ellis Yu told the [[w:Blog Herald|Blog Herald]] that "their CEO said nothing like that would happen. Well, now it has. MySpace was built on an open community and now they're trying to censor us, putting business interests above its members!"

{{haveyoursay}}
== Sources ==
{{Wikipediapar|MySpace}}
*{{source|url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,184607,00.html
 |title=Social Networking Site MySpace Is Latest Online Darling
 |author=
 |pub=FoxNews.com
 |date=February 13, 2006}}
*{{source|url=http://news.com.com/2061-10802_3-6025534.html
 |title=MySpace Reverses Course On Revver
 |author=Daniel Terdiman
 |pub=CNet News.com
 |date=January 10, 2006}}
*{{source|url=http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/09/1135209&tid=95&tid=153
 |title=MySpace Users Revolt Against Murdoch
 |author=
 |pub=Slashdot.org
 |date=January 9, 2006}}
*{{source|url=http://news.com.com/2061-10802_3-6024890.html
 |title=MySpace Banning Revver?
 |author=Daniel Terdiman
 |pub=CNet News.com
 |date=January 9, 2006}}
*{{source|url=http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article337149.ece
 |title=Get out of MySpace, bloggers rage at Murdoch
 |author=Nicholas Wapshott
 |pub=The Independent
 |date=January 8, 2006}}
*{{source|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/02/business/media/02myspace.html?oref=login
 |title=Lesson for Murdoch: Keep the Bloggers Happy
 |author=Julie Bosman
 |pub=New York Times
 |date=January 2, 2006}}
*{{source|url=http://www.blogherald.com/2005/12/22/myspace-users-angry-over-news-corp-censorship-of-youtube/
 |title=MySpace users angry over News Corp censorship of YouTube
 |author=
 |pub=The Blog Herald
 |date=December 22, 2005}}
*[http://groups.myspace.com/youtube1987 MySpace blog about YouTube censorship] ([http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://groups.myspace.com/youtube1987 Shut down by MySpace])

{{publish}}
{{archived}}

[[Category:YouTube]]
[[Category:MySpace]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:North America]]
[[Category:United States]]
[[Category:Free speech]]
[[Category:Pornography]]
In December 2005, MySpace members discovered that mentions and links to content hosted by rival video-swapping site YouTube were disabled.  Debate concerning this issue was apparently even stifled on the site's message boards.  Regardless, member unrest grew, culminating in a campaign led by 600 MySpace members to boycott and relocate to rival sites such as Friendster, LinkedIn (linkedin.com), Revver, and Facebook.  Subsequently, MySpace reenabled the YouTube links and content in late December.  However, it appears that MySpace also closed down a blog forum where members were complaining about this issue.  

MySpace was also apparently banning Revver, another video swapping site, but had relented as of early January.  To this, Revver co-founder Oliver Luckett responded, "References to his service were banned because MySpace saw it as competition".

Overall, the blocking of video stored on YouTube and other sites or embedded in user profiles has led to accusations of censorship from MySpace members.  Chris DeWolfe, MySpace's chief executive denies any this, as well as any connection between recent events and the advent of MySpace's own video-sharing service, stating that blocking links or entire sites are sometimes necessary when MySpace investigates complaints of pornography or racism.

There has been concern among groups of bloggers operating out of MySpace that News Corp would monitor or censor their activities, ever since they purchased Intermix, then MySpace's parent company.  Ellis Yu told the Blog Herald that "their CEO said nothing like that would happen. Well, now it has. MySpace was built on an open community and now they're trying to censor us, putting business interests above its members!"
YouTube MySpace Internet North America United States Free speech Pornography