BLOGGERS TERRORIZING BLOGGERS: A PUBLIC SERVICE WARNING FROM OCTOPUS

Recently, AlterNet writer oleoleolson uncovered a right wing scheme to game a popular social media site and suppress content submitted by liberal contributors, story here.  Digg is not the only target of the so-called culture warriors.  There is a pervasive and pernicious pattern of harassment and censorship in other corners of cyberspace.   In case you have not followed events in our 'extended' communities, our own Shaw Kenawe, from Progressive Eruptions, and Pamela Hart, a conservative blogger from The Oracular Opinion, have joined forces to expose a number of cyber scams and shams. You can read Pamela’s post here and Shaw’s post here.

For years, I have tried to encourage a cooperative and mutually respectful bipartisanship, and I am gratified that Pamela and Shaw have joined forces in this venture. However, I am also appalled at what our investigators have uncovered: Fraud, Identity Theft, Plagiarism, MALware attached to hotlinks, and other acts of cyber-mischief bordering on criminal behavior.

Within days after Pamela and Shaw exposed these scams, twenty-seven (27) of the most virulent right wing sites ceased operations or went underground. Within days, a mysterious avatar called Fearthedragon appeared on the followers lists of everyone in our community. Warning: Fearthedragon contains Malware links. Do not open!  If you find a mysterious and unwelcome avatar on your followers list, go to your Google Reader and block using the trashcan icon. For more tips on how to protect your weblogs, please read the comment threads under Pamela’s and Shaw’s posts.

From the beginning, the blogosphere has been a free and open medium ripe for abuse. Sooner or later, malicious persons would inevitably hide behind cloaks of anonymity and violate community standards with impunity. Most of this activity is the work of partisan extremists, either self-appointed freelancers or organized Psy-Ops cells. Their mission and purpose is to harass and demoralize liberal bloggers, sabotage discussion forums, and interrupt the free and democratic exchange of ideas and viewpoints.

Surveillance seems to be another motive. Yesterday, one of my blogging colleagues, a prominent and highly visible progressive voice in cyberspace, reported a breach of privacy.  A right wing troll entered his business email account and website.   Why?  Perhaps to find dirt, to discredit him; or perhaps a far more sinister motive.

For years, far right wing bloggers have pushed standards of civility and decorum further into the wasteland … invoking free speech rights to mask improper conduct while hiding, assassin-like, behind anonymous monikers.  Now, it seems, they have crossed another threshold.  Abusive trolls and cyber-thugs have turned criminal.  Let us NOT be naïve.  Rabid right wingers have declared cyber-war against all opposing viewpoints … including liberals, centrists, and moderate conservatives.  Bloggers beware!

HOW CORPORATE AMERICA ENABLES SCAMS, SPAM AND CYBER-CRIME

Love has pitched his mansion in

The place of excrement;

For nothing can be sole or whole

That has not been rent.

- William Butler Yeats -

Your ubiquitous (O)CT(O)PUS is no prude, but I get annoyed when breast and penis enlargement spam invades my e-mail box. Why spam when spammers know nothing about me, least of all my gender, proclivities, or species?

Neither this nor that, I am not a transgender, cross-dressing cephalopod in need of both. I have no interest in privileging one appendage over another and no innate need to preen or primp myself in gaudiness to facilitate naughtiness. In this or that, it seems, human beings are more akin to birds.

Perhaps followers of this forum have noticed: Spam is no longer delivered via e-mail but posted in the comment threads of popular blogs. The logic is simple: Why spam a single reader when you can reach a wider audience; for instance, a forum followed by hundreds or thousands of readers; and spammers have learned to customize their message with charm and inventiveness.

Recently, for instance, I posted this article, A Preoccupation with Rubber Ducks. Last week, one enterprising spammer raised the ante duck for duck and left this comment beneath my post:

While most birds are phallus-free, ducks are oddly endowed - up to 8 inches. Using high-speed video they found that ducks could go from zero to happy in less than half a second … That endowment should give the males an advantage during forced mating but these [editorial note: I eliminated the embedded url address that originally appeared here] free males aren't out of the woods yet … Why Yale decided to study duck penises in the first place I will never know.

The embedded url address links you to an online pharmacy that trades in generic versions of Viagra™, Cialis™, and Levitra™, among other prescription medications. Online pharmacies are illegal in the United States for good reasons.

Generic drugs manufactured offshore violate patents and trademarks, and consumers should be especially wary when purchasing drugs of dubious origin and quality. Furthermore, consumers should never self-administer any prescription drug, especially antibiotics and cardio-vascular drugs, without medical supervision.

Curiously, GeoTrust and McAfee have certified this obviously illegal enterprise as a secure e-commerce site. Furthermore, the horny duck accepts payment from American Express, Diners Club, Visa, MasterCard, and Western Union. American corporations, it seems, employ a double standard. They will litigate any infringements of their own rights yet sell anything to anyone for any purpose with impunity. These days, to make a buck is the most sublime of all virtues ... trumping laws, ethics, even hypocrisy. (O)CT(O)PUS intends to name them and shame them until they clean up their act.