This post is not GC-related but it impacts us. IDK if you guys have seen the posts on Saidit front page. I'm posting this as I'm seeing another thread discussing how Redditors found out they cannot delete us after banning us.
Since I joined after the banwave, I generally skip it because there are some seriously crazy antisemitic and racist posts there, and the rest are just politics which I'm just tired of these days whether left or right. But last night there was a DDOS attack on this site. The site owner, magnora7, posted about this. The post is currently the top page. Basically, what's happening is:
DDOS attack: a coordinated bot attack to connect to this site, thus slowing the traffic to a halt and making it impossible for visitors and users to reach the site.
According to magnora7, there is now a new form of net attack called False Flag Attack, which unlike a bot technical attack, is a cultural attack. He said this form of attack has been gaining traction for some time, and is not uniquely happening to this site. What happens is, someone/group that wants to take this site down comes and pretend to be extremists posting materials that offend a lot of people. They would then create concern troll posts under different identities, asking for such extremist posts to stop. These posts would be pushed by them to the front page, so that many new visitors would see them and get turned off and never return. For the site, there is no way to win and no solution, because if they shut down the offending posts, they would become a site that censor, and loses its fundamental appeal. if they let the offending posts stay, they look like they're condoning those posts. The cultural attack would continue with further offensive posts, until the site is radicalized or becomes irrelevant. According to magnora7, these attacks usually happens after a ban wave when there's a flood of new refugees from other sites.
magnora7 said the DDOS attack has stopped for now. However, about an hour ago, when I searched for the GC sub, I couldn't reach until I log on. I get an automated message that said the sub couldn't be found. I tried again and got another message saying the site is having high traffic and to try again later, plus advice to not try to reload as it would only add to the problem.
Obviously IDK if these attacks are targeting GC, or some other banned groups, or maybe the target is agains all those deemed deplorables. i just want to alert that while we are finding places where we can continue to gather, the effort to silence us is ongoing. When the previous GC mods unveil their new site, no doubt that site will be under constant attack too. I'm sure they're aware of this problem though, and would be on top of it. But still, there are many ways that the "Correct-Think" Police are trying to stop people. I feel like I'm starting to sound like a conspiracy theorist here but these systematic ways to take down do seem to be real and happening.
If all else fails and online attacks are not working, one current last resort the Correct-Think Police are pushing is to cut off the offending sites' revenue by compelling Visa and Mastercard to refuse process of donation payments. I believe this is already happening on Patreon, although this is hearsay for me so I cannot confirm this. What I can confirm is that Katie Herzog (former reporter for The Stranger targeted by TRAs now with her own podcast on Patreon) has said that Patreon censors. And I've read elsewhere (again, hearsay) that Patreon censors because if they don't, Visa and Mastercard would refuse to process payments.
Saidit operates entirely through donations to avoid corporate influences and pressure to censor by ads. However, if Visa and Mastercard refuse to process donations, this site will have a problem continuing to operate. So far I haven't heard anything about Paypal and Vemo doing the same, but it's hard to tell how far things will go.
There isn't much we can do that I can see so far. But I think we need to be aware of all the behind the scene problems that is affecting our freedom to speak and freedom to associate.
ETA; magnora7 confirmed that he disabled search for now to fend off DDOS attack. He said search is where most of the attacks happen.
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