Screw Yahoo and You Tube. They´ve been showing lately that they only care about freedom if it costs them nothing and requires no courage.

Posted by: traeh at March 27, 2008 6:34 AM

Hate to emphasize the negative, but I was just thinking of last year's complaint from third world governments and the OIC...that the internet needed UN "control" because it's currently being used as a tool of "Western cultural imperialism". Of course, this is the code-word used to mask the REAL reason these groups fear and hate the net: The existing freedom that allows for the exposition of the practices of those regimes and cultures that suppress human freedom and dignity.

Robert always qualifies his references to the freedom existing on the internet by saying "for now"...and he's very far-sighted to do so. Anyone who believes that these wild-West, no-holds-barred days of the net will continue indefinitely is being naive. We're already seeing insidious attempts to censor political content. Some day (maybe sooner than later), the first decades of the internet may be looked back upon as the "golden age" of intellectual freedom on planet earth.

Posted by: Cornelius at March 27, 2008 7:14 AM

Cornelius, you could be right, but I suspect not. At any rate, the long term trend of technological development the last few decades has made it tougher and tougher for dictators to control information. That seems to be because the communication and info-storage technologies available to the individual become more and more powerful and cheaper and cheaper. But that has grave implications for terrorist use of WMD. And when the first major WMD incident happens, perhaps through bioterror or bioerror, and a million or so die, there´s no telling what will result. Surely a whole hell of a lot more surveillance in all areas of our lives. What that would mean for internet freedom?

Posted by: traeh at March 27, 2008 7:34 AM

This is very rich. Yahoo itself is often on anti-spam lists because it does very little to stop people from using its mail system to send spam.

Posted by: Jerry M at March 27, 2008 8:18 AM

Silence = Death

The ends do not justify the means. The tactics used by the jihad demonstrate a lack of valid ideas. They are both morally and intellectually bankrupt.

Posted by: tanstaafl at March 27, 2008 8:40 AM

Maybe it was the Canadian Human Rights Commission employees trying a new tactic. Maybe "Jadewarr" wants to bring Jihad Watch before the commission in order to close it down.

And yes, I am joking because the CHRC has become truly laughable as is this misplaced, and totally transparent tactic.

Posted by: OolongChung at March 27, 2008 9:15 AM

Is anyone else concerned about the number of IT professionals that come to the united states from countries with large islamic populations, many under the H1-B visa program? I wonder how much of these problems with Internet communications censorship is caused and aided and abetted by muslim insiders at Network Solutions, Yahoo, and other infrastructure and services companies. I wonder if this could ever rise to the level of an Internet infrastructural, privacy, and information security risk.

Posted by: Tom at March 27, 2008 9:34 AM

Yes Tom, I am concerned about it, just as I'm concerned about the large numbers of muslims from around the world in our universities and moving into professional and governmental jobs.

Back in the early 1990's when I was a student at the Tampa USF campus I had no clue what Islam was or what a Muslim was. But what I did know was that many of the employees in the library seemed to be from Pakistan or Syria or some other such country. Why I wondered were there so many?

Then a few years later came the fiasco with Sami Al Arian and it all began to fall into place.

Five years ago I'd never seen a woman wearing a hijab, except perhaps sitting in a passing Mercedes.

Now I see them daily. Five or six years ago there were no local issues with Muslims. Now, nearly every day in the newspaper there is some local muslim issue or complaint that requires concessions. Mosques are going up. What is it going to be like 10 years from now.

The more muslims take places in our local government, the easier it will be for them to get what they want, at our expense.

I don't want to live in an Islamic society. If Muslims want to they are welcome to do so--in another country. Not here.

We fought communism. We should fight Islamism. The first step perhaps is bringing down CAIR.

Posted by: cumulusnine at March 27, 2008 10:00 AM

Cornelius, traeh, All,

The truth is that the "cat is out of the bag", with newer hightech stuff, the days of efforts to control it, be it dictators or even organizations such as the UN or the OIC are coming to a close. The speed of high development outpaces any efforts to control it.

Posted by: bigcatgirl13106 at March 27, 2008 10:05 AM

Let's not make too much out of this. I believe it's simply Yahoo's automated spam blocking mechanism at work.

A server of mine distributes an email list (like the Daily Digest) to subscribers. In the send logs I see messages like this (Remote_host is Yahoo):

Remote_host_said:_421_4.7.0_[TS02]_Messages_from_256.296.311.457_temporarily_deferred_due_to_user_complaints_-_4.16.56.1;_see_http://postmaster.yahoo.com/421-ts02.html/

Now, this email list is for a local community group and has only a few opt-in subscribers. None of them would complain to Yahoo about the messages, which are infrequent.

Therefore, I conclude this is a generic message from Yahoo's email server when it thinks the message is spam. It simply responds with a deferral code, asking that the sender try again later. The assumption is that many spam bots will only try once to send a message, but a legitimate sender will keep trying. This can delay message delivery for at least several hours.

If this is what's happening, all the messages will eventually be delivered.

Posted by: saturnine at March 27, 2008 10:27 AM

Is the subscription really opt-in? I mean could one request a subscription be sent to any address one wishes? If so, it maybe that antijihadists are using your subscription service to send a message to a person anonymously. Perhaps the first message should request permission to continue the service.

Posted by: Abrog8 at March 27, 2008 10:37 AM

Another examples that Muslims are closet (and sometime not so closeted) fascists.

Fight the good fight, start calling Yahoo to complain.

Posted by: James Martel at March 27, 2008 12:28 PM

Bigcatgirl,

Imagine a future when web-sites like JW will have their domain names revoked and thus be consigned to oblivion because Muslim sensibilities were injured. Just last year there was a major play by Europe and the UN to wrest control of the internet away from the American corporation that registers domain names...it caused an uproar and the effort was abandoned, but this was just the first salvo in a long war. One can imagine a future Liberal Democrat in the Whitehouse deciding it somehow suits our interests to surrender such control.

Traeh,

It's possible that WMD technology will someday be so accessible that anyone with a grievance can blackmail society...and you're right, if that day comes, the most likely way the government will combat it will be through an Orwellian imposition.

Posted by: Cornelius at March 27, 2008 1:15 PM

Robert, you might be surprised but at the same time Yahoo is publishing news from Islamic blogs.

I posted about it on my website. I also took a liberty of slightly altering Yahoo's logo in accordance with this event, and I thought this alteration would suit what you reported, so if you're interested I'll be happy to contribute.:)

My email is worldivided@gmail.com

Posted by: VadimM at March 27, 2008 1:21 PM

hmmm- this would explain why I did not get my usual email from Jihadwatch but I usually type in the web site on my own. My worry is the next step is to get him off the internet period. I wish he had put up a link so those of us who support jihad watch can flood yahoo with emails. I know we outnumber them, pro jihadist and extreme liberals.

Posted by: eaglecap at March 27, 2008 3:26 PM

As history has demonstrated, if the American populous is prevented from exercising its freedom of speech, it will soon thereafter express itself with pitchforks. The 2nd Amendment exists because the 2nd Amendment exists. 52 million American households own 260 million firearms. And those are only the ones that are lawfully registered.

Posted by: SaracensAtTheGates at March 27, 2008 4:29 PM

Yahoo has for years been notoriously pro-Islamic jihadist and against those who "disrobe" the "religion" of Islam, showing it in all its ugly ideological-political nakedness.

Whether this is because of Saudi and UAE investment, Moslems in censorship positions, or admirers of Moslems in positions of authority is as yet undetermined.

Yahoo does not stand alone in this discrimination. MSN is not far behind, as for AOL--forget about it!

Not out of step in a nation whose academia, press, and government has been subverted by Islamic money and misplaced political correctness, multiculturalism, sensitivity to Moslems, fear of Moslems, etc.

Posted by: unicorns62000 at March 27, 2008 7:16 PM

My sentiments, exactly, “traeh”… Yahoo and others have no principles; hell, they handed over user’s accounts to the Red Chinese officials.
Frankly, Yahoo and others only give a toss about the purveyors of terror, gutlessly fearing the consequences if they do not. They and their spineless counterparts within the media are one of the same: they’d sell their souls for a buck or two or not to get their noses bloodied.

Posted by: ballzack at March 28, 2008 9:49 AM