farla

Okay, remember ~~Strikethrough 07~~? Remember the question at the time of if they were stupid, and coincidentally happened to release the information during Memorial Day Weekend when fewer people would be on, or if it was some kind of clever plot?

Consider it confirmed that they are, in fact, smart. No way "oh hey guys by the way, when we said Harry Potter fanfic was okay, we meant until five minutes after the perm account sale closed LOL" coming on the Friday night before the books were released, after the leaked books had been read and spoilers were being circulated and half of fandom was offline can be seen as a coincidence.

With this in mind, their vague post, clarification, clarification of clarification, all of which amount to the incredibly clear "it's not illegal, unless we see it and think it's illegal, at which point it is" new guidelines.

I'll be brief on the stupid, because there will undoubtedly be more soon.

1) US child pornography is designed to protect children, not to protect adults from seeing child porn. Therefore, the law only kicks in if actual kids are used. People have guessed I'm fourteen. If I have sex on camera dressed up as a middle schooler, this is not illegal because I am technically of legal age.

2) Yes, this is held up in court. US law has no problem with writing about kids having sex, just as it has no problem writing about murder. Snuff films are illegal, slasher films are not.

3) "The Miller Test" is not a response for guidelines, because, guess what, the entire point of the Miller test is that guidelines are not possible and it must be determined on an individual basis. If you mean "we'll delete stuff if we think it's creepy" then fucking say it, because that is what the Miller Test is - it is a completely subjective judgment based on no objective criteria, which is why it's generally considered problematic and most sane people don't like it.

4) It's very clear that the vague wording is not an accident. It's very consistently vague and always hits the exact same points. People don't accidentally always say what amounts to the same thing. Pattern-sensing, guys, it's what separates the monkeys from the fish. They obviously have lawyers, so making statements about how confusing the law is just as obviously a lie. (Also, the law is not confusing. Actual children = bad. Fake children = fine. Claiming it is means you are trying to give the impression to other people it's confusing so they'll let you get away with stuff, because no one who actually knew what it is would think that.)

5) It's also not a coincidence that the only time they're exact, it's to put the blame on something else - see "No, I swear this is actual US law", where they are relatively exact on why they have to follow US law (law applies based on the location of the servers, not the users). When they're saying something they think they can't get in trouble for, they're exact. When it's stuff they expect complaint or challenge, they're vague. This is very consistent, which in turn means it's planned.

6) Those of you who actually fell for the permanent account sale are, frankly, idiots, because this was obvious.

Six Apart: Competent enough to play their user base like a fiddle.