We previously reported how the San Francisco Bay Area Indymedia collective (Indybay.org) routinely censors pro-Israel commentary while welcoming the most blatant pro-Palestinian material. Indybay’s exercise of editorial control makes it 100 percent responsible for the content of its forums–a principle we used during the latest election season to disgrace MoveOn.org and force it to take its Action Forum offline–and now Indybay is suffering the natural consequences of its actions.

Indybay just posted a plea for $4000 to keep it online, a plea that is apparently going unanswered–and rightly so.

UNLESS INDYBAY RAISES $4000 in 30 days we cannot afford our web hosting and the site will go off the air.

This is serious! We are an all-volunteer collective and our costs are miniscule in comparison with the service that the website provides to the Bay Area, Santa Cruz, and Northern California activist communities.

The reason that Indybay is not getting the necessary donations probably has something to do with its very selective support of key progressive causes like gay rights (starting with the basic right to live, as opposed to issues like gay marriage), women’s rights, and religious freedom. We used Indybay’s own censorship to prove unequivocally that its support for gay rights and women’s rights ends where the militant “Islamic” world begins. As an example,

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/03/19/18088801.php

HIDDEN
The following post may have been a test post, a duplicate, or could have been hidden if it violated this sites Points of Unity. If you dont think this item should have been hidden first make sure it wasnt posted twice and you were just unable to find the other copy of the post. If that wasnt the case you can contact the editorial collective by emailing sfbay-web@lists.indymedia.org

The Plight of Gays and Lesbians in the Middle East
by Bill Levinson ( kitchener “at” omdurman.org ) Sunday Mar 19th, 2006 10:54 AM

Oppression, physical violence, and even murder of gay people is very common in Middle Eastern countries with violently homophobic cultures. Unfortunately, gay organizations like QUIT (Queers Undermining Israeli “Terrorism”) and Boycott World Pride are so eager to attack Israel at any price that they are actually working for the brutalization and oppression of gays, lesbians, and bisexuals.

The hidden article continued with information about how the Palestinian Authority abuses and even kills gay people because of their sexual orientation. It is easy to see why the LGBT community finds Indybay as repulsive and disgusting as the individuals who are actually throwing gay people into raw sewage; if you cover for them and whitewash them, you’re morally an accessory to their actions.

Furthermore, Indybay’s considers it quite acceptable to torture a female journalist to death (and rape her a few times in the process), as long as you are a militant “Islamic” Iranian. It’s hardly surprising that women, and all decent men, find Indybay’s hiding of the following so repugnant that they will not give this organization one single penny.

The following post has status hidden:

The Execution of Zahra Kazemi, Canadian Photojournalist

by Bill Levinson Thursday, Mar. 30, 2006 at 10:06 AM

Thematic category: human rights and women’s rights. This article describes how Zahra Kazemi, a Canadian photojournalist, was tortured to death by the Iranian regime.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/03/31/Dr.Azam050331.html for full article: exerpts appear below.

Canadian tortured for days, says Iranian doctor, reports:
“The massive injuries suffered by Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi while in Iranian custody were so disturbing to the doctor who examined her that he felt compelled to flee the country to expose what happened.”

Azam listed the injuries he discovered on Kazemi:

* A broken nose.
* A large bruise on the right side of her forehead extending to the side of her head.
* A bloody lump on the back of her head.

* Evidence of internal bleeding of the brain.
* A ruptured left ear drum.
* Deep, long scratches on the back of her neck and calves.
* Evidence of broken ribs.
* Bruises on her abdomen and on her knees.
* Evidence of flogging on her back.
* Broken fingers and nails missing.
* A smashed toe.
* Bruised and swollen feet, possibly the result of a flogging.

As a male doctor, he was not allowed to examine the woman’s genital area but a female nurse testified to evidence of brutal and violent rape.

These are but two examples of postings that were hidden by the Indybay collective, in direct contrevention of its own posted terms of service and Points of Unity. It is also alleged by other Indybay users that Indybay’s moderators collected IP addresses, again contrary to the site’s privacy statement.

Here is what SF Bay Area IMC says:

“The SF Bay Area IMC web server does not normally track the domains or IP addresses from which people visit and/or post to the SF Bay Area Indymedia web site.”

Here is what SF Bay Area IMC apparently does:

IP’s

by brigg Wednesday, Jul. 24, 2002 at 6:19 PM

Oh, no. I know the truth. That’s not the issue. You said “We dont store ips”, which I never even mentioned anything about “storing”. Your statement says that “The SF-IMC web server does not track the domains or IP addresses from which people visit and/or post…”, which is what you did, you “tracked” them down. You might want to revisit your “privacy policy”. Hey, it’s your show. Maybe you’d rather clarify as you go along.

It speaks for itself, and here is the bottom line:

(1) Contrary to its stated editorial policies, Indybay.org hides articles that stand up for women, gays, and religious minorities because the articles criticize Islamofascists.

(2) Again contrary to its stated editorial policies, Indybay.org does not hide comments like “Hitler did not succeed in killing enough of you Jews but our struggle will finally succeed in ridding the world of this evil menace!” and that refer to racial and ethnic minorities as “niggers.”

(3) The posting of an IP address by someone who appears to be an Indybay.org moderator suggests that Indybay has lied to its own constituents regarding its privacy policy.

Now Indybay.org is suffering the natural consequences of its double standards, censorship, and toleration of anti-Semitic and racist hate speech, and no tears will be shed. We do, however, wish to recognize Indybay.org’s role in our development of a strategy (citing the enemy’s misuse of editorial control over his online forums) that was quickly turned against MoveOn.org half a year later. These tactics were sufficiently effective to disgrace MoveOn.org across the nation while forcing it to disable its Action Forum–which has not yet been brought back online and probably never will.

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