Game Over For Cronulla Monopoly
Lobby groups have allegedly achieved what the Australian Federal Government couldn't, by having a downloadable board game based on the Cronulla riots removed from the internet. "The page you are attempting to access has been removed because it violated Angelfire's Terms of Service," reads an error notice that users are shown when attempting to access the game online. Angelfire is a US web hosting company and is part of the Lycos network. The Cronulla 2230 game was hosted on a free account registered with Angelfire. By signing up to create a free account with Angelfire, users agree not to "upload, post, email, otherwise transmit, or post links to any Content ... that is ... hateful, or racially, sexually, ethnically or otherwise objectionable".
Cronulla 2230, which incites players to "Win Back Australia!" and includes slogans such as "We grew here! You flew here", is in violation of this term of service. Anti-racism group FightDemBack! (FDB), which monitors the activities of racists, fascists and other such offenders operating in Australia and New Zealand, has taken responsibility for having the game removed from the internet. "FDB have successfully applied to free web hosting service Angelfire/Lycos to have ... 'Cronulla 2230' ... removed," the group said today in a statement. But one of the group's founding members, Brian Stokes, admitted to smh.com.au in a telephone interview that he wasn't completely certain that it was FDB's complaint, not a complaint from another party, that prompted Angelfire to remove the game. "The website was pulled offline just a few hours after we launched a complaint on it," Stokes said. Yesterday the Federal Government said it was examining ways to ban the game, but the progress it made was questionable because of complicated laws regulating internet content and overlapping jurisdictions of the bodies tasked with stamping out racist content. While the game is now offline, there's no certainty that it's gone for good, as there are numerous other web hosting companies similar to Angelfire, such as Yahoo's Geocities, that enable users to anonymously create websites for free. FDB will continue to monitor the issue, but the group is not worried as "most other [free web hosting] outfits ... have objectionable content limitations" in their terms of service.
Cronulla 2230, which incites players to "Win Back Australia!" and includes slogans such as "We grew here! You flew here", is in violation of this term of service. Anti-racism group FightDemBack! (FDB), which monitors the activities of racists, fascists and other such offenders operating in Australia and New Zealand, has taken responsibility for having the game removed from the internet. "FDB have successfully applied to free web hosting service Angelfire/Lycos to have ... 'Cronulla 2230' ... removed," the group said today in a statement. But one of the group's founding members, Brian Stokes, admitted to smh.com.au in a telephone interview that he wasn't completely certain that it was FDB's complaint, not a complaint from another party, that prompted Angelfire to remove the game. "The website was pulled offline just a few hours after we launched a complaint on it," Stokes said. Yesterday the Federal Government said it was examining ways to ban the game, but the progress it made was questionable because of complicated laws regulating internet content and overlapping jurisdictions of the bodies tasked with stamping out racist content. While the game is now offline, there's no certainty that it's gone for good, as there are numerous other web hosting companies similar to Angelfire, such as Yahoo's Geocities, that enable users to anonymously create websites for free. FDB will continue to monitor the issue, but the group is not worried as "most other [free web hosting] outfits ... have objectionable content limitations" in their terms of service.
posted by CRUEL KEV. at Wednesday, October 18, 2006
<< Home