[Air-L] Does MySpace have a drug-talk policy?

[Monica Barratt]

Thanks danah and joana for your thoughts on this.

It is interesting to get some feedback from other parts of the world.
The online forums I have been looking at (mainly Australian) also have
the same legal terms in their agreements relating to illegal
activities. However I've noticed specific references to 'drug talk',
especially in the case of 'rave' forums. I've also found these forums
tend to be less tolerant of newcomer researchers; I guess, less open,
more suspicious. This makes sense, given that in Australia at least,
these are the groups that are more likely to be targeted by
sensationalist media stories, which represent them as 'all about
drugs', a claim which they don't appreciate. This has happened on a
handful of occasions whilst I've been conducting this project.

Australia also has a history of legal/police action based on forum
postings, leading to arrests. These sorts of stories have become
something of a folk legend at some of the forums. These incidents, or
fear of these, have been another reason why drug talk tends to get a
special mention in forum 'rules'. The 'Someone Who Isn't Me' SWIM
technique of talking in third person about a drug experience is not
often used in the forums I read; something that is common practice
(and encouraged) in drug-focused forums more internationally.

I'm doing online interviews with forum users and moderators, so will
continue to learn more about this as I progress.

Monica

Monica Barratt
PhD Student
National Drug Research Institute (Melbourne, AU)
+61 407 778 938
http://db.ndri.curtin.edu.au/staff.asp?persid=650
http://www.ndri.curtin.edu.au/drugsonforums/
Monica



On 11/03/2008, danah boyd <aoir.z3z at danah.org> wrote:

>  This approach is pretty much the industry standard in the U.S.  They
>  have the right to remove anything that advocates illegal activities.
>  At the same time, the industry norm is also to ignore most
>  conversations concerning drugs (especially those questioning the logic
>  behind the legal statutes and other policy-related debates).  The only
>  time that I've seen a company act on its policy wrt drugs is when
>  dealers have set up pages or when people are talking about how to buy
>  drugs.  When it comes to these things though, there's another policy
>  that's typically invoked: no right to commercial activity.  In general
>  though, free speech has typically trumped in this space, but the
>  companies do try to protect themselves.  That said, most community
>  managers have the attitude of "if you're so stupid as to talk about
>  that in a public place, go ahead and do it... it's not us that'll be
>  down your neck, but those whose punishments are much more severe."  I
>  have no doubt that companies have been subpoenaed for data concerning
>  drug-related posts by users.


On 11/03/2008, joana ro <joanaro at googlemail.com> wrote:
>  I couldnt find any rules specifically relating to drug use, it seems
>  they cover that all under one data-saving umbrella.
>