I Speak of Dreams

Facebook Participating In Censorship of Science and Rational Thought. Again.

Update 12:54 pm, January 10, 2014. Facebook rescinded the ban of AntiVaccine Wall of Shame. Thank you Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/groups/AVWOS/ Allison Hagood's account has been unbanned.

Update 3:12 pm January 10, 2014.  All of the administrators of AVWoS are still banned -- one for as long as 30 days. 

Update 3:55 pm January 10, 2014: While the page has been restored, the bans for all admins (24 hours for Michelle Saxl, 3 days for Lance Penna , 3 days for Michael Simpson's account, 7 days for Allison Hagood, and THIRTY DAYS for Scott Ogle are still in effect.

Facebook still needs to fix that.

 

A new banning just took place. There’s a Facebook page called “The Antivaccine Wall of Shame” (AVWoS). It has been taken down. Allison Hagood (one of the co-authors of ‘Your Baby’s Best Shot) has had her personal account banned from Facebook for 7 days. Here the message that Allison received from Facebook, relative to AVWoS

“The group “Anti Vax Wall of Shame” has been removed because it violated our Terms of Use. Among other things, groups that are hateful, threatening, or obscene are not allowed. We also take down groups that attack an individual or group, or advertise a product or service. Continued misuse of Facebook’s features could result in your account being disabled.

Here is Allison’s reply to Facebook:

There is nothing hateful, threatening, or obscene about the group "Anti Vax Wall of Shame." The fact that you have removed this indicates that you have been receiving fraudulent reports from the anti-vaccine movement, who are on record as coordinating and planning massive campaigns of such fraudulent reports in an attempt to censor those of us who recognize established science in this area. Several stories have been written about these campaigns:

• http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/abusing-the-algorithm-using-facebook-reporting-to-censor-debate/
• http://reasonablehank.com/2013/12/31/meryl-dorey-and-her-anti-vaccine-organisation-abusing-facebooks-reporting-mechanism-with-spite/
• http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/facebooks-reporting-algorithm-abused-by-antivaccinationists-to-silence-pro-science-advocates/
• http://www.sabreakingnews.co.za/2014/01/02/anti-vaccine-group-abuses-facebooks-algorithm-to-censor-a-debate/
• http://www.danbuzzard.net/journal/anti-vaxxers-ramp-up-censorship-campaign.html
• http://za.news.yahoo.com/anti-vaccine-group-abuses-facebook-algorithm-censor-debate-123721143.html
• http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2014/01/02/antivaccinationists-abuse-reporting-algorithms-to-silence-pro-vaccine-skeptics-on-facebook/

By removing this group, and giving the administrators of this group bans, you are actively participating in the censorship of science and rational thought, and pandering to the perpetrators of censorship and fraud.

It is legitimate for Facebook to prevent harassment, and without context, the Anti-Vaccine Wall of Shame does look as if it might border on harassment.

Dorit Reiss (who wrote the Times of Israel piece, “Abusing the Algorithm: Using Facebook Reporting to Censor Debate") suggests the following be publicly explained to Facebook as context:

To understand the need for the Anti-vax Wall of Shame, and why it is not harassment, you need to understand two features of the fight against anti-vaccine misinformation. The first is that anti-vaccine sites censor debate. So if they encourage people not to vaccinate their children against polio or tetanus - leaving those children at risk - based on misinformation, you cannot correct that misinformation on the page: they will ban and block you. The second feature is that anti-vaccine activists, lacking facts on their side, regularly engage in personal attacks.

There is documentation of personal attacks by antivaccine advocates on Facebook, in the form of screenshots and a closed Facebook page that collects said attacks.  For example, the exchange below, which has both a personal attack on Allison Hagood and a suggestion that readers contact her employer to complain.   (I personally collected this one and have a large library of such attacks.)  

Dorit Reiss (who has also been attacked, sometimes with vile anti-Semitic slurs) goes on:

[Th]ose of us engaged in this debate regularly face personal abuse. (On Facebook and on websites outside of Facebook.) The Anti-Vax Wall of Shame (AVWoS) does two things in this context: it allows us to call out the behavior, both the misinformation and the abuse - to publicly criticize and point out the problems, alerting people to it. And it allows those engaged in this fight, facing constant abuse, to vent their frustrations and cry out. This enables them to keep fighting.

To prevent the critique from becoming harassment, AVWoS page rules require removal of names and pictures, except when discussing a public figure. This makes the critique not personal - and not harassment. Do individual commentators sometimes step over the line and into harassment? Possible. But that does not make the page a hate group or a focus of harassment. Its role does make it a target of anti-vaccine activists, unhappy with being criticized. But that is not a reason to remove it, and their unhappiness is not something Facebook should be a part of."

I am frustrated by Facebook's hair-trigger ban hammer, and how it can be sued to stifle approrpriate criticism and public discourse.  I don't have any answers.

Zooooommmmbies! Run! (or if it is too late, shamble)

It turns out that ScienceBlogs has declared today ZombieDay.

The idea appears to have originated with Scicurious (one of my favorite SciBloggers)

Well, the other day, Sci was talking to Pal. And we were talking about how many depressing things were going on in the world at large and didn't that suck. And then Pal said "yeah, I just want to think about Zombies". And Sci thought "that's so cool because zombies are AWESOME!" And then I recalled how I still go back and read SouthernFriedScientist's post on Vampires and zombies when I'm blue. And then we had an idea...

Joseph Hewitt obliged by making cool zombie avatars of the SciBloggers.

PalMD imagines Jenny McCarthy's advice to zombies. PZ Myers has a list of all the zombie posts.

In a non SciBlog post, Dan Drezner's been talking about foreign policy and zombies since last summer and carries on recently.

Maria Davis, Adriel Johnson, Gopi Podila

My deepest and most heart-felt sympathies for everyone who has been affected by this awful, incomprehensible action.

The University of Alabama at Huntsville shootings have been much on my mind. I picture the scene and cannot imagine the shock and horror as a routine faculty meeting -- often rather boring -- turned into carnage.

The dead are Maria Ragland Davis,Phd, Adriel Johnson, PhD, and Gopi Podila,PhD. Each link takes you to a memorial page at the Huntsville Times.

The wounded are Luis Cruz Vera, PhD, (Dr. Cruz Vera was released from the hospital on February 13th) Joseph G. Leahy, PhD (link takes you to blog of his recovery, maintained by family; Facebook page for support) and Stephanie Monticciolo, a departmental administrator.

Interviews with the non-wounded victims. Debra Moriarity, PhD, is credited with saving her colleagues. Blog-friend Abel Pharmboy has two posts on the shootings: UA Huntsville Dr. Amy Bishop holds active NIH R15 AREA award and Amy Bishop UAH case: What role should personality or collegiality play in tenure decisions?. He points to an interview with UAH psychology professor Eric Seemann Margaret Soltan at University Diaries is covering the shooting and its aftermath.

Phoenix Police Raid Blogger's Home

In April, 2008, an anonymous blogger started a website, Bad Phoenix Cops, and a companion blog,  Bad Phoenix Cops:

We intend to share all the ineptitude and lies within the Phoenix Police Department under Chief Jack Harris and his management team.

This is where you will able to post messages and read the posts of citizens and even fellow Phoenix PD.

It was eventually revealed that the blog owner was Jeff Pataky.  After Pataky filed a suit against the PD,  the Phoenix PD raided the blogger's house while he was away, handcuffing a guest who was there, and removing files and computer equipment. Pataky said,

"They took everything," said Pataky, 41, a Phoenix software consultant. "They even took my personal photos and iTunes music. Since when does a citizen's home get raided for something like this?"

According to the search warrant issued on Mar. 9 by Maricopa County Judge Gary E. Donahue, there was probable cause to support that Pataky allegedly committed the following public offenses:

- "computer tampering, a class 5 felony"

- "theft, controls property of another knowing or having reason to know that the property was stolen, a class 1 misdemeanor."

Phoenix Assistant Chief Andy Anderson said the harassment case [against Pataky] is unique because of the connection to an unaccredited grassroots Web site. He said the blog is one part of the case, though he did not provide specifics of the ongoing investigation.

"This isn't about the blog," Anderson said. "That's just where the investigation led."

Arrrgh PIRATES! I almost forgot, matey!

It's National Talk Like a Pirate Day.   I like what I said in 2004:

A Great Cure for Dyslexia

See if pirates ruled the world, we'd only need one letter.

See all the images for "If Pirates Ruled the World" at Worth 1000

It wouldn't take long to learn how to type, either.

Cory, who wishes he were a pirate told me about it.

A Plot Too Far-Fetched for the Movies: Woman Who Paid for Dog's Cloning May Be Sex-Assault Fugitive

via Boing-Boing:   Bernann McKinney sold her home to pay  a South Korean firm $48,000 to clone her beloved, but dead pitbull.  A bit obessional, yes?

Well, Ms. McKinney may have had a previous obsession: Kirk Anderson.  They were fellow-students at Brigham Young University in the mid-1970s, and McKinney persuaded Anderson to have sex.  Anderson, a devout Mormon, consulted his bishop, and left Utah for a mission to England.

In 1977, McKinney followed Anderson to England, and imprisoned him for several days. Anderson eventually escaped, and McKinney was arrested.  Eventually, she broke bail, slipped out of England, returned to the U.S.,  and lived quietly.

Until now.

You can't make this stuff up.

The Telegraph on the cloning

The Daily Mail on the 1970s sex scandal and cloning.

The Times Online on Ms. McKinney's life from 1978 until now.

Beyond Appalling and Disgusting: The Thug John Best, jr

Update: February 2010. Best's blog has been put behind a warning label by Blogger.

November 23, 2013: Edited to add: this is in reference to Kev Leitch shutting down his blog, LeftBrainRightBrain in October 2007, because of threatening behavior by John Best

I received a comment (see below) from a person whose email seems to be fraudulent. I'm posting the comment here, up front. My points are

flush left in roman

and "[email protected]"'s comments are

indented and in italics

My response

Thanks for taking the time to comment. I'll take your points one by one.

I don't understand all the hate towards John Best.

Perhaps you didn't notice that the post you commented on was from 2007. At that time, Mr. Leitch, whose daughter also has autism, was at that time 7 years old, non-verbal, and had several problematic behaviors. In other words, she had "severe autism".

Mr. Best, in the months leading up to the post:

• Appeared at autism conferences using a nametag with Mr. Leitch's daughter's real name
• Encouraged others to mock Mr. Leitch's daughter
• Wrote blog posts purporting to be written by Mr. Leitch's daughter
• Made internet appeals for funds for treatment for Mr. Leitch's daughter, the funds to be sent to Mr. Best's home address.

Sources for the above assertions:

• http://leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/2006/10/too-far-attacks-on-autistic-peopl
• http://onedadsopinion.blogspot.com/2007/10/hate-is-unmistakeable.html
• http://thefamilyvoyage.blogspot.com/2007/10/loving-will-prevail.html
• http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2007/10/the_mercury_militia_silences_a_voice_of.php

In Mr. Leitch's own words in the fall of 2006

John Best at AWARES

John has developed what seems to be an unhealthy interest in my daughter. I find it incredibly disturbing. More so than I can possibly convey in writing. I don’t give a stuff if he or his crowd insult me personally, I’m a big boy – but time after time he has seen fit to abuse my daughter. Who can forget his charming comparison of my daughter to a trained monkey:

"My wife bought too many bananas so I;ll send some for your daughter"

which came about as a result of me detailing her progress (the crime being of course that she’s progressing without chelation/ALA/megadose vitamins or HBOT).

Well now he’s stooped even lower. This year's AWARES conference is well under way. John has apparently changed his stance from last year where he stated that AWARES was a made up conference solely to trap him (John has a little problem with ego and reality) and decided to attend again this year.

This time though he joined up with the username ‘Megan Leitch’ and made numerous posts abusing autistic members of the conference and pushing chelation as the only cure. When I was made aware of this, I contacted the conference administrator and after satisfying himself that what I was saying was true, he deleted all posts from that user and deleted the account.

What sort of utter coward assumes the identity of a six year old autistic girl? I am in two minds at whether to follow up on this legally. I’m not sure what constitutes identity theft in a legal sense but I intend to find out. But of course this goes far beyond identify theft. To anyone with an ounce of morality, posting in the name of a child to further your own agenda is so tasteless that I don’t think there are adjectives to describe this particular act. Assuming the identity of an autistic child because you don’t like the child’s father or what he has to say is…..disturbing….

In the fall of 2007, Mr. Best upped his attacks on Mr. Leitch, using the voice of Mr. Leitch's daughter. As a consequence of these actions, Mr. Leitch felt he must close down his blog.

Mr. Best's intemperate comments were well-known before the Leitch affair. A father of an autistic child collated some of Mr. Best's more objectionable statements here. I think you might want to read through the sections, here:

http://autismnaturalvariation.blogspot.com/2006/03/john-bests-greatest-hits.html

The man has a severly autsitic son you heartless thugs.

I'd like to point out that of the folk repudiating Mr. Best's behavior on the blog post above, five have children who are "severely autistic": nonverbal or minimally verbal, some who still struggle with toilet training, some with self-injurious behaviors.

Yet, you hipocrites call him a thug?

Of those five bloggers (and others who blog) who have children severely affected by autism, none have threatened another blogger, or impersonated or mocked other children on their blogs.

Mr. Best's behavior was beyond the bounds of civilized behavior.

He's the one targeted and abused by you all.

No, you are mistaken. No one would pay attention to John Best (or Foresam) if he did not repeatedly show up in blog comments using vile language and threatening others with harm.

Hey, man up or woman up whatever. This is USA, not North Korea folks, if you don't like what he says, defend your position or don't listen to him

I think that is exactly what the bloggers listed in this post in 2007, 2.5 years ago, and have continued to do.

but to go on a campaign to destroy his freedom of speech

How is remonstrating with Mr. Best for his uncivilized, reprehensible behavior a "campaign to destroy his freedom of speech"? No one organized a campaign to have his blog (hate-spewing though it is) shut down.

However, I think you might be referring not to this post from 2007, but the current situation.

Best uses Blogger as his blogging platform. Earlier this week, Blogger briefly shut Best's blog down. It is back up, but now comes with a content warning.

https://www.blogger.com/blogin.g?blogspotURL=http%3A%2F%2Fhatingautism.blogspot.com%2F

I had nothing to do with Blogger's decision to first shut down, and then re-install with a content warning.

says more about you than I cared to really believe. Now I will spread the word to all other parents of autistic children about how abusive and cowardly you people are for going after John Best.

That is your perfect right. But again, I'd like to point out, if you are going to "spread the word to all other parents of autistic children" -- many of those parents, those who blog and don't agree with Best that chelation is the only way to "recover" children with autism -- are well aware of Best's heinous behavior.

You owe th is man an apology. He's obviously under a lot of stress.

If any apologies are owed, it isn't to Best

People are aggressive when they are under stress and feel hopeless.

Many of the autism parents that Best has verbally assaulted and abused are in the same boat as Best, but somehow they have had the integrity and dignity to refrain from verbal assaults and abuse. Some of Mr. Best's "stress" is self-imposed.

Update: Best's behavior constitutes cyberbullying.

I have an internet friend I've never met in real life, Kevin Leitch.  I know he is a real person, through a number of sources.  Until this weekend, he wrote the excellent blog Left Brain / Right Brain.  He is closing it because a moral midget named John Best is harassing his daughter, who has autism.

The reason LB/RB is shutting is because I cannot continue to allow my beautiful eldest girl to be exposed to the hatred and bullying she is recieving from John Best. John has seen fit to compare my beautiful child to a trained monkey because he didn't like the fact she was progressing. He has made numerous jokes at her expense on that theme. He has assumed her identity online. He has encouraged others to do the same.

John Best also appears as "Fore Sam" in blog comments.

I will miss Kev's commentary and especially his wonderful videos of his daughter.

More expressions of regret from:

• Kristina Chew
• Skeptico
• Estee Klar-Wolfond
• Joseph of Natural Variations
• Orac of Respectful Insolence
• The Bronze Blog
• The Voyage
• Living Healthy Centre (UK)
• One Dad's Opinion
• Odd Time Signatures (Karoli's even more irate than I am)
• Club 166's tribute to Kev

If you'd like to see a sample of what passes for Best's thinking, Joseph of Natural Variations compiled a  list of "John Best's Greatest Hits", back in March 2006.

Serial Mirage of Love and Identity: Prince Caraboo by Proxy

Josh Olsen has a long story in the LA Weekly (October 10 2007) about his friend "Audrey" who fell in love with....a phantom.  Literally.  Audrey's true love, the deeply manly "Jesse",  was entirely fabricated by a woman named Janna St. James.

I love this line by Olsen:

“You shouldn’t judge,” says Tania.

I beg to differ. This is why we have judgment.

Audrey is rescued from delusion by her friends, including Harlan Ellison (Boing Boing showed the way).  But I think Josh is correct -- Janna will find another...victim.

It's That Time of Year: Deer Gores Man to Death

Deer kills Ball Ground man | ajc.com.

John Henry Frix raised red deer.  He went into a pen with a buck, and was later found dead, with evidence that the deer had gored him several times.

My condolences to Mr. Frix's friends and family.

Identity and Heinous Behavior

Pathological behavior online.

There are two examples currently: l'affaire MeanKids/UncleBobism, and Eliot Stein, the person pretending to be the late Cathy Seipp.

In both cases, persons have assumed the identities of others, and have used those identities to say hurtful, heinous things.