Foul Called On MySpace Censorship

 
By Sherri November 09, 2006



The original founder of MySpace has his guns locked and loaded on what he calls the site's "anti-competitive behavior," and is so willing to back up his claims, he's taking News Corp, the new owner, to court.

Brad Greenspan recently filed suit with the Federal District Court in Los Angeles, alleging that MySpace's refusal to allow users to type in the names of competitors on pages breaks antitrust laws by censoring.

LiveUniverse, Greenspan's new company, is the owner of such networking sites as Stickam.com and Vidilife.com.

According to a report in The Age, Greenspan is saying that "any attempts by users to type the url of sites like 'stickam.com' or 'vidilife.com' into a [MySpace] blog or profile [are replaced] with '......' ".

He also says that MySpace used to block sites like YouTube and Revver, too, but stopped because users complained.

"When we started Myspace in 2003, we empowered users by giving them full control over their profile pages," Greenspan said.

"News Corp's moves to destroy and limit the freedom MySpace users have enjoyed is analogous to the strategies a dictator would employ after seizing control of a previously free nation."

For its part, MySpace is saying it only blocks web site links for three reasons: "adult content, copyright infringement, and security risks."

This will no doubt be an interesting showdown. If News Corp is censoring for the sake of censoring out the competition then at the very least the site's name is wrong. TheirSpace maybe, but not MySpace.

However, I can't disagree with the company's decision to block links for the three stated reasons in light of the YouTube issues. But, why then is YouTube now allowed?

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